Hey folks. Long time no post, but have been busy expanding my cheese-making repertoire to include semi-hard and hard cheeses. The tomme pictured below is my first attempt at this style, and I used Gianiclis Caldwell's recipe from her Artisan Cheesemaking book. All went well during the make, and I decided to try a natural rind, so when various moulds started blooming over it after a week, I let them go for a good week or so. However, I'm now thinking that I let the moulds get too out of hand before wiping them back, as the rind has shrunken and wrinkled, kind of like a mould-ripened soft cheese might, as you can see below. Also, the mould was most dense around the side of the cheese rather than the top or bottom, and I think this has helped cause the rind to shrink like this around the sides. Can anyone with a bit more experience with tommes tell me if that might be the case?
It's about 6 weeks old now, and I'm hoping to age it for 3 - 4 months. Although it looks pretty ugly, it smells really amazing! I'm also wiping down the rind about twice a week now, not that there's much growth anymore.
The first pic is just after it was made and was looking quite lovely.
Cheers.
