Morbier - Cut, Paste Excessively Pungent

[TAMARA]

Hi all cheese friends,

So I made the Morbier (with a couple of minor changes) according to the recipe posted here some months ago and have had great success... It even won first prize in the 'washed rind' section of the Red Hill Agricultural Show and was half a point off 'Champion Cheese of the Show'.

Sadly, that show piece was my last so the following day, i made another batch... and today - 2 months later, I cut it open... and what disappointment! Instead of the firm but silky texture and mild, nutty flavour - it is strong...way too strong. It smells and tastes like a washed rind that has been over-washed, except that if anything, i didn't wash it enough - perhpas once a week as I don't like the overpowering stickyness of washed rind cheese.

The paste is very soft and it doesn't have the lovely firm rind that it should have and the flavour is STRONG STRONG STRONG.

I suspect that it has been kept in an overly humid environment (many more cheeses in the cheese fridge these days) so could the extra humidity have over-ripened the cheese and made it strong and too soft and if this is the case, can anything be done?

I assume i can dry it out by allowing it to breath in the fridge without its ripening box but how can i reduce the pungency of the flavour?

Any advice would be gratefully received.

Thanks in advance,

TAMARA

[linuxboy]

Reduce the rate of ripening by making the curds less moist. Humidity does influence rate of flora growth, but this sounds like your curds were too big, set time was too long, or did not stir enough to expel whey.

[Frotte La Tomme]

What kind of strong do you have here?

it doesn't have the lovely firm rind that it should have

Does the rind disintigrate when washing?  What about the color?  Is the milk come from hay or pasture fed cows?

[TAMARA]

Thanks for your advice, Linuxboy. That is great advice. It didn't occur to me that perhaps the curds were too moist as it looked and felt the same as last time and i followed my same guidelines.

So, once the cheese is made amd aged, can anything be done to reduce the pungency of the flavour? I read somewhere that you can soak the cheese in water for a day then dry out again. Your thoughts?

RE the questions from Frotte La Tomme, the rind is firmish but the pate inside is too soft so if pressed, the rind does not hold up to the pressure. The paste itself tastes like it has been aged for many, many months instead of just a few weeks. The paste is the right pale golden colour though it is a little darker than my previous batch.

Not sure about the feed of the cows. I am not lucky enough to have access to farm milk but I do know they are Jersey Cows.

So, do i dump this cheese or can it be salvaged in some way?

Thanks guys,

TAMARA

[linuxboy]

it looked and felt the same as last time

What was your yield? If it's the same milk, but you have a higher yield, chances are, has more moisture. Did you use flocculation approach?

I read somewhere that you can soak the cheese in water for a day then dry out again. Your thoughts?

Not sure what this would do... the cheese has already broken down, the enzymes have done their work. Use in cooking, maybe?

So, do i dump this cheese or can it be salvaged in some way?

Scrape down, and cold crash it to 34F in a wrapper and leave it alone for a few weeks. See if it stabilizes in flavor. But the cheese is made in the vat... by the time you get this far along, it's hard to make tweaks. It's like being on the highway. Once a lorrie is moving, you can slam on the breaks, but it's already on a trajectory. Only so much you can do.

[TAMARA]

HI again,

Can you explain the flocculation approach? I have found all my curds set around about the suggested set time and I usually get a really good first cut on the curd or else i leave it a little longer.

I think this will be a dried 'grating cheese' - at least for this batch... shame!

Thanks,

TAMARA

[margaretsmall]

Hi Tamara,
There is a lot of information on this forum about flocculation - just search for it in the search box on the top right hand corner.

 In brief, you float a small plastic container in your mix as soon as you add the rennet and write down the exact time. The milk will quite suddenly 'set', at which point (anytime from a couple of minutes until 20 minutes or more later) the plastic container will not move when you gently push it with your finger - you need to keep a close watch and test it frequently after a few minutes. This is the flocculation point. You then carefully note the time elapsed since you added the rennet, multiple this  by a magic number which varies according to the type of cheese. Wait for this amount of time to elapse from the time of adding the rennet (note: not since the flocc. time, a commonly made mistake!) then try your curd for a clean break. Sometimes you might judge it sensible to wait a little longer if it seems too soft, but it's usually spot on. This might sound complicated but once you get your head around it  it's easy. The science behind it is more complicated than I could try to explain, others have done that far better than I could, but it's all to do with the interaction of milk, rennet, culture and type of cheese.
Margaret