Tastebud-tantalizing Tomme #8

[Boofer]

This cheese style has given me many salivating moments of pure culinary pleasure.

I hope to achieve some sense of that pleasure with this make. Yesterday I cream-coated the rind to allow it to continue aging and exchanging gases while protecting the cheese against excessive moisture loss and foreign incursion.

My previous make is the landmark I'm following.

-Boofer-

[scasnerkay]

How long ago did you make that lovely, and what size is it? Looks like you left it natural rind for a month or more.  I love that my present cave arrangement allows me to do natural rind almost as long as I want. But I do loose a lot of weight (moisture) from the cheeses, and the rind can be rather tough. The flavor development on the other hand is great!
One advantage for me in going to vacuum seal after a month or two would be stacking for easier space management. I would guess that you cannot stack the cheese if it is cream coated. And then does the cream coat peel off for eating the rind, or do you have to cut that bit off?
Lovely teaching pictures!

[Boofer]

Hi Susan, this cheese was made on February 27th. Here are some details of the make:

4 gallons Dungeness Valley whole raw milk
8 oz cultured buttermilk
8 cubes Kazu M.C. (4/28/12...almost 3 years old!)
1/16 tsp TA-61
1/8 tsp PLA
1/32 tsp mycodore
1/64 tsp Geo13
1/16 tsp dry calf rennet

Cubes added to cold milk.
Milk brought to 92F.
Rennet stirred in at pH 6.48.
Floc'd at 15 min...using 3.5x factor.
Cut at pH 6.33.
Exchanged 1 3/4 gal whey and stirred in 5 qt 128F water.
Stirring curds at 105F, pH 6.37.
At pH 6.26 drained and moulded curds.
Pressed under warm whey with 16 lbs for 30 min.
Flipped, rewrapped, pressing the same for 30 min.
Flipped, rewrapped, pressing the same for 30 min.
Removed whey bath.
Flipped, rewrapped, pressing with 1.9 psi for 30 min.
Flipped, rewrapped, pressing with 1.9 psi for 30 min.
Off the press at pH 5.38...into whey-brine for 14 hours, flipping after 7 hours.
Feb 28 -- Air-dried after brining and into cave @51F.
March 20 -- Vacuum-sealed after 3 weeks.
May 5 -- Observed excess moisture in vacuum bag; dried cheese and oved into cave to continue to develop natural rind.
May 15 -- cream-coated wheel.
Held off shelf in cave with needlepoint mats to continue drying of cream-coating.

Here's an example of what you can expect when removing the cream coating. YMMV.

-Boofer-

[LoftyNotions]

Looking good, Boofer. AC4U.

Larry

[Boofer]

Thanks for the cheese, Larry.

I flip this cheese daily in the cave. The cream coating is definitely shrinking; the label I put on the side is wrinkling slightly. It's all I can do to keep from cutting into this wheel for a taste.   Maybe another two weeks and that will be the fourth month. Could be optimal.

-Boofer-

[Boofer]

Five months old and time to cut....

Seemed like a good day to cut into this wheel. The coating comes off easily, assisted by the natural rind that grew before the cream coating was applied. Good, flexible texture. When tasting, the first thing that gets my attention is a slight tang, followed by a more complex character courtesy of the raw milk. For this hard cheese, the salt level couldn't be more on target. I've have had some cheeses that could have used a tad more salt...this isn't one of them.

I sectioned and vacuum-sealed seven wedges for long term storage. The eighth wedge is a sampling delight.

The cream coating allowed the natural rind to persist and to dry a little less than if the coating hadn't been applied. You can see that the white label I applied to the side of the wheel has wrinkled slightly, showing the shrinkage from the slow moisture loss. The moisture of the cheese paste itself is optimal.

-Boofer-

[LoftyNotions]

Really nice, Boofer. AC4U.

I just noticed that mine is now 3 months old, bare naked, and just waiting to go under the knife.

Larry

[Andrew Marshallsay]

Nice cheese, Boofer. Congratulations and another to go with it.
I think this might be my next make.

[Boofer]

Thanks, guys.  I had left a few slices out to come to room temp and when I sampled them later...very tasty little morsels.

I really like the washed curd, washed rind, semi-hard to hard cheeses. Very dependable and consistent.

-Boofer-

[JeffHamm]

That is a great looking Tomme!  A cheese to you.  I must make another tomme soon (mind you, whenever I see a nice cheese here I'm always thinking I must make one of those soon!)

[shaneb]

It looks fantastic Boofer. Have a cheese from me also.

Shane

[Mermaid]

Beautiful job! So satisfying to peel that coating off
AC4U!!

[Boofer]

Thanks for cheese.

Yeah, about 3 coats does the job.

-Boofer-

[Stinky]

Congratulations! +C

Your cheeses always look delightful.