Cambozola: Day 23 - First Taste - Dark Days Challenge

When I went to the storeroom yesterday to check on the cheeses, I noticed the Cambozola clone seemed to be pretty well ripened and was giving off a really delicious cheesy smell.



So we decided to try it, even though it really probably needed another couple of weeks to age. Here's what it looked like cut open.



The taste - how to describe it? It's a very interesting mixture of creamy and sharp. It's very close to Cambozola in taste, although as you can see, there is no blue mold in sight. We think the lack of air holes kept the blue mold from growing to maturity within the cheese, although it doesn't seem to have kept it from growing enough to provide some flavor. The outer edge is creamy and runny like Camembert, the inner is creamy and a little sharpish like a good dolce Gorgonzola. It was wonderful on hot bread fresh from the oven, and consensus is that even if it's not exactly a Cambozola clone, it's pretty darned good!