Here I am back, I've been busy with other things for many months but even though I haven't entered the forum I begun cheesemaking in May after more than half a year. I've done several Petite Suisse, Taleggio, Mozzarella, and cheeses that need to be ripen as Tomme, Parmeggiano, Montasio and a Cheddar. I recently took the Tomme forms out of the cellar and I wanted to show them.
I used Peter Dixon recipe for a natural rind, not washing them; I used raw milk and mesophilic starter (L lactis lactis and cremoris). I aged them for three months at 10- 13 ° C at a cellar, a very basic one with soil floor that it's humid and it floods when it rains. I had to rescue the cheeses two times during the winter because the water was more than 2 meters high but I have taken the cheeses before the water reaches the shelves. Surely, there are many spores that contribute to the form the rind, so it is not a controlled proceeds but the cheeses were very taste and creamy.
The only problem it's that the cheeses slump , They were taller when I took them from the mold, , The procedure of cooking the curd only to 100 °C and draining in the mold with very lithe weight on them doesn't allow much whey to drain, so the forms aren't very firm.
Another problem are the flies, the little one those of the fruits ( drosophila). They do not attack the hard cheeses but they like the Tomme a lot. I had to cut the parts where they put their eggs because there were larvae!!!!. I made a protection with mosquitoes clothes for the next time, but this will be during next autumn, the temperature is going up (I am in Uruguay) and I will begin doing to hard cheeses.
Excuses for my English!!!!