Camembert or Brie

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I've since made 4 inch camemberts, 4 of each, each time. The first time the curds were too wet and the white mold didn't appear, I gave up on it. The next time I made it I drained the curds in the tiny forms for much longer, using a different recipe. They started making white mold at day 12, in the cheese cave, in a ripening box, flipping them daily. Then once covered in the white mold I wrapped them in parchment and put them in the regular fridge to finish.



They turned out excellent and DH said they were better than the store bought. Each one is about 8 oz, so we ate one, another is in the fridge, and 2 are wrapped in plastic in the freezer for future use. Woo hoo, a success.
 
I also did not know you could freeze soft cheeses like Brie - one of many of my all time favourites - ;) Thanks, although I'll probably never will. It certainly doesn't last long enough to need freezing in my house.

One of my go-to mid-night snacks is a slice of baguette (or a cracker in lieu of..) with brie and zapped in the micro - (gotta watch it tho).

Heaven!!
 
I was introduced to deep fried Camembert about 15 years ago, man is it good, served with a cranberry jelly, really go together well. I have bought some for the freezer. Nice and gooey.

Russ
 
I love both of them. I particularly like them double-dipped in egg & breadcrumbs, deep fried and served with cranberry or red currant jelly. I don't eat a lot of deep-fried food but I make an exception for this. I had it first, 30+ years ago, in a German restaurant - the old and long defunct Jaegerhutte on Queensway, London - and was hooked. I occasionally do it as a first course when I have friends for dinner as it can be done earlier in the day and re-heated in the oven.
 
I really like deep fried Camembert or Brie. I first tried it in Copenhagen in about 1971. The pub served it with strawberry jam. It sounded gross, but tasted divine. I tried to make it once. I think I must have accidentally poked a hole in the skin. The insides all oozed out of the cheese from one little spot. Yes, I had breaded it, but I wasn't very experienced with deep fat frying at the time.
 
Sounds wonderful. Blissful can you post some pictures of your cheese?
 
This was a sliced camembert, the first one I made successfully. The paste under the rind was just getting soft. Yum.
slicedcamembert.jpg
 
This was a sliced camembert, the first one I made successfully. The paste under the rind was just getting soft. Yum.
slicedcamembert.jpg
OH that is beautiful Bliss!! Pass me some crusty bread or a stoned wheat cracker and I'll be in heaven!
 
The camemberts or baby bries are only a little over 4 inches across. 2 gallons of milk cost about $4 (on sale) and it makes 4 of these little 8 oz cheeses. This is what the camembert looks like as it is getting it's white mold coat. (55 degrees F, 85% relative humidity, in the cheese cave)



wwhitemoldcam.jpg



Even though it is very nice with fruit, something sweet, I'm partial to savory tastes and I eat about an ounce or ounce and a half, spread out on whole grained toast. That is my favorite way to eat it.


After it gets the mold coat, it is wrapped in parchment and kept in the regular refrigerator to continue ripening for another few weeks, that's when the paste begins to get runny under the rind. Unless we eat it by then.:angel:
 
I also like my brie savory. I like it spread on crusty bread sometimes I add a bit of blue cheese or port wine cheese with my brie.
I like my brie a bit under ripe (firmer) when I can get it from a cheese shop.

There used to be a farm we would go to that had a cheese shop. They imported a cheese that was brie and blue together. It was wonderful.

The farm is gone now it's a mall :(. I really miss that place. They had wonderful cheese spreads. My favorite was a smoked cheddar and bacon spread.
 
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msmofet, there are rules about selling cheese made from raw milk, like the cheese must be aged for 60 days, that's 2 months, and usually camembert/brie needs less than that for aging time. So the import of it causes problems.


I personally don't have access to raw milk, so my cheese is not affected, the milk is pasteurized and homogenized and it can be argued, less tasty than raw milk cheese. Though, I wouldn't know the difference, it makes perfect sense that raw milk cheese has additional beneficial and possibly harmful bacteria, but more tasty.


France has some naming rules which are in question in the near future with camemberts. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/16/world/europe/camembert-cheese-french-label.html


Here is an article about raw milk cheeses, https://www.seriouseats.com/2014/03...-cheese-safety-plus-five-recommendations.html


When you are buying your brie under ripe, firmer, you can wrap it loosely and keep it in the fridge and over a few weeks (if it lasts that long!) as it starts to get more runny under the rind. It may even start to get over ripe, and smell slightly of ammonia, and you can air it out, and eat it, or if it gets too strong, you might not want to eat it.


You mentioned the blue and brie, maybe a happy accident! There are often happy accidents of cheeses growing blue mold, like cheddar blue, a nice combination, that happen to cheese makers. Sometime they are planned, and sometimes unplanned. As long as it turns into a tasty cheese, it's all good.
 
taxlady, I might have to try making that. Cambozola Cheese Making Recipe


The white mold is touchy touchy when it comes to salt and moisture, the conditions have to be JUST RIGHT (like the baby bear in three little bears story) and the blue can only grow with oxygen, so the cheese gets pierced like any blue cheese, to allow in the oxygen and grow the blue/green.


One of my favorite things about cams, bries, and blues, they don't take years to age, they are usually done in 6 weeks or so.



With blues, if you suffocate them, keeping them in a sealed container, they stop growing blue mold, which is okay once you are satisfied with the flavor in the first place. I have some blue crumbles I made last year and I keep them in a sealed container in the cheese drawer, then when I make blue cheese dressing, it exposes them to air, and I get more growth which can be good or too much.



We have a glut of lettuce from our gardens, so I'm going to make some blue cheese dressing, OMG my mouth is watering. Blue cheese dressing on fresh leaf lettuce, it is sinful!
 
When we were on our Rhone cruise, we bought a couple of wheels of Camembert. Here is the story:
[FONT=&quot]CHEESE STORY[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Now for the cheese story! We discovered, much to our dismay that as our Camembert ripened, it gave off a powerful smell! We kept it in our refrigerator and had it in a zip lock bag and covered in aluminum foil. That helped some, but it was still pungent. None of the little towns we stopped at had markets to buy more zip lock bags until we got to Dijon.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Our tour manager told me of a market named Lafayette 4 blocks away that should have something. I found the place, and much to my dismay, it was a 6 floor department store! I found the directory, and headed up to house wares on the top floor. They did not have any bags, but I found a round Tupperware that would work. It cost as much as the 2 wheels of cheese, but we had to do something.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Kayelle told me it was going in my suitcase on the way home because she did not want her clothes smelled up!.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] [FONT=&quot]Returning home, the flight to Los Angeles was long, but we were at least able to get some sleep. My only concern about going through customs and immigration was the cheese. I could see one of the beagles they use taking one sniff and rolling over! The cheese container did its job and I did not have any stinky clothes.[/FONT]


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When we were on our Rhone cruise, we bought a couple of wheels of Camembert. Here is the story:
[FONT=&quot]CHEESE STORY[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Now for the cheese story! We discovered, much to our dismay that as our Camembert ripened, it gave off a powerful smell! We kept it in our refrigerator and had it in a zip lock bag and covered in aluminum foil. That helped some, but it was still pungent. None of the little towns we stopped at had markets to buy more zip lock bags until we got to Dijon.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Our tour manager told me of a market named Lafayette 4 blocks away that should have something. I found the place, and much to my dismay, it was a 6 floor department store! I found the directory, and headed up to house wares on the top floor. They did not have any bags, but I found a round Tupperware that would work. It cost as much as the 2 wheels of cheese, but we had to do something.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Kayelle told me it was going in my suitcase on the way home because she did not want her clothes smelled up!.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot][FONT=&quot]Returning home, the flight to Los Angeles was long, but we were at least able to get some sleep. My only concern about going through customs and immigration was the cheese. I could see one of the beagles they use taking one sniff and rolling over! The cheese container did its job and I did not have any stinky clothes[/FONT][/FONT]
[FONT=&quot][/FONT][FONT=&quot][/FONT]
That's interesting. Over here we are warned about trying to take anything edible through customs in America - sometimes to the point of the threat of being thrown into chokey!!
 
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