Cambozola

I went through all my cheese cultures a few days ago.  I finally listed them all in a computer file so when I order again, I won't end up with duplicates.  After 5 years of cheesemaking, you'd think I'd have done that before.  Nah!

freshly drained Gorgonzola

I had so much milk that I had to make cheese again, despite starting to dry off Beatrice.  So, since I made Gorgonzola a few days ago, I thought I'd try Cambozola, a German blue cheese, which is sort of a combination of Camembert and Gorgonzola.

So, the first thing I didn't do was thoroughly read through the recipe, which I found on cheeseforum.org.  Ah, well, I guess I'll know in 3 months whether that was a problem.

Curds are ready

Anyway, I started out with 2 gallons of raw goatmilk, heated it to 82° (because it's goat milk) and added 1/4 tsp of Flora Danica. Then I added rehydrated Penicillium candidum and Penicillium roqueforti.  That's the part I'm wondering about.  The recipe said to add the P. candidum and then sprinkle the P. roqueforti over the curds later.  Since I had just made Gorgonzola and the P. roqueforti gets added to the milk, well...you get the picture. 

Cambozola in the making

Then I added the rennet--and it didn't set properly, took much longer than it should have.  I finally cut the curds and, following the recipe by this time, drained it in a colander lined with cheesecloth. After a half hour, I ladled it into two Camembert molds, flipped them a few times over the next several hours, and voilà!  two Cambozolas!  They're still in their molds, and will be until tomorrow morning, but I'm looking forward to seeing if they turn out better this time than the last time I tried, last year.

That cheese tasted pretty good, but it was a much drier cheese than it was supposed to be.  I'm not even sure it could be called a Cambozola, because I think I pressed it. I've improved over the past year.  Most of my cheeses actually look and taste like they're supposed to. That's progress!