Tomme Cheese Making Recipe

[Boofer]

Wow, after only 90 days?! That seems amazing. Nice pics. Interesting cheese.

-Boofer-

[ArnaudForestier]

Pav, I hope it's OK to hijack your thread with pics of these efforts?  (don't worry, only one more tomme from my first round of 3 makes - promise if I stay in tommes, will create an "Arnaud's tomme odysseys" thread... ).

Well, after waking up to more blue bits on this wheel, an issue from the start, rather than digging another divit in the rind and going forward, decided to enjoy this cheese (this is "tomme 3," my 3rd cheese) at just shy of 2 months:



Very happy.  Firm but yielding very nicely to the slice, creamy, and mild but flavorful.  Not screamingly funky, just flavorful, balanced, a nice touch of character from the rind (which is edible - good, flavorful) without some of the moldy concerns I had from my first wheel (and still not sure that was a flaw, or expected, from the mycodore).  Will make a nice lunch with good jura wine and fruit. 

Thanks again, Pav!

@Brand, I know you were disappointed in the cheese texture, but I have to say, I love the look of your rind.  My "tomme 2" at 2 months is getting pretty rustic and if I can hold off for 4 months, I will hope for as equally as beautiful a rind.

[kookookachoo]

I'm seriously drooling over the cheese photos...to the point that I raided my fridge to see what I can munch on..cheese for breakfast, really can't go wrong!  (Alas, I only have some store-bought havarti, a slice of leftover Manchego-not homemade, either & some homemade feta...I settled on the Manchego, with honey-drizzled pita chips!). 

I have a 4 day old (I actually have to double-check here in a bit) tomme in my cellar.  I'm kind of a bit worried, as my cellar has been going at 50-55 (warmer at the end of the afternoon), but only been going 75-80% RH.  I've quickly ran a couple of buckets of water there earlier, hope that will make a difference.  For now, I have no cheese that has any introduction, in the make or wash, of any other culture apart from the meso & thermo they needed.  I take that back, the tomme does, accidentally (my hubby errr nicely helped me out).  I'm a bit squeamish about adding anything at this point...one: I don't think I will be able to successfully create a good-tasting cheese with the little I know (even when reading, re-reading, and re-re-reading the posts here!!), and I will be out of town in 2 weeks, so I won't be able to check my cheeses daily like now. 

From what I read, the introduction of these flora add a more wonderful taste.  I'm still gingerly walking my way through all this, but I would like to try one (just one, for now), as a practice, if you will. I haven't decided what to do with my tomme yet.  Right now, I just have PLA, I've p. candidum & p. shermanii...apart from my usual meso & thermo cultures.  I have geo (13), corynebacteria-both from Dairy Connection, coming in the mail.   Sigh.  I know I'm getting ahead of myself by getting them, but didn't know how if they would ship well in the Illinois 95-100+F summer heat. 

Anyway, any advice would be oh-so-greatly appreciated!

(Sorry for the hijack!  This is one of my daily-read topics)

[ArnaudForestier]

Went ahead and took a pic of that "tomme 2 at 2 months", mentioned above:



What's odd is that this rind seems much more pronounced, though the 2 cheeses are a mere few days apart - same brine make, same washing schedule, cheeses 3" apart on the shelf, totally different rind.  Will be interesting to go back and compare make notes, to see if I can divine a reasoning....

kookookachoo (gawd, I love saying that username... ), my worry is that with your RH that low, you're going to end up with cracks developing in your rind (I really don't know - just know that 70-75% is what I shoot for in my "drying room," when drying some of these, after the brine.  If you could get it higher, I suspect you'd end up with a happier result. 

On not wanting to mess it up, fully understand...I'm the same way.  I've had to learn to be happy with screwing things up royally, and exploiting it to learn from it.  I say, if have the inkling to try for a funky wash, go for it! - I'd just recommend recording everything you do, and everything you get, so you can gain from it. 

(Oh...and yes, I'm a worrier as well...can you get someone to watch your cheeses during those 2 weeks, to turn them?)

[kookookachoo]

Aha!  See, that's why I made a couple of Manchegos!  I'm really curious to see if they both turn out the same way.  I actually started out with one, about 10 mins after the milk had been sitting in the pot (not had the heat turned on yet), I thought, "hmmm", called a friend to see if she had a bigger pot I could use as my makeshift double broiler (the bigger pot) & transferred the other half to it.   It was a bit harrowing stirring them both, pretty much at the same time, with a couple of seconds lapses in between.  So, yep, I find out in a few months! 

I like the look of your cheese.  I'm still at the point that none of my rinds have any sort of attractive characteristics to them.  At all.  Apart from the small divots & fold lines from one side due to the cheesecloth, well..they're...bland-looking!  Sigh. 

Ok, I solved my humidity problem after dinner.  I got a small humidifier on clearance today (marked down to $15, from almost $40), it's staying in the cellar indefinitely.  I have really been fretting over the low humidity, I tell you!

(As far as the turning, I've got it covered, thanks for worrying with me, too!     A friend is coming by, in the evening to do that for me,  I owe her a couple of weeks of dog-sitting/dog visiting, for when she goes on vacation...so it's pretty even)

[OudeKaas]

Thanks for the good thoughts, AF.  I am learning the hard way how little cheese one gets out of a one or two-pounder! I am enjoying sharing my goat cheese, but I have 'repackaged' it as more like an Italian-style hard cheese when presenting it to folks. I am on a quest to make a 3 month old cheese that is still moist, and not there yet, although my next tommes are still feeling a bit springy at 45 days, so hope is still alive! I'm also still tinkering with maximizing cave humidity.

I am jealous of your larger wheels. I must say. Very interested to see what appears in the photo to be stark white paste - this is cow's milk, right? And the thick yellowy rind which appears to penetrate into the cheese maybe as much as 3/8" and be very consistent in color.

[ArnaudForestier]

Yep, it's cow's milk.  It is interesting, as you're right, it really is a stark white paste.  It will be interesting to see what the other tomme looks like inside, after a month or two. 

When I was a brewer, I once entered a beer into a competition; it did well, preliminary round, got second in the Midwest (never made it to the Finals, as my in-laws guzzled the sample bottles before I could send them to the Nationals ).  "Seven Suns", literally, a kitchen-sink of 7 malts left in my larder.  I had a hunch of what I was looking for, but "named" the second part, "Strong Scotch Ale" only after the beer was made.  Your "Goat Parma" sounds delicious.

Good luck with your aging tommes.

[iain]

I am working on a detailed howto for different rind treatments.

Just curious if this has happened somewhere. I'm really interested to read it.

[linuxboy]

Next year, I'm releasing all my thousands of hours of research on this over the past decade. Trying to make it the definitive reference, so it takes a lot of time. PM in the meantime if you need help.

[OudeKaas]

Next year, I'm releasing all my thousands of hours of research on this over the past decade. Trying to make it the definitive reference, so it takes a lot of time. PM in the meantime if you need help.

!

[susanky]

I'd like to reserve  copy!!!!   Sign me up!
Susan

[iain]

Next year, I'm releasing all my thousands of hours of research on this over the past decade. Trying to make it the definitive reference, so it takes a lot of time. PM in the meantime if you need help.

Wow. Looking forward to it.

[iain]

I was planning on making this tomorrow with 10 gallons mixed raw goat and cow milk. I just realized, though, that I'm out of MA4001. I do have MA11 and TA61. Think I could do 1/2tsp of the MA and 1/8tsp of the TA and get a similar result?

[elkato]

Here is a picture of my Tomme,
Linuxboy recipe for washed curds followed to the letter with 100% sheep milk, on the side some ricotta from the heated whey, any advice on rind treatment?

[linuxboy]

Elkato, what rind mix treatments do you have on hand, if any?