It's so hard to describe the taste/smell. Almost more ammonia or rancid. I'm sorry I don't have a better adjective.
I just had my brother over who tried the Cheshire and agreed it tasted great. He tried the Lancashire and had to brush his teeth twice to get the taste out. When I asked him if it tasted sour, an ammonia aftertaste, or rancid, he immediately said rancid.
Boy, I'm sure there are more than a few folks here wondering how/why your cheese is characterized as
rancid. Did I miss it, or was there a mention of your milk quality, freshness, source? Perhaps something just wafted in on a breeze while you were in-progress?
@ Boofer.......what do you mean that your cheeses can't contaminate each other because they are in mini-caves? Everyone seems to crack open the lid to control moisture and I can't imagine that spores aren't flowing around every time you open the cave door or move a box. Help me with my confusion here please....... . I've seen this referred to often and just don't get it. basically, I imagine the room your cave is in has all those molds living in the atmosphere waiting for a conducive bio-terrain to invite them to stay and build community. Hopefully each cheese only appears inviting to the ones you want to colonize it (and have likely inoculated with) but that's a big hope! Please enlighten me......
Perhaps I should rephrase....
Of course, given the optimal conditions, my cheeses could "cross-pollinate". Maybe I've just been fortunate
. I've been
vigilant in checking my cheeses, always use gloves when handling the cheeses, wash the gloves I'm wearing to reduce/remove Geo or linens before handling another cheese, close the windows, and do not allow movement (by the wife or the Yorkie) in the kitchen when I'm tending my cheeses and especially during the cheese making.
The neat thing about the cheese tending is that, at a certain point in a young cheese's life, the rind protects it very well and there really isn't significant worry that a foreign incursion will corrupt the cheese.
Right now, a typical session
communing with my young cheeses consists of taking them all out of their caves for a walk...into the kitchen. In the first pic, the
Blueberry Delight at the bottom and the
Tilsit at the top both get rubbed and inspected separately (washing the gloves between).
Boofer's Fancy, the one with the nubbins and second from the bottom, gets washed with PLA & 3% brine. The two cheese wannabes in the smaller round containers are a quiet
Port du Salut effort and they get soaked in Vouvray wine with a touch of salt (second pic).
Except for the Blueberry Delight, all of the others share a love of linens, either SR3 or from PLA. The
Delight is just Geo and KL71. In another week or so, it will get sampled and possibly moved to the big fridge.
They all play well together because they have all had their rinds developed (except for the
Fancy which I touch last).
-Boofer-