Two cheeses

Today my friend Heather came to visit for a cheesemaking lesson. I was making provolone (after adapting the non-functioning recipe from my book and only cooking the curds to 118˚F rather than 144˚F) and Heather made Camembert.

Here are my successful provolones soaking in brine:


Aren't they cute? It was so much fun to make. I experimentally smoked one of them - I used my hot-smoker turned as low as I could, and placed a tray of ice between the hot part and my cheese. I took the cheese out when the ice had about half melted.

Here the cheeses are hanging up in the guest shower to age:


The middle one is the smoked one, as you can no doubt tell.

These are Heather's Camemberts just after she removed them from their moulds:


She has salted them and applied P. candidum and taken them home to do their thing. That's $10 worth of raw milk there by the way. Not bad for three good sized Camembert cheeses.