Adding salt after the fact

[mellordeanna]

I tasted a very young Montasio (3 weeks) to check flavor and texture development and found it very, very bland.  I've been brining them for 4 hours per pound, roughly 16 hours per wheel, in a heavily saturated brine. The recipe does not call for any salt to be added after draining, just brining. The rind have developed nicely. I've oiled the wheels once with an olive oil blend.

Is there any way to introduce more salt at this point? Could I dry salt? Do you think it could penetrate the rind to make enough of a difference in flavor?

[JeffHamm]

My understanding of montasio is that it needs to age for at least 6 months before it's ready as a table cheese (and 12 months for grating).  As it ages it should develope more flavour, and I think the saltiness increases as it ages (due to some of the processes of the various cultures and enzymes).  Mind you, I'm sure some of the more knowledgeable on the board will be able to clarify the processes involved.  Anyway, given this is supposed to be a long aging cheese I think I would be surprised if it was anything but bland at 3 weeks.

Or, is montasio also known as one that is regularly eaten quite young?  In which case, ignore my ignorance!

- Jeff

[Tomer1]

Dry salting is worth a try ,some might penetrate.
Are you oil rubbing it (natural rind) or waxing?

[mellordeanna]

Part of my reasoning for tasting so early was that I got a new trier and wanted to play with it, but seriously I wanted to make sure that salt was present. 

I'm oil rubbing for a natural rind, so I'll give dry salting a try. Maybe dry salt half and leave the other half as a control group.

Thanks!

[mellordeanna]

I just watched the Italian Cheese Communication company's video made by the factory in Italy that holds the Montastio classification, and they said the cheese is in the "salt room" for two days. They must brine for 48 hours, because the wheels are too large to complete dry salting in just two days. Right?

They also warm the milk to a lower temp (93.2 F) and cook at a lower temp (113 F) then the recipes I've seen here in the states.

http://www.clal.it/en/index.php?section=video&v=7 JeffHamm, check it out.

[JeffHamm]

Thanks for that!

Just had a chance to watch it all the way through.  Interesting, milk is at 34 C, then rennet added and it sits for 20 minutes (probably a x2 floc for our purposes), cut, raised to 45 C, cooked, then pressed, brined, and aged.

Here, they say aging for mature Montasio is only 90 - 100 days, and that it can be eaten young as well (60 days).  The cheese they are showing is clearly a table cheese, rather than a hard grating cheese.  Hmmmm, I might just cut into mine sometime around the 90-100 day mark then.  I'm pretty sure my lipase isn't working as I'm not getting the aroma that all my other lipase added cheeses have developed.  Not sure why.  Anyway, great video.

- Jeff