Tea,
This thread has brought out a heap of suggestions. I have had very little luck with lactic acid curd formation. Or perhaps I have just too chicken to try the smelly curds that Ihave formed using this method (and I have wasted 3 patches of 12.5 Liters of milk on this already).
I have taken Oude Kasse's advice and put up a batch of Tallegio (peter dixon recipe) this past weekend. Here is the link to the process and some early pictures of what I did:
http://sites.google.com/site/urbanfarmsteadcheeselog/Home/tallegio-11-01-09I figure if I can make the tallegio turn out OK then I am on my way to making something like epoisses. I cant resist the temptation to experiment and try to speed the learning process so I split the batch into two and am trying the following varients
Batch one (3 cheeses) - age in colder cheese cave ~45f and wash with brine solution every two days
Batch two (3 cheeses) - age in warmer cheese cave _54f spraw with b-linens, wash with brine every two days for first 10 days and then wash with Marc every other day there after.
I will age both batches about 5 weeks before giving them a try.
I am also putting these in plastic humidity boxes (tupperware like I use for Camemberts) as my caves tend to run at around 75% humidity and I have trouble getting good mold growth (my other attempts that got to this stage in the open cheese cave were all hard like hockey pucks).
Many thanks to all who have made input on this thread. I will keep you posted as the cheeses develop.
Gerrit