Pinkish color of cheese????

[caciocavallo]

Hello Everyone,

I have made a batch of cheese a couple of weeks ago and now that they have air dryed I placed them in oil and some vinegar with hot chili spice.

As I was doing this I noticed some of my cheeses had a "pinkish stain" on parts of the rind. I decided to cut one throughthat area and when I did noticed that it was pinkish. Not sure what may have caused this so I wanted to ask if anyone of you would know what this is. I eat some and it seems fine to me. No funny smell either. What could this be? Is it dangerous to eat??

Attached are some pictures but I dint think you can really notice it.

Anyway whatever you can tell me would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Cacio

[Cheese Head]

Hello Cacio

Nice looking cheese except I don't think those eyes are supposed to be there, I've read some on gas bloating but don't remember right now. I'd try eating some let us know how it tastes?

The pinkish rind is visable, I think, in your picture on the round piece on right, could it be from the chilis?

[Captain Caprine]

Hi Cacio,
Can you give us a little more information on your recipe and what kind of cheese this was supposed to be?  I can't tell from your pic if you have a lot of eye formation or poor curd knitting.  If it is eye formation and you have not added propionobacter then you have a bacterial contamination probably coliform.  As for the pink color there are a number of microorganisms that could be responsible including certain yeasts (ever see a little pinkish color around a shower drain? Same yeast).
CC

[Tea]

Hi Cacio and welcome back.  I too have some pink mould on a cheese that I have been marinating in oil.  Only one of them developed it.  I was going to scrap the cheese and rub some salt into it, and see what happens, as I don't want it to infect the whole esky full of cheeses.

Thanks again for the oil bath idea too.  I have four cheese at the moment in an oil bath, and at various stages of aging.  I am looking forward to opening one in a month or two and see how they are going.

[Tea]

This is what mine looks like...

[caciocavallo]

Hello Everyone,

The eyes are from not pressing the curd enough when putting it in the form (I think). The cheese taste good and had some last night and I am still here.
The recipe is a simply a "queso blanco" I believe. I simply heated milk to 38deg Cel. when the curd formed I broke curd and then put it in my cheese forms. I let it air dry until it I get a nice rind. What was different this time is I removed the cheese from the form a little too early which caused it to loose its shape. It kind of got "squashed". It did not bloat. It is not a mold but rather the color of the cheese. I removed that part from teh cheese and now have themm sitting in a little oil and vinegar.

Anymore ideas??? Dangerous??

I will take some pics of them now in the oil.

Thanks for the feedback.

Cacio

[Tea]

Well I discovered that a couple of other cheeses are infected with this mould too, so I took them out scraped them, brined and rubbed with salt.  Next morning the mould was there as happy as ever. So I decided to open one, cut off the offending mould ad tasted, but it had definately compromised the flavour of that section of the cheese.
So I have move these cheese into the fridge and cut off all the mould.  Hopefully I can save what is left.

[Cartierusm]

Tea, is your cave infected? You might want to sanitize it if the mold is getting on everything.

[Tea]

Thanks Carter, I hadn't thought of that.  You just created another job for me to do today.  I only have waxed cheese and cheese submerged in oil left in there, so was thinking that there is obviously too much moisture in there.

[Cartierusm]

Sorry for the extra work.

[Tea]

Just reporting that I have cleaned and disinfected (hopefully) the cheese esky.

[Cartierusm]

I noticed in the other threads you are oil aging other cheeses are those the same oil baths as before...pardon me if I missed something again I just woke up from a nap and I'm a little punch drunk.

[Tea]

Sorry Carter I'm not understanding your question? 

I have a few experiements going at the moment.  Some cheese are being marinated in herbed oil, for a couple of weeks, and then I am aging them out of the oil in the cave, while others are being marinated in the oil then submerged completely in another oil where they will age for a couple of months.  The apline I just air dried for a few days, and then submerged into the oil bath, where it will stay for another month or so, before I try it.

I marinated two Jacks in the herbed oil, then one of them I left to age normally in the esky, which was one of the cheeses that became infected with the pink mould, and the other was submerged completely in oil.

Not sure if I answered your question or not.

[Cartierusm]

Sorry as I said back them i was a little off.

I meant if you were having a mold problem could the oil be infected or is the oil new?

[Tea]

Well it could have been, but the cheeses that were in the oil were protected from the mould forming.  In any case, the oil is going now, only the oil in the oil bath comtainer, which is completely sealed.

Thanks for the prompt anyway, I wasn't thinking of the esky being infected.