Hello all -
Looking for some feedback on a recent batch of cheese I'd made. The cheese itself is modelled after St. Nectaire, and it made from raw goat's milk. The defect pops up infrequently on some of our cheeses, but often enough to be an annoyance. The first picture is what I consider to be a good cheese, and the second picture shows the defect.
Good cheese:
http://imgur.com/zZMOxMoCheese with defect:
http://imgur.com/nJZ4JmFThe defect should be quite obvious - it's the much pinker, wet looking section with no Geo growth. Once established, it's near impossible to dry it up. To the senses, I detect more ammonia in that region, leading me to believe there's a lot of proteolysis going on.
I have a suspicion that it's due to lower pH in that part of the curd, perhaps due to poor drainage, or uneven dry-salting that failed to slow down the lactic cultures.
Does anyone else have any insights as to what might be happening, and how to prevent it in the future?