Semi-Lactic Bloomy Rind Goat

[LantGladstone]

This is my first posting, my first goat cheese, my first Semi-Lactic, my first attempt with ash, and my second (failed) attempt with making a blue cheese.

This was sort of a pain in the butt (lost half the curds down the drain) and expensive (goat milk isn't cheap in Singapore) so I probably won't try it again, but it tasted pretty good.  Creamy, not too sharp, and not at all crumbly.  The holes I put through were clogged with the geo and not blue at all.  The cheese was firm with the rind surprisingly robust.

I'll tell you what I did (and feel free to critique)..I was loosely following a Pouligny St. Pierre recipe from cheesemaking.com but obviously I didn't make pyramids.

3.2 L Goat Milk (H and P)
1/32 tsp Geo
1/8 tsp Flora Danica
4 drops Rennet in 1/2 c H2O
1/2 tsp CaCl2 in 1/2 c H2O
1/8 tsp P. Rochfortii rehydrated in 1/4 c H2O overnight

added CaCl2, Geo, F.D., and rennet and incubated over night at 72 °F
The curd was very soft.  It was spooned as sclices into molds (should have collected it in a cheese clothe I think) and lost a lot as very soft curds through the tiny holes in my mold.  After about half was added I spooned in the blue including the water it was suspended in in (note: the blue spores were still spore-like and the water was pretty much colourless) (I was hoping for a nice blue layer or something like that but with the curds leaking everywhere I think it was pretty much in all elevations of the cheese).  Drained for about 12 h and dried in the mold overnight.  (it was really really soft at this point)  I ashed with 1 tsp NaCL 4 tsp activated charcoal and dried it overnight again.  Then I caved it with low humidity (I was thinking that I wanted it to dry out) for five days when I put holes into from both sides with a sterile screwdriver.  It had just started to get fuzzy.  Caved for another 10 days.

So along with critiquing I was sort of wondering about the blue....1) is the pH inhibiting it or did I pierce too late because it looked like the geo filled in  2) am I doing the rehydrating correctly?  I honestly couldn't tell that it did anything because the spore were still hard and crunchy and I suspect that if I centrifuged it, they'd all go into the pellet and the sup would be colourless  3) when hydrating do people usually just use the spores or do they use the water too?

Thanks!

[awakephd]

Lant, AC4U (thumbs up) for a good effort, even if it didn't turn out exactly as you wished.

I've not made a lactic-set cheese, nor a bloomy blue, so my advice is probably worthless. But I'll offer a thought anyway -- I agree that you might do well to do some initial draining in fine-weave (i.e., butter muslin) or doubled cheese cloth. To let the blue get a good foothold before the geo takes over, you may want to wait to add the geo. I would probably just sprinkle the blue in the desired layer, rather than bothering to re-hydrate; as you say, that doesn't seem to do that much in my experience. Let the blue develop for a couple of weeks, including a piercing, and then spray the surface with some geo-infused distilled water.

Again, take all of the above with a grain of salt, since I've not actually tried any of it!

[Gregore]

With goat milk you do not need to do initial draining .

But very important is to get it low enough ph .

And that is easy to see on goat milk even with out a meter , just wait until the curd has sunk and is cracked , actually it will have huge tears .  Mine took more than 24 hrs to get to that stage . 

I suspect if you had waited longer you would have lost almost no curd at all.

So go ahead and try this again even though the price is high , you get more  initial yield than cows milk and less loss in the molds

[LantGladstone]

Gregore--thanks!  Yes you are right, the curd hadn't dropped or cracked.  I'll keep that in mind.  To tell you the truth it was pretty tasty so maybe I will try it again.  I sincerely appreciate the encouragement.

Andy--Thanks!  What you are saying about spraying on the geo makes sense, and I've seen people mention that before.  1) what sort of concentrations do you use?  2) do you just use like a small sprayer one would use to mist plants?  3) sorry the chemist in me is being pedantic, but I want to make sure I do it right...is there a reason to use distilled water?  Could I just use boiled/cool water?   

Thanks again!

[awakephd]

Lant, again I am speaking beyond my experience, so I don't know what sort of concentration is needed. That said, in recipes that I make for bloomy cheese, a little geo goes a long way, so I would guess not too high. It may be that other things need to be added to the water to encourage the geo to grow ... ??

I think a small sprayer like you describe is what people generally use. I don't think there would be a problem using boiled & cooled water - main thing is to avoid the chlorine. Distilled would eliminate any other variables, such as heavy mineral concentrations or things like that, but I don't recall whether that was a problem in the water supply in Singapore. (I lived there for three years - loved it! - but it was, uhm, err, well, 40 years ago. Apparently, somehow, I have gotten old ... !) Truth be told, the only time I use distilled water in my cheese making is when I make up a fresh batch of brine; otherwise, I use water that comes through a basic filter, and boil and cool it.

If you don't have it, you as a chemist would love Gianaclis Caldwell's book, Mastering Artisan Cheesemaking. This has become the "cheesemaking Bible" for many of us - it doesn't have 200 recipes like some books,* but instead it helps you to understand what really makes the difference between one type of cheese and another, providing recipes for the primary types of cheese that can also serve as a foundation for making variations. And in particular, what she does so well is to explain what is going on at the bio-chemical level, without getting into too much technical language that would be over my head. I don't recall if she addresses the question of spraying a cheese, but it is likely that she does - the book is very, very thorough. Highly recommended!

*Incidentally, I'm not knocking the books that have 200 recipes, or such - I have a couple, and I use recipes from them. But there is a tendency to get bewildered as you look at each recipe, and wonder how it really differs - or if it really differs in any significant way - from the previous five or ten recipes that you have just read!

Another resource that might give a quick answer on the geo spray & concentration - if you haven't checked out the recipes on www.cheesemaking.com, you might search there for "Cambozola" - that may or may not be the term they have used, but that's a generic term for a bloomy blue.

[Gregore]

One other thing , it is almost impossible to let it sit too long before molding ,

I do 24 hrs plus for initial set then  another 24 hrs  in molds before salting then another 24 hrs before they go in the cave

I am not saying it needs that long but my house is cold at this time of year so a little extra set does not hurt .

[LantGladstone]

Thanks again for the replies.

I'll surely check out the book.  It sounds like exactly what I've been looking for.  I'm very much into trying to figure out what is going on and am lousy at following recipes.  Actually my first blue (this is my second) was supposed to be a Camebzola but that didn't turn blue either.

Gregore-I saw on one of your other posts where you said that the lactic sets taste good at any time in the ageing process.  For my cheese at the curd stage and at the the stage where I poked the holes it was awesome.  So even though I had issues I might try this again. I guess I could do it with cows milk and that would reduce the cost.

Thanks again!  (I really appreciate this form...I've learned so much and everyone is super smart and really supportive..I hope to be able to give back to the community someday as ably as you guys have for me!)