My Tomme

[AnnDee]

I went on a 10 day holiday, I had several cheeses in my cave that was attended by someone at home. I come home and my tomme was looking like this.

[AnnDee]

And this one after brushing.

[AnnDee]

I'm wondering with the yellowy coloured patch, I haven't had a yellow mould before. Thoughts?

[Gregore]

Looks normal to me , what is the scale of the cheese . The biggest problem with air aged cheeses is drying out .

The larger the cheese the better, small cheeses tend to dry out before they can age out well.

I have tried 1 cheese at a cheese store that had a yellow rind and it was sooooooo bitter , that the rind was un edible , but the inside was yummy.  So no worries on the yellow.

[Andrew Marshallsay]

Nice looking natural rind. I've had some of the yellow too (I think it was also on a tomme) and it was not a problem. I have no idea what it was though.

[AnnDee]

Looks normal to me , what is the scale of the cheese . The biggest problem with air aged cheeses is drying out .

The larger the cheese the better, small cheeses tend to dry out before they can age out well.

I have tried 1 cheese at a cheese store that had a yellow rind and it was sooooooo bitter , that the rind was un edible , but the inside was yummy.  So no worries on the yellow.

This tomme is around 1.5 kg, do you think it is too small? It is 9 weeks old now, I'm planning to age it for another 7-8 weeks if possible.

[AnnDee]

Nice looking natural rind. I've had some of the yellow too (I think it was also on a tomme) and it was not a problem. I have no idea what it was though.

Thank to you Andrew and Gregore, I feel much better about the yellow mould now.

[Gregore]

I would pull a core sample and try it , I think some one on this forum suggested a vegetable   peeler would work .

Twist while pushing and and pull out straight , then after taste inc the inner most part put the core back in and use some of the inner paste to smear the core so there are no seams.

Or you can just wait the expected time , but I always have a tough time with waiting .

[AnnDee]

I cored it and tried the paste and my oh my it was tasty. Now I'm contemplating of cutting it early...

[Andrew Marshallsay]

I have remembered since my previous post that the yellow patches appeared after I brushed off a blue mould. I am wondering if that is the case here?
I notices on your cheddar post that that seemed to have happened.

[AnnDee]

Yes, actually you might be right. It also left yellow marks on my cheddar.

[AnnDee]

Update on the tomme, today at exactly 12 weeks mark, I cut it open.
Nice sharp taste, good as is or with crackers. I haven't tried to melt it as we like it as it is. I am planning to make another one next week.
The only thing is, blue mold has invade inside the cheese. I took a sample with my trier 3 weeks back and blue mold has grown on the hollow space. I ate it and obviously I am fine and alive writing this post, and it tastes good surprisingly but the paste that has been infected was a bit softer.

[wattlebloke]

That's a great illustration of the unintended consequences of using the trier, Ann. Did you plug the trier hole when you tasted a few weeks ago? And which recipe for the Tomme are you using, by the way? AC4U for keeping us all entertained with your cheese adventures

[AnnDee]

Yes, I took a little and replug the hole but maybe the air made the blues extra excited  . I used Gianaclis Caldwell's recipe from her book, this is my first on tomme; first making it and eating it.
I bought some from the cheese shop but it was very ammonia-i and strong (I was told here that it was too ripe) so I didn't eat so much of it.

Thank you for the cheese, I wish I can share my real cheese around!

[Andrew Marshallsay]

What a lovely looking cheese and a very impressive natural rind.
A novel and interesting way to make two cheeses in one.
Please accept a cheese from me for your success.