My Sweet Maasdam

[JimP]

OK! Got it. Thank you.
My mouth is watering after seeing all the pictures of this cheese as I dug back & forth to sort out what you said!
I'm sure it will taste even better.

[anutcanfly]

I can't wait to see how it turns out! 

[Boofer]

Took the cheese out of the cave today. Moving from the cool phase to the warm phase. (The eyes have it.)

Opened the bag, rubbed the blues with a little organic vinegar (with the mother). Resealed the bag.

Set it out at room temperature for the next month.

-Boofer-

[anutcanfly]

Is the bag still open?  It looks like there is still a lot of air in there?

[Boofer]

Is the bag still open?  It looks like there is still a lot of air in there?

The bag is closed, but I have sucked too much air out in the past and scrunched my eyes. 

I'm trying the limited vacuum to reduce the incidence of baddies and permit my eyes to grow as large as I hope they will. 

-Boofer-

[anutcanfly]

I assumed the bag would swell as gas (co2) was formed?  Scrunched eyes would be disappointing!

[DeejayDebi]

Yeppers that's the idea Anut. I over sucked the bag inthe begining too and got itsybitsy eyes and Ed gave us some pointers in his "My Baby is Swelling thread". I did have one burst the bag (cheap bags) a few years back.

[Boofer]

Coming up on 4 weeks this Sunday since beginning the warm period. No clear signs of swelling or eye development, but I spotted a tiny crack in the rind today. Maybe I'll get lucky and other eyes will still grow.

I had one early foray with some molds trying to get a foothold, but quick treatment with vinegar & salt knocked that out. Haven't had a problem since.

-Boofer-

[Boofer]

I'm calling an end to the Warm Period. It has been four weeks.

There is evidence of Propionic action:

• The bag is filling with gas.
• Small (at this time) splits are appearing in the rind.

The rind looks like it's trying to hold onto the gas. The splits that have occurred are small, indicating that the rind is flexible, but not tight enough. The rind could have probably been a little more firm and tough with less elasticity so that the gas could not breach the rind and release the pressure. The paste needs to be pliable and elastic, but the rind needs to be less so.

For my second Maasdam I used more dry salt on the rind...more drying time in the cave. I think the change to a lighter brine, followed by dry salting the rind is the right approach for alpines, especially those intended to grow eyes (PS added). You want the salt to flavor the paste but not inhibit Propionic growth. I did not do that with this make and the PS seems to be doing just fine. I have to wonder if that change could have prevented the splits.

This morning I vacuum-sealed the cheese for long-term storage/affinage. The bag will no doubt continue to fill with gas and I may have to vent the gas and reseal it later.

-Boofer-

[hoeklijn]

I have never made something with proprioni, but had once two late blowing Gouda's, that was before I used saltpeter to prevent that.
I had no gas leaks and I think that was because I coated the cheeses three times with my normal cheese coating. I know, I mention plastic coating a lot, but that's only because my good experiences with it 

[Boofer]

I think you're making me a believer, Herman. I will be ordering some plastic coating soon.

-Boofer-

[smilingcalico]

Quite the post, Boofer! Looks good! Hey, about those nubbins, if you are ageing the cheese on a solid surface and flipping regularly, they go away in my experience and don't seem to affect the strength of the rind, so no need to fret much about them during the make. A cheese for a great post!

[Boofer]

Thanks, Brian.

I hardly even noticed the nubbins and didn't consider them at all. I have had very significant protrusions on cheeses in the past. And yes, I have found that most of the nubbins do minimize and eventually get reconstituted with the cheese with flipping and turning.

I looked at the pic of the new cheese just coming out of the press compared with the one recently...what a dramatic change in form.

-Boofer-

[JeffHamm]

That's a huge change in the aspect ratio!  Very cool.  I'm thinking you'll end up with decent eyes in this one, maybe lots of small ones.  My reasoning is that if there were huge eyes, it would have gone through a big football stage, and/or the blow out holes would have been  larger.  Of course, having never made a swiss before, I'm probably the one full of hot air here.

- Jeff

[Boofer]

This was slated for cutting around the middle of the month, but I figured today was decent enough.

I was concerned that the eyes wouldn't have formed because I didn't get a lot of swelling. Then I started seeing the center of the wheel dipping in. The swelling did occur and the collapsing center was because the paste had been moved aside to accommodate the eyes. That's okay with me. It seemed to go quite nicely after all.

I am very happy with the appearance, texture, and taste. This make was done with Holdbac, but I left it out of Maasdam #2 and that make was also allowed to develop a natural rind. This make got a nudie rind so everything is edible. 

Nice little cheese. 

-Boofer-