Newbie >> intros and question about yellowing

[nmordo]

Hello all --

I've been perusing these forums for several weeks now, and have successfully made a few fresh cheeses, and am now working on aging a few others.

We made a batch of Camembert last weekend, but those haven't bloomed yet.  So far so good though -- the shape and smell look right, for what it's worth.

Anyway, my question pertains to our "st maure" or "crottins" -- whatever you want to call them.  Basically I took the recipe for chevre and sprayed PC on the final cheeses, to develop a rind.  Following Ricki Carrol's St Maure instructions basically, but used non-standard mold shapes.

The cheeses have been aging for about 10 days or so now, and they seem to have bloomed nicely.  I'm tempted to try one today, but I was hoping to get the perspective from forum users on their appearance, as this is my first attempt at aged cheese.  There's a slight yellowing around the rind of some of the cheeses -- see in pictures.  It doesn't look like harmful mold -- is this just the normal coloration for PC rinds as they get older?  Is this is a cause for concern, or perhaps even a sign that the cheeses aren't ready to eat?

Any insight would be much appreciated.  Love this community!

[Tomer1]

Its Geo,all is working fine.
Dont forget to tap it so the rind remains firm to the paste.

[linuxboy]

Doesn't look like geo to me. Looks like the edges dried off prematurely before you got a decent PC bloom, the localized surface Aw was wrong to support the growth, and then the edges continued to dry off, creating color differences.

[smilingcalico]

It looks more to me like it's just some of the cheese that hasn't developed mold yet.  Are these cow milk or goat milk? Cow milk cheese yellows due to the beta carotene in it, which goats milk doesn't have.  Looks fine to me. You might like to try to develop mold on those areas, but not the end of the world if you don't.

[nmordo]

These were made with goat milk.  I only used PC, but have some camembert aging in same cave, which does have geo, so if the yellowing is caused by the geo it might have gotten "contaminated" from those.

Think I should crack one open for eating today? I'm thinking yes...

[smilingcalico]

Contaminated is a strong word.  Geo is a great mold. 

[nmordo]

I was being cheeky.  I only meant contaminated in the sense that its presence was not intended on that cheese.  :-)

[Tomer1]

And I always thought that the fluffy stuff is geo... :p

The yellowing does look like dried cheese.

[nmordo]

Ok so I broke down and opened one.  Total aging time was 10 days.  The result was tasty -- a more concentrated goaty flavor than the fresh chevre that we made from the same batch.  However, it was very dry, dense and crumbly.  I'm letting it come up to room temp, but I don't think it will get runny, or more spreadable.  Also, I'm not sure if this is perhaps how it should be,

My thinking is that they've dried out too much, so I wrapped the rest of them in cheese paper.  Does anyone have any opinion on whether further aging might improve the texture, or taste? Or should I just consider these "done"?

Also, does anyone have suggestions on anything I might do differently next time to avoid the cheese turning out so crumbly? 

Pics attached. :-)

[mtncheesemaker]

Hi nmordo and welcome.
I inoculate the PC and Geo into the milk with my culture; I've never had luck spraying them on the cheese.
Also, I age in closed rubbermaid type box with the cheeses elevated for air circulation and to keep the humidity up but the cheeses not wet.
I'm guessing your cheeses got a bit too dry. You might try putting them back into a box with some humidity to soften them up. I eat mine starting at about 2 weeks and keep some going for 4-6 weeks. They keep getting stronger and you can decide when they're right for your taste.
Pam

[Boofer]

Looks like a pretty small cheese also. You might consider going for a little larger form factor. That would help it to retain moisture.

-Boofer-