30 Oct Muriel’s Immature Camembert

In Vintage Made issue 15, I spoke of my immature Camembert cheese residing in my wine fridge – it was only one week old and already covered in a very thin white fuzz.

My immature Camembert – at one week.

The final outcome of letting the cheese set overnight, giving it a saturated salt bath and allowing it to mature in a cool, but not cold, fridge for several weeks is shown below.

My mature Camembert

The white mould, Penicillium camemberti, did too a good job of producing a very runny cheese full of flavour. The cheese shape collapsed a little as the inside went very gooey.

I have found my salt bath is infected with this mould, so I now do not need to add it to the cheese. I keep the salt bath in a covered container for repeated use rather than starting from scratch each time and wasting salt. Strange what can survive in a saturated salt solution.

– Muriel Farquhar

Muriel’s cheese was referenced in Vintage Made issue 15 – our “on vacation” issue, available HERE in print or HERE in digital. Recipes from Muriel in this issue are: yoghurt and cheese, limoncello, French apple cake, meatballs, and a couple of fun things to create with puff pastry (sweet and savoury).