Author Topic: A very lax method beer-infused goat tomme  (Read 1722 times)

meyerandray

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A very lax method beer-infused goat tomme
« on: June 03, 2013, 03:13:05 PM »
So I don't know what exactly I made, but thought I would share...
the "recipe":

10 liters raw, fresh goat's milk
1/8 tsp Toma ST (thermo mix)
66 cL Peroni beer
2.5 mL liquid rennet in 1/4 c h20

starting pH at 24.9 C = 6.50

brought to 27.3 C (pH 6.46), added culture and beer.  brought to 33.1 degrees and held for 40 minutes to ripen.
After 40 min, temp was at 32.5 and pH had dropped to 6.15, brought upto 36 C (took 10 min) and added rennet/ water (temp 36 pH 6.11)
clean break 20 minutes (oops, a little fast, but temp was high so I guess I should have thought of that...) cut with whisk into 1 cm about, stirred 40 min.  Whey pH 6.17 temp 37.6 C
Left to settle
Here is where I confess one bad decision (even worse than some already made...) after another
I had been given a rectangular mold which I thought I would try for some variety.  Put the curds in this new mold, which was way too big, so I had a pretty thin cheese.  I went with it anyway.  The curd wasn't really knitting on its own, so I put another one of these rectangular molds on top as a follower, with two large glass bottles on top.  Oops, I hadn't noticed the protrusions on the bottom of the mold, which essentially made holes in my form.  I tried flipping and putting just the two big bottles on top, this time with water in them (1.5 liters each), which left horrible bottle signs on the other side of the form, and was clearly a not thought out at all idea on my part. 
I then decided to scratch everything and start over in my regular form, so I cut the curd into cubes and put them in my regular, round 1 kilo mold.  Obviously at this point the curd was cold, so there was no hope that it would have ever knit again.  Because there had been beer in the milk, and thus in the whey, I had thrown out the whey, so I pressed under hot water.  At this point I stopped recording my bad decisions and their consequences, so lets just skip ahead to the final result, I didn't get a good knit, and unmolded, put a plate on top with a heavy weight, which rounded the edges of the form, I now have a rounded-edge disc form (which would actually be a nice or desired effect if the form were a bit higher, like at least twice as high...

I will attach some photos.  The form is now 1 week old.  It really seems like a rubber disc, probably would have worked great for the Maya's ballgame if it were round.

I would love to hear opinions if there is something I could do to save this cheese (if I wash the rind or something)?  Or any guesses on what will happen as it ages?  Is there hope for a happy ending?  And, preparing for the worst, if it is beyond recuperating, can I feed it to the chickens and/or dog, or would the beer that is in it make that hard to digest?

Smurfmacaw

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Re: A very lax method beer-infused goat tomme
« Reply #1 on: June 03, 2013, 07:59:38 PM »
I wouldn't throw it out just yet.  I read somewhere that the discovery of all great cheese styles were preceded by someone saying, "So I decided to eat it anyway."  Give it a chance....who knows.

JeffHamm

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Re: A very lax method beer-infused goat tomme
« Reply #2 on: June 03, 2013, 08:37:26 PM »
Looks ok to me.  I would suggest washing it every other day (one face only) with a strong brine (18%+).  That should develop a bit of a smear, which will help seal over the few weak bits in the rind.

- Jeff