Welcome to the cheese cave

Spot cheese question - what's the difference between Brie & Camembert?

Answer - not a great deal. They're made in exactly the same way and using the same ingredients. The process is the same -

• Heat milk up to around 30 degrees C.
• Add starter culture (to give the flavour) and Penicillum Candidum (which will give the white mould shell) 
• Leave for an hour or so
• Add rennet to curdle the milk
• Leave for a few hours to curdle (longer than for other cheeses)
• Ladle curds into molds and drain without pressing (don't cut or cook the curds like you would for other cheeses) 
• Keep in a cool environment for a week or so to let the outer mould form
• Wrap & age in a fridge for another few weeks

The only differences are the size of the cheese wheel and (to a lesser extent) the 'terroir' of the milk used - the two cheeses traditionally come from different parts of France and so the milk will have a different flavour. The size of the mold is important as a smaller Camembert wheel will have a higher relative surface area than a larger Brie wheel, and so the outer mould will have more of an impact on the flavour.

I had a go at both this weekend, using 7 litres of milk to make two Bries and a Camembert. I used milk from the Coles in Fairfield for the former and from the Woolies in Buranda for the latter, so that should replicate the terroir.

I'm also experimenting with using an esky as a 'cheese cave' and will need to remember to swap the ice-block out every morning - not sure if this will give a cool enough temperature, but it's that or the fridge and the fridge is apparently too cold. You're basically providing the best conditions for any mould to grow, but because you've pre-loaded the milk with specific cultures you're assuming the mould you want will out-perform any nasties that may have been introduced along the way.

These wheels drained overnight, and the crusty texture is because I used cheesecloth in the molds. I think this was a mistake, I should have just ladled the curds directly into the molds, and that may lead to a wetter crumblier cheese as not all the whey was expelled. We'll see. The cave is a bit ad-hoc and needs some further internal development, but that can wait until I don't have a batch of milk products going off in our sink. I'll post up more pictures as the cheese ages. I'm keen to try some more variants as well, adding more salt into the curds and also using raw milk (traditionally Brie is always made from raw milk) - this is where the benefits of doing it yourself really come out, as raw milk cheese cannot be sold in Australia.

Incidentally the names of both cheeses come form their respective places of origin - Brie is a province around 60 miles away from Paris and Camembert a village in Normandy. So I should probably say I'm making Brie-sbane....any suggestions for the Camembert alternative?

Edit - I had a potentially catastrophic collapse in the cheese cave when I tried to change the freezer block - the grid supporting the top wheel fell onto the lower wheel and started to slice through it. So after some emergency reorganisation the top wheel of brie is in a container at the bottom of the fridge, the bottom one is still in the cave with the camembert. Will be interesting to see how the two compare....