Tomme Cheese Making Recipe

[ArnaudForestier]

As I love tomme, and am flush with confidence from a chevre that actually set, I am very keyed about this thread, Linux, and your articles.  Many thanks once again for some tremendous leaps up the learning curve.

[soleuy]

Greetings to all!!
I'm sorry because I left cheese making for a while.... the reason is  I have a lot of work arranging everything for Christmas, we will be sixteen  resting  at home for some days or Next year I will restart with the cheeses.
Felices Fiestas para todos Soledad

[OudeKaas]

Pardon if I missed this along the way in this thread, but just for clarification: when the recipe says 'press under it's own weight', this means 1 lb of weight for every pound of cheese, correct?

[Buck47]

Need help on how to make brine from Whey for a Tomme

Made a Tomme today using raw milk - skimmed off the cream. Went well thanks to advise on this thread and linuxboy's  'Tomme: Basic Howto ( Washington Cheese Guild)'

Now I need advice on how to prepare a brine for the Tomme made this afternoon.

I saved the whey as a base for the brine.
 
linuxboy advised on the Washington Cheese Guild : "If brining, use an 18-20% brine for 3-4 lbs per lb of cheese. Your initial brine must be balanced for pH and calcium. To get there, either use whey, or add 1 TBSP CaCl2 solution and 1 TBSP vinegar."

My question Is How much salt is mixed per gallon of whey?

The cheese final weight is 3 pounds 3 1/4 ounces.

I do have a new 4 pound box of Morton canning salt.

Would those more knowledgeable than I advise?

Regards: john

[OudeKaas]

Need help on how to make brine from Whey for a Tomme

Made a Tomme today using raw milk - skimmed off the cream. Went well thanks to advise on this thread and linuxboy's  'Tomme: Basic Howto ( Washington Cheese Guild)'

Now I need advice on how to prepare a brine for the Tomme made this afternoon.

I saved the whey as a base for the brine.
 
linuxboy advised on the Washington Cheese Guild : "If brining, use an 18-20% brine for 3-4 lbs per lb of cheese. Your initial brine must be balanced for pH and calcium. To get there, either use whey, or add 1 TBSP CaCl2 solution and 1 TBSP vinegar."

My question Is How much salt is mixed per gallon of whey?

The cheese final weight is 3 pounds 3 1/4 ounces.

I do have a new 4 pound box of Morton canning salt.

Would those more knowledgeable than I advise?

Regards: john

Buck, short answer is something like 2.5-2.8 lbs/gallon for saturated brine. Excellent detailed instructions have been put together here:

http://cheeseforum.org/articles/wiki-making-cheese-brine/

[Buck47]

Thanks Brandnetel,

The amounts of  2.5-2.8 lbs/gallon for saturated brine are about what I've been finding.

I did read the Wiki before posting on this tread. Unless I'm missreading - all the information given is about starting with water & then proceding to make the brine. With the exception of this Wiki:

 Brine Additives
 Freshly made brines, will when first used for brining a cheese, exhibit cat ion exchange whereby the calcium and hydrogen ions in the cheese surface will transfer to the brine until the brine and cheese reaches equilibrium. This transfer will cause the casein in the cheese surface to absorb water and swell resulting in a soft slimy surface layer that in aged cheeses leads to rind rot during aging. To mitigate this transfer:

Acidify the new brine to a pH of ~5.0, or roughly the same pH as the cheese. This can be done by several methods listed from optimal to least preferable:
Using drained whey instead of water for base of brine.
Adding Citric Acid to water.
Adding Acetic Acid (vinegar) to water.
Add food grade CaCl2 to the brine until reach 0.1%

What has me confussed is the whey was over 6ph when I started pressing the cheese. In the Wiki it says brine should be roughly 5.0 and linuxboy's instructions say

"•Drain in vat or warm colander. pH should be 6.35 or higher. Let curds mat and press slightly under whey.
•Put into cheesecloth lined molds. This cheese sticks, so soak the cheesecloth in pH 5.2 whey beforehand.
•Press under own weight turning at 15 min, 30 min, and 1 hour increments.
•Press until pH is 5.4 or overnight.

So part of my question should be (will the ph of the whey and the cheese be the same in the morning when I ad the salt to make the brine? will both be within the 5.0 range?)

I know I get my best Ricotta when after making cheese, I let the whey rippen at room temps for 12 to 18 hours. Never have checked the ph before starting to heat the whey.

Thanks for your help.  Regards: john

[linuxboy]

'press under it's own weight', this means 1 lb of weight for every pound of cheese, correct?

Yes, about that, maybe a little more. The way I do these is I will make 3-5, and stack them on top of each other and rotate them a few times. So when I wrote that, I meant that you stack the molds up and not use additional weight. The point here is that it's a really light press, just enough to form a good rind.

So part of my question should be (will the ph of the whey and the cheese be the same in the morning when I ad the salt to make the brine? will both be within the 5.0 range?)

Depends... usually whey pH is higher, but it will catch up when the cheese gets into 5.1 territory because the pH curve means additional pH drop in the cheese will be slower, but whey pH will still be fast until it gets to 4.9-5.1. So end point is that let the cheese acidify in the mold, reserve whey, then when the cheese is ready, use the whey. Even if the whey will be 4.9 or higher such as 5.5, it will not matter that much, it will be fine. Ideally, you want total equilibrium, but so long as the calcium is balanced, the pH is less important, so long as the whey is in the 4.8-5.4 range (which it will be after waiting overnight).

[Buck47]

Depends... usually whey pH is higher, but it will catch up when the cheese gets into 5.1 territory because the pH curve means additional pH drop in the cheese will be slower, but whey pH will still be fast until it gets to 4.9-5.1. So end point is that let the cheese acidify in the mold, reserve whey, then when the cheese is ready, use the whey. Even if the whey will be 4.9 or higher such as 5.5, it will not matter that much, it will be fine. Ideally, you want total equilibrium, but so long as the calcium is balanced, the pH is less important, so long as the whey is in the 4.8-5.4 range (which it will be after waiting overnight).

Thanks linuxbby, That explains alot, very helpful.

I would like to make my next Tomme without the use of a starter. I got the idea from your website

 "Tomme is most often made from raw milk, making the addition of culture unnecessary
 because it has natural cultures.

When using raw milk, you can omit adding culture entirely, or add a tiny portion to contribute flavor"

My milk comes from the evenings milking. Temp around 36F. Do I keep the milk refrigerated until the next morning, non- pasturize & pour it into the vat and bring it to a temp of 88F and ad rennet?

Or is there a holding time before adding the rennet ... like an incubation period to allow the milk to ripen and have a slight decrease in PH?

Thanks again:  john

[linuxboy]

Okay, so if you're mixing evening and morning, I would cool the evening milk. This is not so much for the bacteria as it is for the fat. The lipase in milk will act on the fat and raise the level of the fatty acids. It often leads to off-flavors or an excessively goaty tang.

I cool evening milk, but not the morning milk, and combine them.

If you are doing all raw milk, completely without cultures, then you need to ripen the evening and morning mix until the pH drops by .1 or so. You need to make sure there's active culture. Most often, when not using culture, a whey starter from the previous batch, or a clabber is used.

I usually use a pinch of culture to ensure it acidifies, just in case, or use a stable clabber. It's somewhat tough to use the milk as is, there's less consistency among batches.

[Buck47]

OK, linuxboy, thanks to you --- so far so good.

This morning I made a brine from the whey (1Gal whey/2lb -10oz Salt)
Checked the cheese and whey with Lipmus paper and both read the same - 5 ph.

Tomme has been floating in the brine since 9:00AM due to come out at 8:20 PM tonight ( 11hours 30 min)  Checked it about an hour ago and a nice hard rind has formed, has a nice clean feel)

Ready to make another tomme tomorrow. Have the milk from tonight's milking - Total 4 gallons. Saved 1/2 gal of the whey this morning and put that in the refrigerator where it has been all day.

So my question is how much whey from yesterdays make do I add in the tomorrow morning?

I'll skim off the cream and heat milk to 89F/20C then add the starter (whey)

7.68 ounce would be 1 1/2 % of 4 gal.
5.12 ounce would be 1% of 4 gal.

Could you advise as to how much whey to add as a starter and also how long should I wait for  the  ph drop before adding rennet. I don't have a ph meter. So will have to use a timer.

I was thinking thinking somewhere between 30 min to 1 hour before adding the rennet.

Could you advise?  Thanks:  john

[linuxboy]

Could you advise as to how much whey to add as a starter

1.5% by volume of the milk amount

and also how long should I wait for  the  ph drop before adding rennet. I don't have a ph meter. So will have to use a timer.

For very fresh milk and 1.5% whey, wait 30 minutes. Should be plenty to get the bacteria going, that's long enough for one multiplication cycle.

[ArnaudForestier]

Just got the reefer inside and putting it together for a first cave.  Linux, I've read somewhere that the useful window for utilizing whey is quite short - a matter of hours, if my memory serves.  These were for whey cheeses, and I'm not sure why the window is so short.  Any sense how long one could have to effectively turn whey around as an inoculating medium, like you're recommending?

[Buck47]

I've read somewhere that the useful window for utilizing whey is quite short - a matter of hours, if my memory serves.  These were for whey cheeses, and I'm not sure why the window is so short. 

Hi Arnaud,

I too have read in several places - "whey must be used fresh, and used within 3 hours if your making ricotta"

However I get my best results when I use (unsalted)whey* which has been allowed to set at room temp ( 68F-70F) for min of 12 hours up to 18 hours.

Average yield is 15 ounces firm ricotta from 2 1/2 - 3gal whey.

linuxboy can add far greater detail than I. But thought I would let you know what has been working for me.

Regards: john

*Whey saved from cheese made from fresh raw milk - unpasteurized.

[linuxboy]

Completely different application. One is for the whey proteins, to collect the remaining solids by precipitating them, which is very pH sensitive. Can't go below 6.0, really, maybe 5.9. No longer sweet whey after that, ricotta isn't the same.

As inoculation, you're fighting the acid development and bacteria viability. I've posted about this before in the whey starter thread, Useful life of whey starter is max 1 week, preferably 1-3 days.

[OudeKaas]

'press under it's own weight', this means 1 lb of weight for every pound of cheese, correct?

Yes, about that, maybe a little more. The way I do these is I will make 3-5, and stack them on top of each other and rotate them a few times. So when I wrote that, I meant that you stack the molds up and not use additional weight. The point here is that it's a really light press, just enough to form a good rind.

Excellent, thanks! Pressed two little tomme-style goat cheeses just shy of 2 lbs each (like 1 lb 13 oz or so) stacked and with just over 5 lbs atop them. Seems to have worked well. After 6 hrs of brining, a nice springy rind with some resilience to it has formed.  I'm having an early cheese love moment, they seem so fine, it's difficult to imagine shepherding through months of aging, but here we go . . .