Homemade Brie

After a year of waiting for the right time, I made my first lovely rounds of Brie about 3 days ago.   I have to wait 4-6 weeks to try it.  

Diary notes --
April 20 -- made the curd and put into molds to drain (finished at 2 am)
April 22 -- dredged in kosher salt and put into the frig on upside down saucers in the box cave with lid fully on (it is a loose fit)
April 23-29 -- I wiped out the boxes and flipped cheeses daily.  I changed the saucers to a cheese mat that had been through the dishwasher on about April 25.  Very anxious, keep rereading the recipes, and trouble shooting guide.
April 29 -- I tested both thermometers in an ice bath.   The socalled dairy thermometer from Glengarry showed slightly above zero, the other one, quite a bit below.  
April 30 -- finally, the first sign of white mold.   No sign of the bad molds i.e. pel de chat, or red stuff.   Turned the frig temperature down today to see if that helps (it didn't).   I put a thermometer in the frig.  
June 9 -- the cheeses are soft now and ready to eat.   The results are delicious but the inside is very runny.   The outside is thick and firm.   It is either the curd was too moist or the ripening cave was too humid, or the saran wrap was not the right wrap. 
June 15 approx. -- found cheese wrappers at Les Amis du Fromage.
June 25 -- ate the second cheese.   The flavour was more developed.   The cheeses are very salty too -- next time, less salt.

The problem with cheesemaking and many other food manufacturing projects, is that you have to have seen the techniques performed, not only tasted the results.   I have pored over 200 Easy Homemade Cheese Recipes by Debra Amrein-Boyes, attended David Rotszstain's cheesemaking workshop, read the Glengarry Cheesemaking instruction book, researched online extensively, and watched some videos from the library, but I am still puzzled by some of the instructions and stymied when things go wrong.   So much is taken for granted in written instructions, no matter how detailed.   There are also not many photographs in the book I have or online.   Online information focusses on the "easy" fresh cheeses.   There is also a scarcity of information about what to do when things are not right.   The "trouble shooting" guide in the cheese making book only gives the causes, not what to do.  

I am going to try to write this in so much detail that you can do it too.

The milk -- all the books say use non-homo raw milk if you can get it.  Otherwise, the freshest whole milk from the store.   So check the date on the milk and buy the freshest and buy it the day you are going to use it.   I used store milk.   Lucerne is the only brand I will not use for anything.  

The supplies and equipment --I ordered a Brie kit from Glengarry Cheesemaking in Ontario.  Store the powders in the freezer.   Once opened, close tightly and store in a ziploc bag.

Sanitation

Equipment:
Large stainless steel pot
Dairy thermometer
Large SS spoon
4 little glass bowls to mix the cultures
Large SS ladle
Large SS skimmer
Long knife, for cutting curds
Camembert molds (2), or use 1 litre yogurt containers with holes punched with a paper punch in the sides and bottom
Cheese matting (or bamboo matting)
Small plates or saucers
Plastic cutting boards
Metal cooling racks
Paper towels
Clean tea towels and apron
Cheese draining/ripening box (2 are useful) -- these are simple plastic storage boxes that are food safe (look for number 5 on the box).  
Kosher salt

If I do this again, I will try to get away from the plastic.   Our grandmothers had no plastic, no thermomete, paper towels, dryers, dishwashers, etc.    The lady I saw making cheese over an open fire in Italy certainly had nothing like this.    She had her cheeses ripening in a mesh cage out in the yard.

Ingredients:
4 litres of whole milk
Mesophilic II, 1/8 tsp. dry powder
Rennet, 3/8 tsp. dissolved in cool water

Calcium Chloride, 3/8 tsp. (if store milk is used i.e. homogenized milk)
Penicilium candidum, 3/8 tsp. mixed with a little milk

Instructions:
The cheesemaking day --
Do not plan any other baking or cooking.   Do not allow any pets in the kitchen.   Minimize the people coming in and out of the house and kitchen.  

Clean the kitchen top to bottom to get rid of bacteria and mold floating around and coating every surface.   If you normally keep a clean kitchen with no dust or crumbs in the corners, this should not take long.   Scrub the sink and faucet and counters and work table with soap and hot water.   Anything that has not been cleaned or laundered recently should be considered contaminated.  

Put everything away in the cupboards.  Wipe the counters and anything on the counters with hot water and soap. Wipe the stove knobs,  cupboard knobs, and frig handle.   Use a clean cloth or fresh j-cloth for cleaning as otherwise you will simply be spreading around the mold and bacteria.   Cleaning with soap and water will not sterilize anything but it will make contamination less likely.   The things that touch the milk and cheese must be sterilized.   Consider a dish cloth or tea towel to be dirty unless it is freshly washed and dried in a hot dryer.

Once you have finished the kitchen cleaning, and sterilized the cheese utensils, use only clean dish cloths and paper towels throughout the cheesemaking operation.   Wash your hands after touching anything that is not sterilized (many many times).  

Put the draining/ripening boxes and their lids, the plastic cutting boards, the molds, the matting, the metal racks, the ladle, skimmer, and spoon into the dishwasher with no other dishes.   Air dry on paper towels.   Don't use wooden spoons or cutting boards.

Wash the knife and dairy thermometer with hot soapy water, rinse and air dry.

Sterilize the milk heating pot by boiling a few inches of water in it for 5 minutes with lid on.

Wash your dairy tea towels and aprons in a separate load and dry in a hot dryer.  

Heating the milk --
Pour the milk into the sterilized pot and turn the element on medium low.   Slowly heat the milk to 31 degrees C, stirring regularly to prevent scorching the bottom.   Insert the dairy thermometer at least 2 inches into the milk to monitor the temperature.   The milk will heat slowly but will hold the heat at the correct temperature for a long time.   Once the milk is at 31 degrees, add the following:

- Mesophillum II
- rennet
- penicillum
- calcium chloride


Stir by slipping the skimmer below the surface and gently pulling it up and down without breaking the surface [why?].  I was too tired and didn't do this right.

The milk and curd must be handled gently throughout all the stages.   Stir slowly, do not move the pot quickly.

Let the pot stand with a towel wrapped around it.   The milk will remain at the right temperature.   If it cools below 31 degrees, put the element on for 20 seconds and turn off.  It will take 45 minutes to 90 minutes for the milk to form curd. 

Test the curd for a clean break.   The whey should be starting to separate around the edges and on top.  Don't hurry if it is not ready, just wait if it is not a clean break.   Clean break test -- slip your knife into the cheese and pull up horizontally through the surface of the cheese.   The edge of the break must be clean and straight with no edges that are bumpy. 

Cut the curd --
Using the long knife, make the first set of cuts vertically top to bottom, cutting into 1/2 inch wide rows, moving slowly.  Wait for curds to get stronger.   The aim is strong large curds that are not lost in when the whey drains off. 
Do the second vertical cut, across the first cuts like a chequer board, 1/2 inch apart.  Wait.
Take the skimmer, slip it under the surface in the middle, turn your arm to rotate the skimmer about 1/2 inch under the surface, cutting the curds into 1/2 inch pieces.   The next turn, go 1/2 deeper, until the whole pot is cut into 1/2 curds.   If a few are bigger, it is not a problem.  
Stir the curds very very gently.   If the curd is strong and the edges are molded, this is good.  Let the curds sit to let them get stronger.   They are strong enough when the edges are slightly rounded.

Whey off --  
This means ladling off the whey with the ladle.  Push the ladle gently into the curds and let the whey run into the ladle.   You can put the whey into another pot to make into ricotta or a jar to use for bread baking.   I tried and mine did not make ricotta.  

Prepare draining box and molds --
Get the molds and draining container ready in advance (while heating the milk).   I used two set ups.   For the first one, I put 2 small round cake cooling racks into a plastic storage or shoe box, put the plastic cutting board on top, then a plastic cheese draining mat, then one mold.   Because you have to flip the molds, you can't put two molds on one mat.  

For my second draining assembly I used an upside down bowl in the lid of the plastic box.   I put the plastic draining mat over that, and then the mold. 

You do need the board under the mat so that the curds so not drain away with the whey.

Using the skimmer, ladle the curds into the molds.   Fill them to the top.   4 litres of milk will fill two molds.   If the curds won't fit into the two molds, wait until the curds drain down and then fill the molds, until it all fits in.   Put clean tea towels over everything to keep things floating or flying around out of it.  

Wait two hours, and turn the molds as follows.   Take another cutting board or a clean plate and put the bottom of the plate on top of the mold.  Lift the cheese matting and mold and the plate together and flip the whole thing.   Then slip the cheese matting back under the cheese in the mold.   Flip again in two hours, then again in two hours. 

The next morning, flip the molds again.  

Salt the cheese and put in cave --
After 24 hours in the molds, salt the cheeses and put them into the ripening box (cave).   The purpose of the salt is to help dry the cheese. Get the ripening box (plastic storage box with lid) ready.   Use either a clean set-up of rack/board/mat or clean upside down saucers.   Since I did not have another clean rack/board/mat set-up, I used the saucers for the first two days.   After I put the draining box and matting  through the dishwasher, I switched plastic matting for the saucers for better air circulation and mold growth.   I have noticed some Camembert size metal racks in an online site, but have not found a source. 

Put a half cup of kosher salt on a plate.   Take the molds off the cheeses.   Dredge both sides of the cheeses and roll the edges in the salt.   You can use your freshly wash and paper towel dried hands.   Don't touch anything in the kitchen before touching the cheeses.  Shake off the excess salt.    David said not to be afraid to use lots of salt, i.e. dredge the cheeses, but Debra says use only 1 tsp per side.   Apparently, too much can slow the growth of the mold.  

Put the cheese into the ripening box, put the lid on (leave slightly ajar if the lid is tight).  Place in the frig or other cave if you have one that is the right temperature (10-12 degrees C and 90% humidity). 

Every day, wipe the whey from the bottom of the box with a paper towel, and flip the cheeses.    The white mold should develop in 5 to 12 days.   Mine took 7 days to start seeing the white mold.   Flip daily after the mold starts to make sure the mold grows over the whole cheese.

Once the cheese is covered in mold, wrap in cello paper or saran and store in the frig or case at 10-12 degrees C.   It is ready when the centre is soft under the thumb. 

What you do not want is long grey mold (pal de chat) or red mold.  

Ripening wil take 4-6 weeks after that.