Monday, February 18, 2013

Cambozola--the final cut

Back in November,  I made a Cambozola cheese which I hoped would turn out well.  It did, but since I had more milk that I had to use up in January, when my does were drying off, I decided to make a second batch, being a bit more careful with the make.  Actually, what I did after looking at several recipes and mulling it over in my mind was to make Camembert, add blue mold (P. roqueforti), and see how it turned out.  I added some blue mold directly to the heated milk, carefully scooped out the finished curds into two molds--one a 4-1/4", the other a 5", and sprinkled even more blue mold onto the curds, the added more curds.  When the cheese was fully drained, I tucked it away just as I would a Camembert.

Several days into the aging, I used a sterilized skewer to poke holes from the side to encourage the growth of the blue mold.  Since the white mold was growing so vigorously, I had to reopen the holes every few days.

About 3 or 4 weeks into the make, I tried the smaller round.  Delicious!  Now I was hopeful that the second cheese would be even better, since it was aging more slowly.

I'm here to report that indeed it was.  Last Wednesday I cut into the second of the two rounds.  I wish I could show pictures of my beautiful cheese, but I was too busy eating it to take any.  I shared half with a few friends over lunch on Wednesday, and shared the rest with a neighbor homesteader on Sunday.  Spread on Wasa type rye crackers, it was divine, even though it was a little runnier than I prefer by then.  Perfect for my neighbor though, whose tastes tend to a runnier cheese.

Next time I'll try to contain myself long enough to take some pictures, but I'm not promising anything.