I travelled south for an hour to Woodbridge District High School where I was to spend my day learning to make camembert.
I had a great day and learnt so much about milk, cheese, enzymes, bacteria, and mould, amongst other things. A big thanks to Nick Haddow from The Bruny Island Cheese Company for taking time out of his weekend to facilitate the Adult Learning course.
We paired up and heated our milk, which had only been milked from the cow that morning and delivered direct from the dairy. Then after a while of adding and standing around (us and the mixture) we discovered our pot of milk had separated into curds and whey.
From there we cut the curd, stood around some more, cut it again…. repeated the process a few times and then we got to hoop the curd. This basically meant putting the curd into moulds (hoops) to take the shape for the cheese. The little cheese then sat and drained, we turned then, turned them quite a few more times and then the little baby cheeses were tucked up for the night.
Today, I had to bath the little darlings. So they got to come out of their hoops and have a lovely refreshing salt bath while I washed their house. They are tucked back up in bed and I need to turn them every day. In about a week they will start to grow some fuzz. This means my baby cheeses have turned into teenagers. I get to wrap them up and leave them for a few more weeks. They will then be matured and I guess that means they are adult Camembert and get to leave home. Which means I get to unwrap them and eat them. I can’t wait!
