Let's make Camembert. Homemade Camembert recipe Homemade goat's milk Camembert

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A two-minute drive from the village with the telling name Kozlovsky is the first French goat farm in the Urals. The animals were brought to the Sverdlovsk region from the Cote d'Azur of France a year and a half ago. At the same time, next to the farm on the territory of the Verkhnepyshminsky dairy plant, the largest workshop in Russia for the production of elite cheeses with white mold “Coeur du nord” was opened.

The Village Yekaterinburg learned why goats are similar to dogs, how many females there are per inseminating goat, and how to properly eat cheeses made from the milk of horned French women.

Ildar Galikeev

head of the goat breeding complex

About the goat farm

A herd of animals - about 1,000 Alpine goats and 28 male goats - was brought to the Sverdlovsk region in November 2016. Alpine goats give a lot delicious milk, which is suitable for the production of soft cheeses. Healthy and strong animals are distinguished by sparkle in their eyes and erect ears, like those of shepherds. The goats have decorative “earrings” on their necks, so the goats look like real French women.

Goats are more like dogs and constantly require affection.

With good care, cows can produce up to fifty liters of milk per day, while the milk yield of a goat averages 3-4 liters per day. If cows chew cud all day long and don’t ask for anything, then goats are more like dogs and constantly demand affection. They are curious and lively, and will never miss an opportunity to chew the edges of a farm visitor's robe. At the same time, they are also picky - they drink only clean water and will not even go near a dirty drinking bowl.

On the very first day of life, goat kids are separated from their mothers and go to a nursery, where they live for up to 2.5 months. Newborns may be weak and barely stand on their feet. Having matured a little, they grow stronger and begin to rush around the paddock and play with their friends. Up to seven months, animals learn adult life and group housing in the rearing building. Here they live separately until the livestock breeder assigns the males to certain goats. Today there are 30 to 40 goats per goat, but they can cope with the volume of work.

Goats are ready for insemination at seven months of age, when their body weight reaches 32-34 kilograms. Pregnancy, which in agriculture is called gestation, lasts from five to seven months. Childbirth in goats is called lambing and occurs in the off-season, in autumn or spring. At the age of one year, the goat kittens, and lactation begins - the process of formation and accumulation of milk, which lasts 305 days. Goats need males only for the first mating - the second and subsequent ones can be produced using artificial insemination.

Food for goats is prepared in a special unit using a computer and a tractor

Food for goats is prepared in a special unit using a computer and a tractor. Compound feed consists of ten mandatory components: hay and silage - dried and preserved grass, straw, silage, chalk, salt, sorbents and food additives. A goat eats about three kilograms of feed per day. At the same time, pregnant goats receive a separate diet, and lactating goats are also fed in their own way.

Goats receive additional food during milking, which is carried out using a special carousel. 60 goats immediately take their places on it and make a circle within five minutes - so in an hour it turns out to milk 700 heads at once. All milking occurs automatically - milkmaids only need to put a milking cup on the goat's udder, which is removed automatically as soon as the milk runs out. Goats produce about three liters of milk at a time, depending on the stage of lactation.

Anna Kuznetsova

Director of the Verkhnepyshminsky dairy plant

About cheese production

The technology for the production of soft cheeses with noble white mold for production in the Urals was developed by French specialists. From goat milk We produce cheeses of the Camembert, Buche and Valence varieties - they all differ in appearance and taste and are prepared using different technologies.

Camembert has a dense, non-cheesy structure. This cheese usually matures within two weeks. Buche and Valence have a curdled structure and reach maturity in just a week.

Pasteurized and cooled milk is fermented at a temperature of 28-29 degrees - this takes from three to six hours, depending on the type of cheese. Mold - a pure form of penicillin - is introduced into the cheese at the time of fermentation. After this, the dense mass is poured into molds and sent for manual salting. Whey is released from the contact of cheese and salt, so the cheese is then sent to the drying chamber. The cheese is sent for ripening already dry, so that humidity does not interfere with the growth of mold - it stays there for 13-14 days. To stop the ripening process, the cheese is cooled in a separate room for 6-8 hours before packaging.

Camembert has a dense, non-cheesy structure. This cheese usually matures within two weeks. Buche and Valence have a curdled structure, and they reach maturity in just a week. Buche is soft, delicate and plastic when cut, Valence is a little drier and, due to its structure, has a richer taste. The cheeses are surrounded by a crust of noble mold, which creates favorable conditions for lactic acid bacteria. Thanks to mold, the process of cheese ripening occurs directly inside it.

About storing cheese

One of the most important things in storing cheese is maintaining temperature conditions. The cheese should be stored at a temperature of +2 to +6 degrees - then the ripening processes inside it proceed slowly, and the product remains pleasant to the taste for a long time. Otherwise, the crust takes on a yellowish tint, and abrasions and creases appear on the surface.

There are no statutory storage periods for cheeses in Russia - they are determined by the manufacturer himself. On average, the regulated storage duration ranges from 15 to 60 days. We decided to choose something in between and settled on thirty days. But even if you eat Camembert two months after packaging, nothing bad will happen to you.

The French have no such thing as a shelf life for cheese - they can eat it from the moment of production to infinity, even if it has a yellow-green or blue rind.

The French generally have no such thing as a shelf life for cheese - they can eat it from the moment of production until infinity, even if it has a yellow-green or blue rind. Here everything depends only on taste preferences - if you like sharp and mature cheese, then I advise you to eat just that. If you bought a fairly dense cheese, but like it softer, just leave it warm for a day, and then put it back in the refrigerator. This way the cheese will warm up and become creamier and more viscous, and all its aromas will be revealed.

You can make it from goat milk excellent cheese Camembert. It turns out to be as elastic as Camembert from cow's milk, but not so cheesy, covered with a white crust of penicillin cheese mold.

According to this recipe, the cheese turns out to be a little denser than classic Camembert and does not spread. This Camembert cheese recipe can also be used with cow's milk to create a denser cheese.

Necessary equipment

5 liter saucepan
2 cheese molds
drainage mat
thermometer
slotted spoon (a large flat spoon with many small holes)
drainage equipment (grid with a container for draining whey)
cheese aging container

Ingredients

4 liters of goat milk
mesophilic starter culture: 1/8 teaspoon (0.6g) mesophilic starter culture MM101; or 0.08g of Bioantibut starter
1/64 teaspoon (0.025g) Penisillium candidum
1/64 teaspoon (0.05g) Geotrichum candidum
1/8 teaspoon (0.63 ml) 10% calcium chloride solution
1/4 teaspoon (1.25 ml) liquid rennet or 0.2 g dry rennet
2 teaspoons salt

Important! To make cheese, you cannot use milk that has been heated above 75 degrees. Therefore, milk from the store is not suitable for making cheese.
Only raw farm milk should be used.

If the quality raw milk If you have questions, you can pasteurize it yourself at a temperature of 65-72 degrees.

Cheese making process

1. You need to pour goat milk into a saucepan and heat the milk to 36 degrees.
2. Remove the heated milk from the heat.
3. Sprinkle mesophilic starter powder and both types of mold onto the heated milk.
4. You need to leave it to stand for a couple of minutes so that the powders are absorbed.
5. Using a slotted spoon, mix the entire volume of milk with smooth, gentle movements from top to bottom.
6. Calcium chloride must be dissolved in 50 ml of water.
7. We also dissolve the rennet in 50 ml of water.
8. Add both solutions to the milk and mix.
9. Cover the pan with a lid (you can also use a towel) and leave to brew for 30 minutes until a clot forms.
10. Check to see if a clot has formed. Clean separation of the curd from the whey should occur. If this has not happened yet, you need to let it sit for a few more minutes.
11. Cut the resulting clot into small cubes with a side of 1cm - 1.5cm.
12. After this, slowly mix the resulting mass for 10 minutes. At this time, the curd grain is compacted and more whey is separated.
13. Drain off the excess whey so that a thin layer literally 5mm covers the cheese grain.
14. Add 1 heaped tablespoon of salt and stir.
15. Take a wire rack with a container for draining the whey and two cheese molds.
16. Transfer the cheese mixture evenly into the molds. Press the cheese mixture into the mold with your hands so that more whey is released.
17. After the forms are laid, you need to leave them to settle for 30 minutes.
18. After 30 minutes, the cheese should thicken a little. Now it will need to be turned over.
19. If you are using a pan with a bottom, simply remove the head of cheese, turn it over and place it back in the pan. If you are using pans without a bottom, cover the pan with a drainage mat and (hold it by the top and bottom) quickly turn it over. The cheese will turn over and press in the other direction.
20. For the next 3 hours, you need to turn the cheese every 30 minutes. The result of this process will be the formation of a dense cheese head.
21. Leave the cheese in the mold for 3 hours.
22. Remove the cheese from the molds. Leave the cheese heads on the drainage mat for 3 hours so that the cheese dries out and the acidity of the cheese increases. During this time, the cheese thickens, settles and spreads out wide. The result is a classic head 3cm high.
23. Now the cheese needs to be put to ripening. To do this, use a food container. Place two layers of paper napkins on the bottom, place a drainage mat and cheese on it.
24. A closed container with cheese should be placed in the refrigerator for 3 weeks.
25. To ripen, cheese should be kept in the refrigerator at a temperature of 4-6 degrees. It must be turned over every day so that mold grows evenly.
26. In three weeks the cheese will be ready. You can wrap it in special Camembert paper or leave it in a container. The cheese should be stored in the refrigerator and consumed within two weeks.

Important features of making Camembert cheese from goat milk

Holding temperature: Most recipes indicate that the aging temperature is 10-12 degrees, but in fact, in Normandy, real original Camembert is kept in rooms with a temperature of no more than 5 degrees. You can use a thermometer to measure the temperature on different shelves in the refrigerator. On the bottom shelf the temperature is usually 4-7 degrees, which is optimal for aging. Under these aging conditions there are no problems with bitterness. Ripening can take 3-4 weeks, without bitterness and a nice soft crust of mold is obtained. It is enough to control humidity by wiping off the water that forms on the lid of the container every two days and changing paper napkins. Mold begins to appear after 8-10 days.

Cheese flow: if you want to reduce the fluidity of the cheese, then you need to add a third more rennet and stir for 20-25 minutes so that the cheese grain becomes more elastic. This way the cheese will be denser.

Cheese deformation: uneven distribution of the cheese mass in the mold, irregular and careless turning lead to deformation of the cheese. Unstable humidity and temperature conditions also lead to deformation.

Cheese blur: may occur due to insufficient drying, over-salting of cheese; Cheese ripening occurs at high humidity of more than 95% and temperature above 14 degrees. Perhaps the cheese is already overripe.

Slime, foreign mold: to prevent the development of mucus, cheeses should not be packed tightly, the humidity should be 85-87%. Excess mucus can be removed with a cloth. Foreign mold is removed by thorough washing with a brush and complete disinfection of the place where the cheese is aged. For disinfection, you can use any alcohol-containing liquid.

The consistency of the cheese is too hard and dense: occurs if the curd was cut too finely or due to excessive drying.

Curdness of cheese: if the cheese has not become melted, but contains a curdled core in the center, then this means that the cheese is not yet ripe. It is necessary to continue ripening the cheese.

Bitter taste of cheese: arises from the breakdown of casein by bacterial enzymes to form bitter polypeptides. Occurs due to high moisture content, excess salt, and incorrect ripening temperature.

So that there is no bitterness: use only high-quality farm goat milk (without antibiotics and bacteriophages); do not overdo it with calcium chloride; keep the cheese at a temperature of 4-6 degrees; pasteurize the milk

Ammonia taste and smell of cheese: appears when the cheese is overripe (deep breakdown of proteins occurs) and when stored at temperatures above 8 degrees. Cannot be stored ready cheese at temperatures above 8 degrees.

Foreign odors and unclean taste: occurs when milk or cheese mass is seeded with foreign microflora. This must be avoided.

An exquisite representative of France, familiarity with which is inevitable if you are interested in cheeses.
There is a legend that it was first made by a peasant woman from Normandy in 1791, who received the recipe from the monk she saved during the French Revolution.
The name we know now is the merit of a doctor who practiced “cheese” therapy in the 20th century; it was in his honor that the recovered patients erected a monument near the village of Camembert.
According to the definition of the French poet and prose writer Leon-Paul Fargas, Camembert exudes the aroma of “God’s feet,” but we, as people who are not so exalted, allow ourselves to clarify that this cream cheese smells like champignons.

Also, let us note that Camembert should be consumed after it has warmed up a little - let it stand at room temperature for ~20 minutes. If you are going to make canapés with berries, you can also cut off the top “lid” and season with lemon zest, rosemary, thyme , nuts or honey, then bake in the oven, it is equally suitable for croutons, and for baking with potatoes, pizza or pasta, and light red wine will be an excellent addition.

Ingredients

4 l milk 1
1/4 tsp. mesophilic starter 2
1/64 tsp mold Penicillium candidum
0.65 ml 10% calcium chloride solution 3
1.2 ml liquid rennet
4 tsp salt

1 Classically, Camembert is made from cow's milk, but the use of goat's milk is also acceptable. 2 0.45 g Chr. Hansen Flora Danica, you can also use MEZO-1 1/4 tsp starter. (0.55 g) or Danisco Choozit MM 101 1/16 tsp. (0.13 g). 3 Dilute 10 grams of dry calcium chloride in 100 ml of boiled water. Store the solution in a household refrigerator. Best before sediment forms.

Equipment

5 In this recipe, we suggest you use 4 small Camembert molds, in which it ripens faster and more evenly.

Preparation

You have pasteurized 4 milk, cool it until 30°C, now you can add the starter and mold. Leave for 3 minutes to rehydrate the powders, then stir slowly with a slotted spoon.
Take 50 ml of warm water in 2 containers: in one you add a solution of calcium chloride (¼ tsp), in the other - a coagulant (rennet / vegetarian chymosin), then add to the pan and stir again.
Now, clot must mature. To do this, close the pan with a lid and leave for 1.5 hours at room temperature; after this time, you will see a cheese curd - calla, check it for a “clean break”, to do this you need to take a knife and make a shallow cut “at an angle”, and lift the cut part of the curd; if its edges are smooth, the incision site is filled with serum - this means that it is time to move on to the next stage, if this does not happen, wait another 10-15 minutes.
Cut the curd into cubes with the side 2.5 cm, and leave for 5 minutes to allow them to settle and excess whey to separate. After that knead the mixture for ~10 minutes– during this time the cubes will transform into cheese grains and gain elasticity.
Prepare your molds and drainage container - it's time to form the cheese wheels. Transfer the grain into the molds; if they are filled and there is grain left, don’t worry, the clot in the mold will settle and you will fill them to the end.
Now the stage must go self-pressing- it lasts 2 hours, after that, turn the camembert over to the other side - turn over after 30 minutes again: in subsequent 2.5 hours You will need turn over his 5 more times(every half hour).
And... the long waiting period began 10 hours– this is the time the cheese must spend in a refrigerator while remaining in plastic form.
It's time to remove the cheese from the molds and salt it - for this you need to weigh the heads. Golden pickling rule: 1% salt by weight of the head, i.e., per 100 gram – 1 gram of salt. Weigh the required amount (individually for each head), and carefully spread it over the surface with your hand, then return the heads to the molds standing on the drainage container, placing a mat, and let the cheese dry.
And now, you can put the camemberts in containers for aging, and put them in the refrigerator, which will maintain the temperature 10-12°С, least, 10 days.

4 It is important to remember that cheese cannot be made from store-bought packaged milk - in dairies, pasteurization is carried out at high temperatures, as a result of which the protein denatures and a clot simply does not form. You can purchase raw farm milk and pasteurize it yourself by heating it to t=72-75°C, holding it for 20 seconds, and then cooling it as soon as possible. Also, this operation can be carried out at t=65-68°C, but it will take longer - 20 minutes, the process cannot be accelerated, because not all pathogenic bacteria will die. Care during maturation:
Wipe the container and turn the cheese daily. We recommend placing them at the bottom of the container, under a drainage mat - they will absorb excess moisture in the first days, when there is less condensation, they can be removed. It is important to monitor the humidity in the container during ripening - if it begins to appear blue mold, this means that you need to dry the cheeses a little. Humidity is regulated by the tightness of the container lid. Storage: up to 5 weeks, at t = 4-5°C.

French Camembert is traditionally made from unpasteurized milk, but we will use pasteurized milk as it is safer.

Only if you are 125% sure of the quality of the milk you use, can you make Camembert from raw milk.

In this case, reduce the amount of starter added by a third.

How to cook Camembert at home:

Pasteurize milk.

Quickly heat to 72-73C, turn off the heat, hold for 30 seconds and quickly cool the pan with milk in a sink with cold water.

Cool the milk to a temperature of 32ºC.

Dissolve the starter in pasteurized milk. Stir and leave for 45-60 minutes.

Dissolve calcium chloride in 50 ml of warm water, in a separate bowl, dissolve the rennet in 50 ml of water.

Add calcium chloride to milk and stir.

Pour the starter and both types of mold into the milk.

Leave alone for 30 minutes to activate.

Then add the rennet solution and mix with a slotted spoon.

Multiplier = 6.

After the allotted time, check the clot for a clean compartment.

To do this, use a knife or slotted spoon to make a small cut in the curd.

If pure whey appears in the cut, then the clot is ready; if not, then wait another 5-10 minutes.

After this, leave for 5 minutes so that the clot settles and the whey separates.

After this you need to stir slowly curd mass within 20-30 minutes.

During this time, the cheese grain will thicken and the whey will separate as much as possible.

Place 2 drainage mats in a container, place 2 camembert molds and carefully transfer the curd into the molds.

After you transfer the entire curd, leave it to settle for 20-30 minutes, during which time the cheese mass will settle and thicken.

After all these manipulations, the cheese will thicken and the head will be fully formed.

Remove the cheese from the mold, salt with 1/2 tsp. on one side.

Put back into shape.

Leave the cheese on the drainage mat for up to 6 hours to dry.

After the second salting of 1/2 tsp for another 6 hours on the other side, leave the Camembert to dry for another day until not a drop of moisture remains on its surface.

During this time, turn over several times. An under-dried crust will lead to problems at the stage of mold formation.

After this, you need to let the cheese ripen.

To do this, you will need a food container, on the bottom of which you need to lay two layers of paper napkins, put drainage mats on top of them, and cheese on them.

After this, you need to close the container and put it in the refrigerator for two weeks.

Camembert must be kept at a temperature of 6-8ºС.

The cheese must be turned over daily so that the mold grows evenly.

After about three weeks, you can wrap the cheese in siliconized paper, put it back in the container and keep it for another 1 week at a temperature of 10-13C.

After about 4 weeks, Camembert will be ready and ready to eat.

Camembert should be stored at home wrapped in paper for 2 weeks.

Camembert is a world-famous soft French cheese with white noble mold (a specific white rind on the surface), which is the “younger brother” of another equally famous Norman cheese - Brie.

Cheese category: soft, creamy, self-pressing. Having been first made by a simple peasant woman, this cheese later acquired the rank of a royal delicacy - all the Parisian nobility, including the emperor, loved it!

Camembert has a pungent taste and a subtle musty smell that is difficult to confuse with anything else. The cheese mass of Camembert itself is plastic, and becomes softer as it ages. Color - from rich creamy to white.

The history of Camembert cheese

This cheese comes from the French village of the same name, Camembert, in northwestern France. According to legend, the history of the appearance of this cheese is connected with the Great French Revolution and with the imperial family of Bonaparte itself!

In the village of Camembert, a monk of one of the monasteries was hiding from persecution. A local peasant woman sheltered him at her home. And in gratitude for this the monk opened to her the secret of making brie cheese, which was produced in their monastery.

But, since the climate of Normandy and the province of Brie was different, the local milk had a different composition. Yes, the peasant woman probably didn’t remember all the nuances... In general, as a result, she got a new type of cheese. Which at first was simply called “Norman”.

The name “Camembert” was assigned to it Emperor Napoleon III personally, after trying it once. The emperor liked the cheese so much that he ordered it to be delivered to the court constantly. And after the emperor, the entire French capital became interested in this cheese...

Camembert recipe

Is it possible to cook Camembert at home Nowadays? Many ignorant people would answer that this is impossible and that the Camembert recipe is a secret behind seven locks... But this is not so! Of course, this is a very complex cheese, but nothing is impossible!

So Camembert can be prepared at home! And even necessary! The fact is that real Camembert has a very short shelf life. This means that it cannot be transported over long distances. This means that what reaches us is already a product with a preservative... Which, for obvious reasons, is not always good.

So, to prepare Camembert at home we will need:

4 l. fresh milk
1 sachet of mesophilic cheese starter (Bioantibut 0.1 EA is ideal, as it has an antagonistic effect on butyric acid bacteria) or other mesophilic culture
1/64 teaspoon Geotrichum candidum mold
1/32 teaspoon Penicillium candidum mold
1/4 tsp. liquid enzyme (rennet)
2 tsp non-iodized salt
pan (enamel or stainless steel, aluminum is not suitable for cheese making)
2 molds for self-pressing cheeses “Cylinder”
container for aging cheese (a food container will do), size at least 15x25 cm
2 sheets of special paper for ripening and storing Camembert
Calcium chloride (if you pasteurize milk).

These ingredients are enough for us to get 2 heads of Camembert weighing 250 grams.

Cooking technology:

Before starting work, thoroughly wash all equipment and rinse with boiling water. Camembert is a capricious cheese, the ripening of which involves several cultures, so we don’t need extra bacteria at all.
Now activate the starter. To do this, dilute a bag of starter in 100 ml of warm (30°) water and leave for 30 minutes.
Next, heat the milk exactly to 32⁰C. Or cool to this temperature if you pasteurized the milk. A thermometer will help you with this.
Pour the activated starter into the milk.
Sprinkle both cultures of mold, previously measured from a bag. Let the milk sit for a couple of minutes so that the mold powders absorb moisture, then gently stir the milk without “beating” it.
Cover the pan with a lid and leave the milk for 30 minutes for lactic acid bacteria to multiply in it.
Dilute the rennet in 30 ml (the size of a regular shot glass) of water room temperature. Add the resulting solution to the milk and mix thoroughly.
If you pasteurized the milk, add calcium chloride. This will contribute to the formation of a denser clot. For 4 liters of milk you need to add 1/8 teaspoon (or half a measuring spoon No. 1).
Leave until milky clot(like liquid jelly). Usually, if the milk and starters are fresh enough, then 50-60 minutes is enough, but it may take more than an hour. Attention! In no case do not stir the milk at that time! Otherwise you will disrupt all biochemical processes! You can only check the milk with the tip of a knife.
Once a clot has formed, check the clot for what is called a “clean break” (or “clean separation”). Make a cut on the clot 5-7 centimeters deep. If the knife remains clean after this (nothing stuck to it), then the fracture is considered clean. If part of the clot remains on the knife, wait a little longer. Look how it looks in the photo ( photo will be enlarged when you click on it).
Once a clean break is reached, cut the curd into 2 cm cubes and slowly stir the resulting cheese dough(it is also called “kalye”) about 15-20 minutes, to the whey has completely separated. If you want to get a denser, “heavier” cheese wheel, then mix even longer until the cheese grain is compacted so much that it begins to stick together in your hand when pressed.
Transfer the resulting cheese grain into two pre-washed and scalded Camembert cheese molds, evenly distributing the dough between them.
Leave the cheese to self-press for 30 minutes, then turn it over in the molds. The cheese has already compacted so much that it can be carefully taken out into the palm of your hand and turned over without resorting to the help of additional equipment.
Next you need within the next two hours Turn the cheese wheels in the molds every 30 minutes. As a result, the cheese forms a dense head, releases excess whey and gains acidity.
Transfer the cheese to a container in which you have previously placed a napkin and a drainage mat.
Salt the cheese wheels at the rate of ½ teaspoon on each side, and then send them to ripening in the refrigerator or aging chamber. It is necessary to turn the cheese every day (the first week twice a day, morning and evening), change napkins and remove excess moisture.
For the first 7-10 days, the cheese is kept at a temperature of 10-12⁰C. During this time, the surface of the cheese becomes covered with that very desired mold crust.
Wrap the head in paper and move it to a shelf with a temperature of 4-6⁰C, at which the cheese will ripen for another 2 weeks.