Let the cheese off begin

A few years back Andy and I went to a cheesemaking class at Belmondo's in Noosa. There we made Camembert, Mozarella and Ricotta cheeses. It was an amazing day and so great to come home with two camembert to keep draining then let develop for the next month. And to have fresh mozarella to consume in the following few days. At the time I really wanted to do it again and didn't know where or how to do it myself. It took a lot of specialised equipment, which I wasn't prepared to invest in and didn't know where to get.

Then last year, when shopping for Christmas presents, my sister showed me the "Mad Millie" range of Cheesemaking Kits . These are available online and in many Home Brew shops. They contain the specialised equipment, including rennet and cultures, you need to create delicious cheeses. That day I bought the Beginner's Italian Kit and came home and made marscapone and ricotta insalata.

I was a little impatient with the marscapone and it didn't quite thicken as it should have. The taste was certainly there though. The ricotta insalata is a firm ricotta which you rub salt into and then use in salads and the like. It becomes a little like the style of feta - it holds together better than regular ricotta. The picture above is the ricotta insalata after draining and having salt rubbed on it. Ready to go in the fridge for a few days to firm up before eating. It was delicious, and I have made it several times since. Ricotta is one of the easiest cheeses to make - basically you curdle milk (or the left over whey from other cheesemaking) at the right temperature and ta-da ricotta!

Not satisfied with the easy cheeses, I then bought the Camembert Ingredient Kit. Again, similar to the first kit, this gave me the starter culture and mould I needed, plus camembert moulds and wraps.

Camembert is a much longer process than the fresh Italian cheeses described above. After warming the milk, adding starter cultures, ensuring it's at a constant temperature, adding mould spores, ensuring it's at a constant temperature, forming and cutting the curd, ensuring it's at a constant temperature, stirring, ensuring it's at a constant temperature, then draining and putting in the mould, it takes the better part of half a day.

I'm sure you can see the importance of the constant temperature. To do this I created my own cheese incubator, I wasn't about to spend another $100 with Mad Millie to get there's (although you could). I used a small esky with a non-reactive plastic container inside as my cheese vat. It worked a treat and only cost me $20 all up. Although it is time consuming and ties you to the kitchen to keep checking the temperature, especially when using a homemade incubator set up, it is very enjoyable watching the process happen.

Once you get the camembert curds into the draining moulds (which by the way are full when you first tip it in, the picture above is after 5 hours of draining), its a matter of turning them every hour for up to 5 hours, then they need to go in a humid, warmish fridge. I did this in summer, so the humidity was not a problem and I turned my fridge up a little bit, put them at the top (the warmest part) of the fridge and always made sure there was a little water in the bottom of the container (for the first week).

In the fridge I stored them in a red decor container that has a draining rack in the bottom and has a little pop-top in the lid. Every day for the first week, I would take them out of the fridge and turn them over. After a week or so the white mould starts forming. Once it covers one side, you turn it over and wait another couple of days. Finally it comes to wrapping time. The Mad Millie Kit gives you the camembert wrapping paper. Then they go back in the fridge to age for 3 - 4 weeks. You are looking at a 6 - 7 week committment, for your camembert!

My camembert have about a week to go. How do you know when they're ready? You have to unwrap one, bring it to room temperature and then press it with your finger, like you do when you squeeze one in the supermarket (come on admit it, I know you do that!). They say you can also cut it across the middle at this point and it will "stitch" itself back together once you rewrap it and leave for a few days. I'm not sure whether I want to try that. I pulled my camembert out of the fridge the other day and they seemed nearly there. So the wait is nearly over.

My brother-in-law, Steve, also made some Farmhouse Cheddar, from the Mad Millie Hard Cheese Kit over the same weekend as I started my camembert. He had to be more ingenious than me and actually created his own cheese press.

The time is getting closer for the "cheese-off" to begin. Who will be the winner, stay tuned to find out what we think. Really though, we'll all win, because (hopefully) we'll be eating tasty, home-made cheese, made from locally sourced milk and with a big sense of accomplishment! Now, who's bringing the crackers?