Brie to Be

Actually it's Camembert, but that doesn't quite have the same ring. I whipped these up yesterday with some Publix whole milk. It's the first time I've attempted this style cheese and I didn't want to waste my money on good milk when I was likely to flub up.

These are the cut curds ready to be ladled into the molds. At this point the milk has already been warmed, allowed to ferment for 90 minutes with the appropriate cultures then set with rennet and cut into 1/2 inch cubes.

Here the curds have been set on a draining mat. They are pouring off whey! And here is where I realized that I did flub up- forgot to add the salt. No biggie, I just salted the outside when they finished draining. Now I can call it Kristin-embert....or not.
This is what you get after draining for about 6 hours. Notice how much whey drained off. Whey goes to the chickens. They LOVE it!


And finally here they are salted and ready for aging!

This is a stinky raw goat bleu of my own creation. We enjoyed it last night after about 2 months of aging. It was sharp, nutty, creamy and wonderful! It was supposed to have an edible rind, but the rind got away from me while I was at the beach for a week, so I cut it off.

In chicken news- I was going to move the broilers out to pasture yesterday, but we have rain in the forecast for today and tomorrow. It was so cool last night, that I opened the bedroom windows. I didn't realize that the chicks' light in the coop would cause my rooster to crow at 3:22 AM! And to add insult to injury, one of the little cockerels decided it was a good time for him to learn to crow.

Off to get another cup of coffee.