Author Topic: any advantage to spraying mold vs. inoculating?  (Read 2884 times)

Dinerdish

  • Guest
any advantage to spraying mold vs. inoculating?
« on: February 03, 2011, 03:56:13 AM »
In poking around the forum I haven't found any explanation for why some recipes call for spraying PC onto the cheese as opposed to just adding it to the milk, with the culture. I can see doing both to fix a mistake or add something different, on top of what you inoculated with, but are there any advantages to waiting?

just curious,

Dinerdish

zenith1

  • Guest
Re: any advantage to spraying mold vs. inoculating?
« Reply #1 on: February 03, 2011, 02:24:00 PM »
I think some of the reason for adding at a certain time is bases on the the type of cheese you are trying to produce. Traditional and all....

CheeseSnipe

  • Guest
Re: any advantage to spraying mold vs. inoculating?
« Reply #2 on: February 17, 2011, 05:31:49 AM »
Ripening from the inside out versus outside in. I've been playing around with Brie to figure out which I like better. Adding directly to the milk ripened much faster for me but made the cheese runny. The sprayed on ones seem to hold their form better but take longer. I know temp will impact this too.

Dinerdish

  • Guest
Re: any advantage to spraying mold vs. inoculating?
« Reply #3 on: February 17, 2011, 12:07:10 PM »
Hey thanks CheeseSnipe!

I knew someone would have a good answer. This forum is so cool!

Dinerdish

linuxboy

  • Guest
Re: any advantage to spraying mold vs. inoculating?
« Reply #4 on: February 17, 2011, 03:58:19 PM »
Cheesesnipe, it's kind of how it works, but not exactly. When you add spores to milk, those spores will rehydrate and will try to grow and release a very small amount of enzymes inside of the cheese. But they only contributes very slightly to ripening because they never have a chance to grow-- no oxygen inside. They do affect the rate of maturation, like you said, but it's very minor. The ripening is still almost completely from the outside in. If your paste was runny, the adding-to-milk is likely a red herring. Runny paste is more likely caused by too much moisture, too low pH at draining, not enough fat in the milk, ripening temp too high, etc.

Dinerdish

  • Guest
Re: any advantage to spraying mold vs. inoculating?
« Reply #5 on: February 17, 2011, 06:19:17 PM »
Well then, I go back to my original question. Is it just tradition to spray instead of inoculate or is there some advantage? I knew I'd learn something from this question.

Thanks,
Dinerdish

linuxboy

  • Guest
Re: any advantage to spraying mold vs. inoculating?
« Reply #6 on: February 17, 2011, 06:31:36 PM »
Spraying is done for manufacturing ease. It is tradition to do nothing more than make the rounds and let the natural molds inoculate the cheese. Then this became adding to milk, then this became using pure culture and spraying on the molds.

When you add to milk, sometimes you do not achieve a full bloom, unless your cave is attenuated or you add a whole bunch of spores to the milk. When you spray, you get a nice, even bloom. It's technically easier to do and the results are excellent when you're cranking out mass produced cheese.

In France, it depends on the maker. Both approaches are used.

CheeseSnipe

  • Guest
Re: any advantage to spraying mold vs. inoculating?
« Reply #7 on: February 18, 2011, 05:43:14 AM »
Linuxboy, I'll have to make some tweaks this weekend based on your comments. I think that helps a bit. I did many different iterations of a Brie probably 3-4 weeks ago so that I could compare in parallel. They all start out good, smell good, solid mold growth, but regardless of texture (runny and firm),  they all taste like notebook paper. No real flavor at all. What are your thoughts? Too young, need more variety of starter cultures, need to sacrifice a goldfish?

linuxboy

  • Guest
Re: any advantage to spraying mold vs. inoculating?
« Reply #8 on: February 18, 2011, 06:37:41 AM »
if you have no flavor, it's your milk. You need rich milk to make a good bloomy rind cheese. You can work around it by using different starters. Try using leuconostoc or FD or a blend for the starter. It will help a little. You can also try to create a complex rind by using geotrichum and penicillum for the rind. Like geo 13 and a flavorful P candidum.