Author Topic: Appenzeller rind questions  (Read 3127 times)

Mermaid

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Appenzeller rind questions
« on: January 15, 2015, 03:04:28 PM »
So, I have been experimenting with peter dixon's appenzeller recipe and I'm getting a flavor I really love. Subtle, nutty and sweet. My main concern however is the affinage. I left the farm for two weeks!!! to visit my family for christmas and when I returned the rind was mushy in spots and was flaking off. :(    Was this a b.linen thing?

So I decided to scrub them all clean and move them onto new rough pine boards. Cheese cave is pretty cold right now (I'm in Massachusetts) around 48 degrees and the humidity is around 90.

Can anyone give me advice on saving the rind of these cheeses? They are over 25 pounds, very worth saving! The oldest one is 4 months old)

The blue molds keep coming back, and I'm getting some white molds pitting the cheese.
I've been looking at the forums here to see if I can oil the rind? Peter said I should wash the rind with salt brine and rub it with my hands but the cheeses were getting to wet and gooey and attracting mildew. Brushing the rind seemed to be working but then I was just spreading mold spores all over the cave.   :(

Any suggestions are welcome!

I can add pictures later if anyone is curious.

Mermaid

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Re: Appenzeller rind questions
« Reply #1 on: January 15, 2015, 03:07:24 PM »
So here is a picture of a cheese before I left for vacation. I am vexed by the aggressive return of blue molds. Any suggestions?

Tomer1

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Re: Appenzeller rind questions
« Reply #2 on: January 16, 2015, 07:34:15 PM »
Vaccum it before you brush and wash. you need to kill the blue yeast dominating your cave and replace it with your mold of choice.

I suppose you left it when it still needed love and care with a wash or two a week.  Sticky and gooey is ok. you want linens and later you will dry it and just brush back once a week or two.

Mermaid

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Re: Appenzeller rind questions
« Reply #3 on: January 17, 2015, 01:11:50 AM »
Thanks for your reply!

So do you have a separate vacuum just for cheese purposes?

Alpkäserei

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Re: Appenzeller rind questions
« Reply #4 on: January 24, 2015, 07:33:15 PM »
You can't leave a cheese for as long as two weeks, unless it has reached the suitable state of maturity. So for something like an Appenzeller it would need to have nearly a month of care in order to be strong enough to resist molds on its own. Even then, two weeks is a long time to leave a cheese alone

What is your rind treatment? Of course, real Appenzeller can only be made by a handful of producers in Cantons Appenzell and Sank Gallen Switzerland and is washed with a special herb-infused alcohol that is produced in secret. Any way of making an Appenzeller-like cheese will require you to wash with alcohol. This will help you fight of molds, as it creates an environment that molds (or more likely in your case judging by appearance, you actually have yeast) do not like.

The cracking and splitting happens because of your yeast infection. It has desiccated the rind and formed an undesirable crusty film, much different than the proper rind which blends into the cheese itself. 

Mermaid

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Re: Appenzeller rind questions
« Reply #5 on: January 25, 2015, 10:38:23 PM »
I should add that when I left the cheeses I had someone washing the cheeses for me- I just don't know exactly what she did. I specified for her to wash the cheeses using a 5% salt brine solution and lightly rub it with her hands dipped in the brine. This was suggested to me by Peter Dixon, as it is his recipe I am using, and I took his class on alpine cheeses. Is it possible that my friend washed the cheeses too often or left them too wet?


Also how to people establish the molds they want to grow in the aging space? Inoculate in the cheese making milk? Leave a happy cheese in the cave?
Thanks

Alpkäserei

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Re: Appenzeller rind questions
« Reply #6 on: January 31, 2015, 11:26:32 PM »
I would never under any circumstances agree that dipping your hands in brine and rubbing the cheese is a sound practice. I would not recommend this.
You should be using a brush, and that brush should be stored in the brine.

The best practice if you are making an appenzeller or other alpine cheese is to keep your cellar or cave clean. Don't want molds. But really, with a proper washing technique you will not be needing to worry about introducing the right things or isolating from bad things, because the right way of washing these cheeses prevents the bad things from growing, and isolates the good things out of the environment all around you.

The bacteria and yeasts you want to have growing are present in the air and on your skin, so they will be on the cheese and will take over if you make the cheese the proper environment. That is what we are doing when washing the cheese with a salt-alcohol brine.

As for washing too often and leaving to wet, this is not a problem for mold. Mold does not like wet things. Mold likes things that are lightly damp or somewhat moist. Mold can only start to grow when the rind dries to a certain point. That is why we keep our cheese wet for its first 10 days, until the bacteria are able to grow strong enough to fight the mold. then we need only help them once or twice a week.
If the cheese is washed too much, what you will get is an overly thick slime production.


GoudaGirl13

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Re: Appenzeller rind questions
« Reply #7 on: February 20, 2015, 02:01:45 AM »
Following this... :)