Learn how to make Camembert cheese at home. This is part of the Cheesepalooza challenge recipes where we explore working with Penicillium Candidum, or white mold.
Add milk to a large pot. Thoroughly stir in the dissolved calcium chloride. Heat the milk to 85F degrees, stirring.
Add the mesophilic culture and stir until melted or dissolved. Cover the pot and allow to sit and ripen for 30 minutes.
Add the dissolved rennet, stirring for one minute in a gentle up & down motion. Cover the pot and allow to sit forming curds for 90 minutes, maintaining the temperature at 85F.
Test for a clean break by using a knife to just lift a bit of the curd. It should lift clean and smooth and the void should fill with a bit of whey.
Cut the curds to 1 inch cubes. Allow to sit and heal for 5 minutes.
Stir the curds gently in a lifting from the bottom motion with a skimmer for 5 to 10 minutes or until the curds shrink up a bit. Let the curds settle.
With a measuring cup, pour off and scoop out as much whey as possible.
Gently spoon curds into 4 Camembert molds set on a draining mat atop a rack in a big dish or pan. Let drain for 2 hours. Gently turn over the molds by sandwiching them between mats and boards. Allow to drain for another 2 of hours, then turn the molds again. Drain whey out of pan, place cheeses back, cover and let drain at room temperature overnight. Flip in the morning and leave for another 2 hours.
Remove the molds and sprinkle each side of the rounds of cheese with 1/2 tsp of salt.
Place cheeses on a cheese mat in a box with the lid. Ripen at 50F and 90% humidity. Flip cheeses daily and remove any whey.
After a few days to a week, the mold will start to grow. It starts as spots of fuzzy white spores and grows to cover the entire surface. Turn daily and pat down the fuzz gently.
At around 12 days when the cheese is all covered, wrap in cheese-ripening paper and age for 3 to 4 weeks.