My First Raw milk Tomme - Help?

[iratherfly]

I recently found a "mobile co-op" that delivers raw cow, goats and sheep's milk from local farmers right to my front door. Yesterday the milk brought 2.5 gallons of the creamy goodness. I drunk one glass and figured that the safest thing to do was to make a Tomme for 60+ days aging. I made plenty of cheeses from non-homogenized milk, but this would be my very first raw milk cheese. Since this is not labeled and I think it's from mixed herds, I am slightly on a listeria-hysteria. Now I want to see if anyone has an advice about aging and rinding it nicely.

The recipe I used is based loosely on Linuxboy's recipe from a few months back which I have used and changed over time.  I wanted to repeat a previous success: "drunken cow" Tomme de Syrah cheese; a simple Tomme brined twice in Syrah wine with 18% salt, but I also wanted to introduce some aromatic cultures that will bring the character of the raw milk forward, so in my recipe I mixed Geo, Cylindrocarpon, Yeast and B.Linens. The cheese is now in the press and I must decide what to do with it next. I can let these cultures grow wild or oil rub, or wash the cheese, or salt rub it/brush it. Or, I can deep it in wine or beer with salt and vaccum it, expecting the cultures to die off. Or any combinations of the above.  Does anyone have a good suggestion for me? I have about 12 hours before it goes off the press. This is what I've done so far:

•   Warm 2.5 (minus that one glass:) ) gallons raw milk to 90F
•   Add:
   o   1/4 tsp MA4002
   o   1/8 tsp Geo 15
   o   1/8 tsp Mycodore (cylindrocarpon)
   o   1/8 tsp KL 71 (yeast)
   o   1/8 tsp SR3 (B.Linen)
•   Ripen 25 min
•   Add 1/4+1/8 tsp liquid animal rennet diluted in 1/4 cup filtered water
•   Flocculation occurred in 20Min, I did X3 (60 minute from rennet total)
•   beautiful perfect curd! Cut into 1/4 inch cubes, let rest 5 min (room was 80F so curd remained 87F, perfect curd)
•   Wash curd by removing 1/3 of the whey (keep whey for later) and replacing it with 135F water. Add more water every 5 minutes and remove another 1/3 of the whey when it feels full or not heating fast enough. Mix curds with hand when pouring water to help them drain and shrink, to avoid matting and to avoid scolding from warm water. Target is 99F within 35 minutes.
•   Drained into colander lined with cloth that was pre-washed in warm whey, Let curds mat a few minutes.
•   Moved with cheesecloth to 7.5" Tomme Mold. press lightly with the follower under warm whey (reserved from earlier) for 5 min.
•   Remove from whey, wait 10 more min, turn and redress.
•   Press at 5Lbs. 30 min. Turn and redress, press at 10Lbs 1 hour, turn and redress at 10Lbs 12 hours

And then what? Anyone?

[linuxboy]

Sounds fantastic. Your make seems perfect to me. You should hit the acidity development targets right around your projection at 12 hours.

Your complex rind mix has these characteristics

- Complex aroma, mild proteolytic and lypolitic (geo 15), and fast rind acid neutralization
- Cascaded mold development where KL and geo start growing first right out of the mold, followed by b linens about a week out of the mold, then cylindrocarpon shortly after b linens. This timing is important because you can decrease and increase the activities of all of them by adjusting temp, salt brine level, and humidity level.

Here's what they like (from my experience, I haven't done enough research on this to know the exact thresholds):
- geo 15. Temp 55-65, salt content under 5-7%, humidity around 88-90%
- cylindrocarpon. Temp 55-65, salt content 1-2% max, humidity same, 90%
- KL. About same as geo. I've never done a KL-only rind. Always used it to help bring out straw characteristics.
- b linens. Likes 50-65F, tolerates salt up to 12-15%, likes high humidity above 90%

At this point, you have to pick which overall style you want to do:
- Do you want to develop a complex smear rind where the b linens dominates? If so, dunk the cheese, drown out everything but the b linens, and make a very complex b linens smear cheese. Dunk in beer or something with flavor if you want. Salt levels help with killing off other growth once you get it to a point you like. Age in high humidity.

- Do you want to develop a straight complex rind, with lots of color and character? Let it grow out unchecked for 7-10 days at 90-92% RH (watch this, can't be too high, circulate the air), then start either brushing it back or washing with a basic concentrated salt wash designed to kill the geo. High brine % also retards the linens growth, and then drop humidity again to slow down and kill off the b linens, and just brush to build up the exterior of the rind, letting it dry out a little and naturally die off.

- Do you want the rind to be thinner, just adding all sorts of flavor and aroma nuances that bring out the natural excellence of the milk? Then let the molds build up to just enough where they're covering everything, and then start brushing back and washing with a moderate salt concentration so you slow down the growth enough that the rind is thin, but that the rind flora continues to develop and add character. Then after 3-4 weeks, rind should be stable, can move to just brushing.

Other options out there. What are you trying to accomplish?

[edit] I think this is a good opportunity for me to go through make notes and books and try to figure out the exact environments each of these molds and yeasts like. I've never seen that anywhere else, would be helpful. Maybe I can fix my initial numbers above if they're off. Francois, anyone else who has done complex rinds, if you see this, can you please help?

[DeejayDebi]

Hey congrats on the milk and delivery! What a deal.  Your recipe look good you should be very happy with this. Once you get to know your milkman/maid you may feel more confident about this new gold mine. Have fun yo will be surprised at the differences in raw milk cheese.

[Brie]

Raw milk is very similar to Nirvana (no, not the rock band). Let us know how it turns out!

[DeejayDebi]

LOL No not the rock band!

[iratherfly]

Brie - why Nirvana? Does it smell like teen spirit? 

Debi - thanks! That's very reassuring. NY by the way is one of the states that allows this, so raw milk is tested and supervised to a set public health standard. A co-op on wheels though still seems like some questionable arrangement... But who can resist home delivery of raw sheep(!!!), cow, and goat milk?

Linuxboy - what an answer! So detailed! Lately I have been playing with changing the temp/salt/humidity conditions of other cheeses in order to activate and deactivate specific molds at specific times. Usually the cheese responds to my requests like magic. (I do find that more salt and less humidity turns on the b.linen). I am totally new to Mycodore (cylindrocarpon) though. I used the yeast for two reasons: One is to prepare the surface pH for the B.Linen and help it grow. The other is to release aromatic gas as it dies off in the paste, which gives the cheese interesting character.

From these many options, it seems that my next step should be dunk it (not sure in what though, simple brine? wine brine? Beer brine, Brandy brine? I have to saturate the dunk with salt to get flavor, kill pathogens and help the future B.Linen growth).

And then? Just let it grow wild for a week and brush for a month? In your opinion, if I brine it in wine/beer/brandy and then vacuum it, will all of the special elements of these cultures get lost and never develop? (yes, I realize there will be no rind if I do that). ooohh... I only have a few hours to decide about the brine...

[linuxboy]

Well what do you want to make? Smear rind that's smelly and complex but doesn't take away from the cheese?  Regardless, you need to salt that cheese so put it in 18-20% regular brine and let it salt the inside or it won't age properly.

from there pick what you want to do.

[iratherfly]

I really like thick rinds of crazy colors that give the past lots of character. But realistically I seem to do something wrong. I don't know if I brush them too early, too late, to hard or too soft, if my bacteria is dead when I wash them or if I leave them too wet or dry. I get rind that is mostly thin with lots of dry paste beneath it instead of proper rind with soft paste all the way.

The "drunken cow" was probably my best cheese to date and that was because I brined it in wine and never bothered dealing with the rind as it was vacuumed. I made this new cheese thinking I can always repeat the success of that drunken cow, but what I *really* want it some crazy rind like a Reblochon, Tomme de Savoie or Tomme Crayeuse with a semi-soft cheese under it that is neither flaky, not brittle, chalky or dry. I expect a rather flat 1.75"x7.5" disk that is about 2.2 Lbs

[linuxboy]

Oh, then you need a proper aging room and a thicker cheese, like a 5" tall by 7.5. With a thin disk, it dries out too much unless you do crazy things with humidity, but then the rind doesn't form well. Sorry

Best bet with this one is to use it as an experiment and try to prove me wrong. To get a savoie rind, you let it grow and brush it back, keeping humidity at 85-88. But you start with 90-92.

[iratherfly]

I have a cave (wine cooler where I age most of my cheese) and I can keep the humidity up with an aging container, so I am set for that. Should I keep humidity up so high all the way through aging?
The thing is, rind should grow in the outside and not bite the inside, so even if I can do rind that's half the height ot Tomme de Savoie and keep the cheese from drying I will be happy.

Right now I am thinking:
1. Brine in beer or Calvados, 18% saturated salt, 3 hours per side per Lb. Dry off for 2-3 days
2. Repeat brining with new brine. Dry off for another 3 days.
3. Age in container at 55F/90%RH and let grow wild rind
4. vigorous brushing begins 7-10 days through, regardless if I see mold or not (so I can evenly distribute the bacteria and "injure" the rind for re-growth). Repeat brushing every two days until covered and looks nice but not to stop before the 30th day. Then let grow wild and keep an eye with occasional brushing (won't be as moist anymore so the growth will be slow).

If I see that it gets too dry and hard too early, I will close in vacuum and then open it to let it re-rind between day 60 and 75

What do you think of this as a plan?

[FRANCOIS]

DANGER, DANGER!

Brining in beer is asking for a yeast problem.  I have done it in the past and it's critical that you drop your pH to match the cheese and add CaCl.  Once it's out of the brine be sure to dry it well before it goes into the cave for aging.  It's very, very easy to get a mushy slop rind when using any sort of high sugar liquid as a brine.  Once it starts it's very hard to stop.  I can't stress that enough. 

If it were me I'd:
1.  dry salt it
2.  Dunk the wheel in a 3% solution with your ripening culture added (with some geo13 thrown in for rind protection) once per day for 3 days.
3.  Wipe the whell down once a week with the 3% until you get good growth happening. 
4.  Don't touch it, let it go nuts for a few weeks before you brush it back.  Brushing early in a rind's life tends to lead to a rind that is dominated by a single species.

Or just ignore me and experiment...good luck.

[linuxboy]

All sorts of crazy rind adventures later, I like to do similar to Francois for a normal, non-smear rustic rind. I don't like to use any type of flavored brine or wash until later after the molds have formed a crust. My rind ripening cascade goes like this

- take cheese out of brine (18-22% salt brine). I usually make a fresh batch because salt is cheap, and adjust pH and calcium.
- Make up brine with culture mix, 3%
- Dunk cheese for 2-5 days, 1x a day. Depends on culture mix type.
- After that get a rag and take the brine and rub down the wheel
- Let it all build up so there's a heavy growth. temp 55, humidity 90-92
- Move to 85-88 humidity, and then start washing with whatever flavored wash you want. If using my homebrew beer, I like to boil it. At this point, the wash is to knock back some of the mold layer and solidify it so it forms a crust barrier on top of the cheese.

By my comment earlier about a proper aging room, I meant that with a large room where there's a lot of cheese, you get less fluctuation, so the mold colonies can adjust and follow more predictable growth patterns. By the size of the wheel, I meant that in a bigger wheel, you can afford to age at a lower humidity because over time, that moisture stabilized, and you get a good cheese paste without hardening around the rind. Some things happen more easily on a commercial scale, and aging for natural rinds is one of them.

[iratherfly]

Thank you guys!

First off, I ALWAYS use CalCl in brine and usually a bit of vinegar.
Secondly, the beer I am using is a fantastic local ale that is very un-sugary (and of course I understand that there couldn't be an ale without sugars). It's earthy and grassy (I tried belgian ales before and they were way too sweet). When I did my "drunken cow" cheese, I began by brining it twice in Syrah. It dictated a strong and wonderful character for the cheese and matured beautifully. On previous attempts, washing with wine after the rind was done didn't instill too much wine character into the cheese, so I feel as if the first layer should be the ale and then let everything grow wild through it. Does this make sense?

Fancois - yes. I planned on diluting the beer with water until it matches the cheese pH.
- This cheese already have KL 71 yeast planted in it. Do you think that a pH balanced/diluted beer will still destroy it? (I can add all the cultures, salt and CalCl into the beer directly)
- Also, I used Geo 15 when I made it, shouldn't I use the same in the dunk? (I have both 15 and 13 available).
- Too late to hand salt - already in brine for a few hours...
- How do you do this dunking? Just deep it in, take it out to dry and that's it? Can I re-use the dunk (on the same cheese for all 3-5 dunk sessions)

Linuxboy, thanks, these are good RH/Temp guidelines and you seem to be in line generally with Fancois.

How about:
- take cheese out of brine, rest and dry for 2-3 days
- dunk cheese in [WHAT?] for 3 days
- Wipe the wheel daily until I get good growth. Maintain is in 55F/90%RH
- let it go crazy, brush later every couple of days. Leave it alone for the remaining of the aging period (occasional brushing if needed)

What do you guys think? I love these community-generated cheeses. It makes it so much more fun than doing it alone.

[FRANCOIS]

I still fail to see the point of brining in a flavour.  It's like smoking a young cheese, you lose the flavour over time.  If you want intense flavour give it a good float for a day in full strength beer/wine after the rind has established.  That is how drunken cheeses are done commercialy, they are allowed to age first then floated.  This minimizes rind problems.

Just to clarify, when I dunk and wash it's with just one solution.  I mix it up once and keep it till the cheese is done.  Yes, I really do just dunk the wheel in the solution and then rub it a bit by hand to get it good and wet with a smoothed surface, this will get the b. linens going like crazy.    I've never much cared for geo 15 or 17, flavour and texture wise.  I prefer 13 plus it quickly grows, so it's a good rind protectant.  It won't hurt to add it to the wash, if the conditions are right it will grow and possibly keep some yeasts at bay.

[iratherfly]

Thanks Francois. It's good to have someone like you who really know his stuff, I am still new to Tommes. 

The last time I did it I left it in wine, dried it, repeated then vacuumed for 2 months., it was terrific and winey. There wasn't much of a rind or character of the milk but the milk and wine are from the same area and it was a nice terroir experiment...

I understand what you are saying: basically develop rind, protection character first, then add the beer, marc or whatever to it, only after it is well established. Did I get you right?

So now I should just dunk it for a couple of minutes, rub it and then let it dry on the board for a day or two. Repeat 3 times. Correct?

- The brine will be 3% kosher salt by weight, added CalCl, KL71 (yeast), Geo (13), Cylindrocarpon, B.Linen. I will make it 12 hours in advance and let it work in room temp before dunking. Sounds right?
- - Should I add a bit of vinegar or not?
- - - I assume that 1/16th teaspoon of any of these cultures will be enough for 1.5L worth of dunk brine?
- - - - Can I re-use the same brine for all 3 dunks? (refrigerate in between, bring to room temp before re-dunking)

Then, just let it grow wild and brush when it's covered

Thanks for helping me go from such general idea to a pinpoint procedure. This REALLY helps!