A lot of people have respect for home-made Camembert, and a lot of people don't even think that it could even work. At the same time, Camembert, if certain rules are followed, is not a very complicated cheese to make. Here on the page there is already one production guide from Iva , which has become a very popular article (Iva promised a recipe for her wonderful pralines, I really hope it works), but since it is also without photos, I am also attaching a blog photo guide to the recipe in the book . Don't be afraid of it, try it, go for it. I definitely recommend making at least 5 liters of milk, because once the Camemberts start ripening, they disappear much faster than you can ripen more.

I am posting the recipe now also because the temperatures outside are ideal for its production (of course for those who do not own a refrigerator), because Camembert needs a rather lower temperature for its successful ripening. Here we have earthworms in the summer and Camembert is very difficult to make.

To make Camembert we need

Preparation of milk before curdling

Heat the milk to 65 °C and pasteurize at this temperature for 15 min. Then put the milk and the pot into a cold water bath. Ideal for a sink with cold water. The water should reach as high as possible to cool the milk as quickly as possible. Cool it down to 32 °C. It is advisable to stir the water around the pot occasionally, as it keeps the top warm and the bottom cold. We cool it in the whole meat by mixing it. In the same way, we first mix the milk gently before reading the temperature from the thermometer.

Once the milk has cooled to 32°C, mix in the mesophilic culture and Camembert culture, which we first mixed in a little milk. We can mix both cultures together.

Carefully stir the milk in the pot, cover the pot with a lid and let it brew for 45 minutes. At this moment, we can cover the pot with a silver mat or a blanket so that the milk does not lose temperature unnecessarily.

Curing

After 45 minutes, we check whether the milk is still 32 °C. If not, we will reheat. Add calcium chloride mixed in cold water and wait 2 minutes.

 

Add the rennet, also mixed in cold water, stir and then stabilize the movement of the milk in the pot. We cover the pot with a lid, we can also wrap it with a silver mat or a blanket and let the milk curdle. The curd should be hard to break in 60 minutes - we also enter this time into the rennet calculation calculator. However, after 60 minutes, let the curd harden for another 30 minutes. The total curdling time is thus 80-90 min.

Slicing

Cut the cheese into cubes with an edge size of 4 cm and let it rest for 5 minutes.

We then very carefully stir for 15 minutes, allowing the grain to mature. However, we must be careful not to break the curd too much. Then put the curd into the moulds.

Formation

We choose molds so that the cheese matures well. As soon as we are a little more skilled, we can choose for ourselves whether we prefer low Camemberts, i.e. with a larger percentage of white area for the cheese content, or rather higher ones, with a larger proportion of dough. All this is already about its own exercise. For the first time, I would choose molds with a bottom diameter of around 6-7.5 cm.

We turn the molds for the first time for 30 minutes, then every hour for 6 hours. In the next 18 hours, we can turn the cheeses several more times. Cheeses should drain at 20-22°C for 24 hours.

If we don't have the skills to turn soft curds, we can help ourselves by flipping a perforated mat over the top of the mold. Either a cheese mat or a mabus mat and a square of silicone roll on the mat. We then turn the mold over and load it from above so that the mold does not slide up after the curds. As soon as we gradually acquire a knack for turning the cheeses, we will no longer need the mats and we will be sure from the first turn.

When turning cheeses without a mat - don't try to turn the whole cheese at once during the first turn. We insert our hand into the form from the side so that when the form is turned, the cheese lies on our palm, and on one side we hug the cheese with our fingers. After removing it from the mold, gently turn it on its side. The cheese usually holds its shape beautifully. We carefully proceed in the same way once more until the cheese is turned upside down.

In the upper left picture, you can also see one higher mold filled. I fill this and let the curd sit. Once some of the whey drips out, instead of the first turn, I use the curd to fill small decorative heart or square molds. If we filled these small molds right away, the curd would settle too much. In this way, we get a cheese that is high enough, and the subsequent turning is already done in small molds.

Salting

After the time has passed, remove the cheeses from the molds and carefully salt them on one side and the side. We rub the salt into the skin of the cheese - this is not just salting, but the actual rubbing of salt. For one cheese, we use about 3/4 teaspoon of salt on one side. At this point, put the cheeses back into the molds.

After 5 hours, remove the cheeses, salt them on the other side and put them in the mold the opposite way they were. After another 5 hours, remove the cheeses from the molds and let them dry. We must not underestimate this phase! Before we let the cheeses mature, they need to be dry, which can take up to 24 hours.

Maturation

Store properly dried cheeses either in a plastic box. Those who would like to eliminate plastic as much as possible during production can use either earthenware containers, for example vegetable pots placed on their side, in which there is a shelf made of boards that holds itself thanks to the conical side of the pot, or in stainless steel gastro containers. It is advisable to carefully wash the bottom of such a container every day if too much moisture accumulates there. It is also a good idea to let the cheese breathe a little and open the bottom of the box.

We do not leave Camembert to ripen on cheese mesh mats with small meshes. They are too sparse and mold does not grow well. It is better to place the cheeses on stronger plastic mats or on wooden grates. If we don't have a wooden grate, we can buy unstained wooden tiles from a hardware store, which are cheap and we can cut them to the required size at home.

Let the cheeses mature at 12-15°C. We turn them over every day. White Camembert mold will gradually begin to form on the cheese.

On the 9th - 14th day after salting, we move the cheeses to a cooler environment of 5 - 7 °C.

After a certain period of ripening in the cold, we can wrap the cheeses in wrapping paper and let them mature further.

The correct ripening of cheeses and the exact time for trimming can usually be recognized by gently touching the cheese with your thumb. Over time, we will know exactly when the cheese is ready and when it is still too immature.

 

Finally, the economic balance of homemade camemberts

we need 100 g of camemberts for 17 pieces

10 liters of milk ….á 17 CZK/1 l …….170 CZK/ 10 l of milk

0.25 g of mesophilic culture …. á 0.49 hal/ l …..4.9 CZK/ 10 l of milk

0.28 g Camembert culture.. .á 0.16 hal/l …… 1.60/ 10 l milk

calcium chloride ….. á 0.03 CZK/l……. 30 hal/ 10 l of milk

rennet ……..0.22 h/l CZK…….. 2.20/ 10 l milk

energy ……. CZK 10

Total…….189 CZK

total amount / number of cheeses = 189 : 17 = CZK 11.11 / 1 cheese

Of course, the balance does not include the price of the work, the price of the molds, which I assume will be used repeatedly. The price of energy is also slightly overestimated.