Author Topic: My first washed rinds -- a couple of questions  (Read 1334 times)

buzdelabuz2

  • Guest
My first washed rinds -- a couple of questions
« on: December 10, 2014, 04:22:03 AM »
Hello,

I have made my first washed rind over a week ago, and I followed G. Caldwell's Pholia Farm's Washed Rind recipe a few other people have.

I have attached 2 pictures, taken one day apart, about 9 days after my first washed rind, the cheese on the right was made. The other 2 wheels on the left are my second batch made this weekend. I used more milk the second time.

I inoculated the milk with Penicillium candidum, GEO15 and SR3 (B.Linens) ( in addition to the culture ). I had read about the white molds helping with de-acidification of the surface to prepare for B.Linens.

Anyway, after 5 days or so, a nice white coat started to grow on, and I started to wash with ale.
But the thing grows right back after 24 hours. On the first picture, I had just washed it, and on the second, it's barely 24 hours later.

1) Is that normal that it wants to grow back so fast ? Does that mean I should wash it down more often or every 3 days is fine  ?

2) I am trying to age my cheeses on wood. The wood I am using here is ash. The thing is these white molds are really stick *hard* to the board. I tried to groove my board because I thought the surface was too even, but it is still sticking hard. I'm afraid I am going to damage the cheese trying to free it from the board when I am turning it everyday. For the moment, I lift the cheese every 12 hours before it builds a link too strong with the board.

Somebody suggested the humidity was too high, but my new guys on the left, they are more moist and they don't stick at all.

And I can see when I lift the cheese that the white molds are actually starting to get into the cracks and getting a hold of them.

Does anybody have experience aging on wood, and if yes, any idea suggestion ? May be the problem will go away at some point ?

3) Last, it looks like it is starting to take a more yellow/orange taint. I guess this is B.Linens doing its thing ?

Thank you very much your time.
« Last Edit: December 10, 2014, 04:28:51 AM by dcote »

Offline Andrew Marshallsay

  • Old Cheese
  • *****
  • Location: South Australia
  • Posts: 822
  • Cheeses: 115
  • Default personal text
Re: My first washed rinds -- a couple of questions
« Reply #1 on: December 10, 2014, 07:11:46 AM »
The orange/yellow would be the B Linens.

I doubt that you could get it too humid for B Linens. My understanding is that they love it damp and higher humidity might give the B Linens an advantage over the white mould.

Washing more often could be beneficial. Alpkaserei recommends washing alternate sides on alternate days: http://cheeseforum.org/forum/index.php/topic,10633.0.html

I have not used wooden boards for these cheeses and I had not heard about using white mould on a washed rind cheese. I will be interested to hear what responses you get in relation to these questions.
- Andrew

buzdelabuz2

  • Guest
Re: My first washed rinds -- a couple of questions
« Reply #2 on: December 10, 2014, 03:29:18 PM »
Thank you for your response.

As I was writing this down yesterday, I couldn't find where I had obtained this information to add the Penicillium Candidum along with Geo and B.Linens.

But a little more research this morning, I found that Limburger uses it:

http://cheeseforum.org/articles/wiki-limburger-cheese-making-recipe/

But I agree that most recipes only suggest Geo. so I am starting to think that I may have done confused some things.
As I was "gearing up" for my first cheese, I felt like I had a million things to line up, and I probably made a mistake. :)

At least based the Limburger recipes I found, it shouldn't be fatal.