It's week 8 and time to try my first taleggio!
Having never had taleggio before, I went to @claremontcheese to pick some up as a reference cheese, along with an American sister cheese called ameribella.
Taste test is done and here's the results: mine is most similar to the Ameribella in rind, aroma, and flavor. The Italian taleggio is much more sticky and stinky and is much softer than the other two. Mine is not quite as soft as the others, but is still comfortably within the camp of semi-soft cheese. If I make this again, I'd change up how I tended to the rind and see how that would affect the outcome.
Now, what do I do with 4 pounds of taleggio? Going to start with some mac n cheese.