Fourme d'Ambert with very poor posture

[GlabrousD]

Hiya All,

I suspect this may be a candidate for Boofer's "Failures I Have Known" thread.

I tried making a Fourme d'Ambert as per the recipe here: http://cheeseforum.org/forum/index.php/topic,12164.msg94917.html#msg94917

As I ladled the curds into the mould I did feel that there was a lot of whey present but I persevered. The mould filled up so I put the excess into a gouda mould I had on standby. After brining and 12 hours drying the Tomme mould cheese is looking rather sorry as you can see in the first photo.


The second photo shows it after flipping with its smaller brother alongside. Then smaller one was pierced before brining as an experiment.


As Fourme is a fairly rapid cheese to ripenting/eating can I get away with this or should I take further steps to save its sad little life?

Thanks in advance for all advice. Cheers, GD.

[Tiarella]

I feel for you.  I'v made some rubenesque cheeses myself although not quite this rubenesque.  If it was here I'd put a birch bark girdle on it, accept that I was venturing into unknown territory and wait to see what type of cheese it turns into.  If you want more air exposure than that would supply you could use flexible matting to create a girdle.  Did you maybe cut the curds a bit late and the bonds to H2O were too strong to drain thoroughly?   

[GlabrousD]

Thanks very much for the sympathy Tiarella. The curds set beautifully as per the recipe... it could well be that I didn't stir them enough. The recipe calls for one hour of stirring... I took regular breaks rather than keeping at it for the full hour. I also feel that draining the curds in a cheese-cloth lined colander before scooping into the moulds might have helped.

I'm still very much a noob so I expect mistakes... hopefully they'll still be edible though

Cheers, GD

[GlabrousD]

Just to clarify; I scopped the curds from the pot (using a skimmer with holes in) without draining the whey. As the curds were layered into the tomme mould there were small pools of whey between the layers... I feel this may have become trapped and not drained properly.

Cheers, GD

[GlabrousD]

Well we're a few days in and "Slumpy" and his smaller brother are now starting to speckle with blue... more to follow

[Tiarella]

Well we're a few days in and "Slumpy" and his smaller brother are now starting to speckle with blue... more to follow

What is Slumpy's younger brother's name?   

[GlabrousD]

I'm ashamed to say that the smaller sibling has yet to be named - I'm a terrible parent, I know

All suggestions gratefully received.

Cheers, GD.

PS. PLease don't anyone report me to the RSPCC (Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Cheeses) 

[Andrew Marshallsay]

Dumpy?

[graysalchemy]

PS. PLease don't anyone report me to the RSPCC (Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Cheeses) 

No they are too busy investigating Tiarella 

[Tiarella]

PS. PLease don't anyone report me to the RSPCC (Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Cheeses) 

No they are too busy investigating Tiarella 

Oh, gosh!  Now I'm really nervous.  I thought I was only being investigated by SPANC! (Society for the Prevention of Abuse and Neglect of Cheese)  I better get a clown wig and go undercover.

On a MUCH more serious note, I like the name Dumpy.  It'd be Slumpy and his sidekick little brother Dumpy.  Slumpy and Dumpy sat on a wall, Slumpy and Dumpy had a great fall, and all the King's horses and all the King's men couldn't put Slumpy and Dumpy together again.  (what were they thinking including the horses in an effort to re-assemble a broken egg?  I've known a lot of horses and not one of them would have been any good at this!)

[GlabrousD]

Looks like little brother is "Dumpy" then... by popular demand 

Certainly agree on the egg-reconstruction front... horses don't have opposable thumbs and are liable to get in a terrible pickle using superglue. Using any other glue would be inhumane... bearing in mind what they used to make glue out of!

To quote Eddie Izzard: "Ici un cheval... Un cheval...pas de glue.  Un cheval...pas de glue.  Pas de cheval...beaucoup de glue! Oh, c'est merdeux pour le cheval!" :-(

Cheers, GD

[graysalchemy]

Oh, gosh!  Now I'm really nervous.  I thought I was only being investigated by SPANC! (Society for the Prevention of Abuse and Neglect of Cheese)  I better get a clown wig and go undercover.

On a MUCH more serious note, I like the name Dumpy.  It'd be Slumpy and his sidekick little brother Dumpy.  Slumpy and Dumpy sat on a wall, Slumpy and Dumpy had a great fall, and all the King's horses and all the King's men couldn't put Slumpy and Dumpy together again.  (what were they thinking including the horses in an effort to re-assemble a broken egg?  I've known a lot of horses and not one of them would have been any good at this!)

SPANC couldn't afford the airfare, however RSPCC .............................

[Tiarella]

Oh, gosh!  Now I'm really nervous.  I thought I was only being investigated by SPANC! (Society for the Prevention of Abuse and Neglect of Cheese)  I better get a clown wig and go undercover.

On a MUCH more serious note, I like the name Dumpy.  It'd be Slumpy and his sidekick little brother Dumpy.  Slumpy and Dumpy sat on a wall, Slumpy and Dumpy had a great fall, and all the King's horses and all the King's men couldn't put Slumpy and Dumpy together again.  (what were they thinking including the horses in an effort to re-assemble a broken egg?  I've known a lot of horses and not one of them would have been any good at this!)

But isn't RSPCC the British firm while I, in  the US, am mostly terrorized by the US version SPANC?

SPANC couldn't afford the airfare, however RSPCC .............................

Oh, I really AM in trouble!  The US, not at my bidding you understand, DOES seem to be quite disrespectful in a lot of ways and it pains me greatly when I think of it.  I try to avoid thinking of it by making cheese as often as possible.  Hey, it works for me. 
P.S. I love your whistling faces........

[graysalchemy]

Royal Charter I am afraid. Jurisdiction in all former colonies as well as the present commonwealth, we know no boundries.

Anyhow sovereignty doesn't seem to stop certain US agencies

[GlabrousD]

This must be the friendliest "Flame War" I've ever seen 

Cheers, GD.

PS. I see that Edward Snowden had been on stage at TED... next thing he'll be telling us that the NSA have been spying on us using the "eyes" in Swiss Cheese!