The taste of tomme

[AnnDee]

Hi, it's me again.
Recently I made tomme and I am planning to give it as a gift. And because I have not tried this cheese before, I went and bought a wedge of tomme savoie to find out how this cheese should taste.
It was a nice looking cheese with interesting rind but....with a strong (and when I say strong, it was really really strong) smell of ammonia.
My question is: is it supposed to have that strong ammonia smell?

If this is the case then I will need to make a different type of cheese for the gift.

[olikli]

You can see from the rind that it's very mature. I'd say a mild level of ammonia is still acceptable but this one I would eat very soon. A younger tomme is not at all like this.

[Boofer]

Two comments:

• if you allow the Tomme to come to room temperature, the ammonia may dissipate.
• you typically don't eat the rind.

-Boofer-

[Gregore]

My wife brought me back one of these cheeses from Switzerland  and it was very good at first but trying to get through a whole wheel before it gets past its best is hard , I found that the tomme savoie was not nearly as good near the end of the wheel .

The flavor had become far more intense and no longer an easy eating cheese.

It looked a lot like yours does near the end of it life , so I would not use this  slice of cheese as an example of what your tomme will be like .  Also I have made many tommes over the last while and none of them taste like the tomme savoie .

[olikli]

• you typically don't eat the rind.

You typically do. At least they do so in France where the tomme type originates. It adds to the flavour. With a cheese that mature I might skip it too, though.

[Al Lewis]

Good strong cheese, like fine wine, should be allowed to breath before eating.  Once it airs out it should be fine.

[AnnDee]

Thank you everyone for the replies.
I am relief to know that my final cheese most probably won't be like the one I bought.
I did air the bought cheese, up to 3 hours. I check every 30 minutes but the smell did not dissipate. Beside it was close to the end of it's life, maybe it was somewhat contaminated as it was a wedge from a wheel and it was wrap with a cling wrap instead of vacuum packed.

[Stinky]

Did it taste good?


The reason it smells like ammonia is probably because the rind culture contained some p. candidum. My guess is that this bought stuff was wrapped up and not let air enough while it was being imported. Either way. An easy way to remember what causes the ammonia is to think about a brie. It gets soft in the middle because the PC produces ammonia, and, as this ammonia is basic, gradually raises the pH and the molecules are more water-friendly and get soft. Roughly speaking.

So to keep your tomme from smelling strongly, air it out regularly, brush it back, don't leave it in too high of humidity for too long, and if you see white fluffy mold just knock it back more than you might another mold and don't let it take over.

[AnnDee]

It was not very easy to eat. There is a big note of bitterness to it. I think the smell made me forget to taste the cheese properly to be honest.

Anyway, here is a look of my tomme, 1 week old. There is little white patch on it, what should I do? Should I wipe it with brine amd vinegar? There isn't much to brush yet really.

[Andrew Marshallsay]

The white looks lie a patch of Geo. There seems to be a pinkish tinge which could be B Linens or could be something in the light when you took the photograph. Whether you wash it with brine and vinegar will depend on what sort or rind you want. It will give you a nice clean rind and if you want to wax, oil or bag it that might be the way to go. If you want to develop a natural rind, washing would set you back. If you want to encourage the B Linens, you might want to consider washing with a weak brine.

[olikli]

Tomme is all about a natural rind, so why would you want to wax it? It wouldn't be a tomme anymore.

[Al Lewis]

I would let the rind develop naturally.  Sometimes they look really scary but the cheese inside tastes great!

[Stinky]

Feel free to brush it anyway if you're concerned.

[AnnDee]

At the moment I will let it be, if it gets too scary looking then I will brush it. It doesn't have pinkiness to it, so no blinens, I hope.

[sprocket]

At the moment I will let it be, if it gets too scary looking then I will brush it. It doesn't have pinkiness to it, so no blinens, I hope.

You can also just wipe the rind down with a clean, dry cloth if it gets too fuzzy with molds.  This will help to both spread the spores across the rind, as well as knock them back so that they don't get airborne and potentially make other cheeses fuzzy.

Geo and some of the other yeasts are particularly important for raising the pH of the rind, allowing other bacteria and molds to colonize and do their thing.  B. linens also moves in early, but it adds a lot of beneficial flavours (in my opinion) and I wouldn't fear it.  So long as your rind is well sealed (ie. absent of any cracking), most of the flavours from the rind flora will be limited to the rind itself.