Author Topic: Orange mould on cam - edible?  (Read 1526 times)

kleokat

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Orange mould on cam - edible?
« on: August 08, 2016, 11:37:43 AM »
Hey all

This forum is a cheese-saver!  :)

Anyone got any idea what type of orange mould this is on my cams and if it is ok to eat? I can't pick it off or wipe it off as it seems to be all over the cams. I think it might be b. linens, which makes it ok to eat right? This make was a little wet during drying (every time I dry salt the cheese ends up wetter than when I brine). I've got another set of cams in the cheese fridge too which got a tiny bit of orange but I was able to pick that off easily. I've got another lot in the normal fridge right now aging, no problem.

I didn't have any geo so just went with a straight pc innoculation. It's my first couple of batches of pc only and the mould grows quite funny compared to when geo is added. The ones in the cold fridge now have a lovely "normal" white covering so i'm not overly worried about the current white mould look (although if anyone has any experience with using pc only i'm all ears). I'm guessing this is why the orange mould has had an easier time of it as it hasn't had to compete with the geo.

Humidity is around 90%. Temp ranges from 11-12 degrees. Cams were left out at 15-16 degrees for 3 days to dry them after 13 hours of draining then salting (based on pH readings of my latest cams I don't think the pH was low enough at 13 hours so I could have some ammonia issues down the track). I think the curd was a little soft during the make. They were stirred 15 mins x2 with 10 min breaks in between. I didn't track the pH on these ones as I did the latest batch.

Pic #1 you can sort of see the orange mould centre right ("1700").
Pic #2 you can see the orange mould dotted between the dots of white pc mould. It def looks orange and not red or pink.

Any advice will be welcomed!

Offline Gregore

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Re: Orange mould on cam - edible?
« Reply #1 on: August 12, 2016, 02:21:37 PM »
Odd that no one has responded yet ,

I have no idea what it is , as it is hard to see well in the pic .  And your clear on the other side of the world from me so who knows what kind of molds are there

At what timing after making did it form?

One thing mentioned here by  Linuxboy   One of our gurus is that cheese does not grow deadly forms of mold , something about a secondary stage or some such . I read it so long ago a I no longer remember it all . And he is on hiatus from the forum .

This really is probably the number 1 question we get here , what is this mold and is it safe to eat.

And rightfully so , all of us go through this  stage of  fear of eating this science experiment  we just made

Offline awakephd

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Re: Orange mould on cam - edible?
« Reply #2 on: August 12, 2016, 04:06:00 PM »
Sometimes I think we may wait to answer in hopes that someone else will have more direct experience with the issue in question ... and then forget ever to follow up!

The little bit of orange that I see in the pictures doesn't look like anything that would give me any concern. The "knobby" look on the side of the cam seems unusual - I'm used to a "brainy" look from the underlying geo, covered in fine white fuzz from the PC. But in both cases, my observations mostly boil down to lack of experience, without really knowing whether or not it is or isn't a problem.
-- Andy

Duntov

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Re: Orange mould on cam - edible?
« Reply #3 on: August 12, 2016, 08:58:34 PM »
Are the pink molds  fuzzy or not?

kleokat

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Re: Orange mould on cam - edible?
« Reply #4 on: August 15, 2016, 12:56:38 PM »
The mould is def orange and not pink (I've had that before due to excessive moisture). No fuzz to it. I'll post a closer image of the orange. I've also posted a pic of my other cam which started out knobly and then turned perfectly white and smooth (aside from the marks from the tray). I'll see how they go, perhaps the white mould will takeover the orange mould. The orange mould started abuot 4 days after salting.

kleokat

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Re: Orange mould on cam - edible?
« Reply #5 on: August 15, 2016, 01:01:03 PM »
Close up of orange mould and the nice cam that started out knobly.

Offline Gregore

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Re: Orange mould on cam - edible?
« Reply #6 on: August 15, 2016, 01:53:29 PM »
The white looks like PC , the orange  ????  Possibly a very dark b linens  but it also stared a few days earlier than one would expect it to also .   Hmmmm can't say for sure

Really the only issue is do these molds give you good flavor or bad , if good go ahead and let them run wild , if not so delicious then you need to find ways to keep them away .