What Is This Extremely Nasty Mold?

[gstone]

A couple of my cheeses have contracted a few small but noxious spots of a very nasty mold, and I'd like to identify it so as to prevent it in the future.  Unfortunately it's only one of many cultures growing on a tomme-type rind, so visual clues are no help. 

It's hardly exotic and is very familiar: it's the exact same smell and taste as the mold that hides on that bagel you kept for one day too long.  The dirt-like taste is so repulsive that it causes an involuntary response to spit everything out immediately.    It made me want to scrape my tongue with a knife just to get it all off!  YEECCCHH! Mouthwash, stat!

Any clues?

[Gregore]

This was the rind that was so offensive or the cheese inside also?

[gstone]

Just the rinds.  The cheeses were more or less okay if I managed to cut the rind off without getting the slightest bit on the paste.  It was like eating mildew; like sucking on a moldy dish-rag. 

Clearly I need to step up my sanitation game, but I figure if I can understand what this thing is I stand a better chance of eliminating it.

[SOSEATTLE]

I have come across a lot of commercially made cheeses with natural rinds that taste like what you are describing (at least to me). Because of that, I'm not really a "rind person" and generally cut rinds off cheese, though I do at least try it once.

I think what you are describing is pretty typical. Molds are everywhere and even with a high level of sanitation, you will still get mold on a natural rind cheese. You might try a cream wax coating after drying your cheeses. That's what I do with my pressed, aged cheeses and it cuts way down on the level of mold.


Susan

[Gregore]

This is quite normal for some locations to have molds that are less than delicious  ,  keeping them brushed back can have a big effect .  Or buy cultures that are used for  an aging rind and it should out compete your wild ones

[5ittingduck]

If you have a big problem with mould growth on your rinds, vacuum bagging is an option for ageing.
You sacrifice the development of a complex rind, which may work either way depending on your taste.
Advantages include suppression of unwanted flora, visibility of developing cheese, flexibility of storage and removal of humidity requirements for ageing.
It suits me, I do miss a good rind though.

[dc-k]

If you have a big problem with mould growth on your rinds, vacuum bagging is an option for ageing.
You sacrifice the development of a complex rind, which may work either way depending on your taste.
Advantages include suppression of unwanted flora, visibility of developing cheese, flexibility of storage and removal of humidity requirements for ageing.
It suits me, I do miss a good rind though.

Or you could try cloth binding and see if that limits the mold to the cloth saving the cheese and maintaining the aesthetic of a floral coat!

[Gregore]

I too have experienced it on a commercial tomme , as well as a few of my own cheeses .  My quick quess is to up the humidity a little . When I did get it I seem to recall it was more often on cheeses that were left with the lid more open , but that is just my memory as I did not record  the affinage  .

You might need to start keeping a really tight control of humidity of your natural rind cheeses .  Start keeping a record of  your cheeses affinage  after a while you might be able to figure out what it likes as far as conditions go and then try to avoid its happy spot as much as possible.

[Marta]

I can commiserate, and in my case the mold got into the paste and I can taste the dirt-basement flavor a mile away.  I had vacuum-bagged the cheese but an invisible hole let some air in and the mold with it.   It was growing in these a long time before I saw it.    A nice big Gruyere is a dumper at this point.   I have never been able to master the art of growing the yummy molds without growing all the nasty ones.