Author Topic: Honey, I need help with my Honey Tomme  (Read 7236 times)

smilingcalico

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Re: Honey, I need help with my Honey Tomme
« Reply #15 on: December 12, 2011, 01:12:35 AM »
Oh, I forgot to say I let the cheese dry for 24 hours after brine and before the honey.  Yes, once a week is  perfect for the first month.  I didn't honey after that and the rind was still mold when I cut it at 2 months of age.  For moister cheese you could use a longer floc multiplier and slightly larger curd cut, but another technique that worked for me was to ditch the spoon for stirring.  I found it still continued cutting the curds no matter how gentle I was.  Instead, use a plate stood on end and rotate it like a revolving door.  My curds began turning out much more moist and fluffy, resulting in a moister final cheese.

Brie

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Re: Honey, I need help with my Honey Tomme
« Reply #16 on: January 21, 2012, 04:12:55 AM »
Sorry--been off the board for awhile--interested to hear how your honey experiments have worked out. I originally used a "paste" of local honey mixed with sea salt; which, as I said turned out "musty" tasting. In my next endeavor, I would make a brine solution with honey added, and wipe down with mixture once per week--give it some time to absorb and form a rind, rather than closing the cheese in; which is what I believe I did. Luck to you all and keep us posted!

Helen

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Re: Honey, I need help with my Honey Tomme
« Reply #17 on: February 15, 2012, 03:56:21 AM »
Just wanted to say that I have done something similar with a brine wash mixed with raw honey and cyprus black salt. It was heavenly to say the least and one of the best cheeses I have ever made.

Offline Tiarella

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Re: Honey, I need help with my Honey Tomme
« Reply #18 on: October 25, 2012, 04:40:58 AM »
Jessica, not sure if I'm jumping in between you and Brie, but I'll tell you what I did. Brined, then simply smeared the honey on.  The honey I used was raw, I'm curious to try some crystallized, or white honey to see about differences.  At any rate, the raw did something odd, it seems the important stuff stayed on the surface/absorbed in, while the liquid content just ran down the side and pooled on the board.  In essence I'd say if you mixed salt and honey you might be able to skip the brine step and just get your salt content from the honey salt combo.

SmilingCalico,  How did your honey smeared cheese taste?  How did the rind development go?  I've just created a Caerphilly honey-smeared cheese.  I did embed leaves in the honey too.  Wondering what rind care yours required.

Offline Tiarella

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Re: Honey, I need help with my Honey Tomme
« Reply #19 on: October 31, 2012, 02:17:03 AM »
attaching photo of the honey washed leaf adorned cheese.  I've had some molds try to start up on it and I switched to olive oil patted gently on.  Ideas for care welcome.  I've done the olive oil twice already.

smilingcalico

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Re: Honey, I need help with my Honey Tomme
« Reply #20 on: November 11, 2012, 08:40:45 AM »
Sorry to respond so late. Rind development was great, no issues there. Musty, as Brie put it, is quite right. That's what I got too. But it was mold free  entire life, so I'm thrilled about that. After the initial rind treatment the first month, there was literally none after that, just flipping as usual.

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Re: Honey, I need help with my Honey Tomme
« Reply #21 on: November 11, 2012, 11:37:48 AM »
I'm having a battle keeping the wild blue molds off so I'm switching my rind treatment to Alp's suggestion of wine,water,salt rind wash to create a paste on the cheese to let that create a rind that is inhospitable to molds.  The good news is that the embedded leaves are solidly a part of the rind and seem like they will be there for good.

So, Did the musty smell permeate the whole cheese?  I did a Manchego style a few months ago and it did have some wild blue attacks initially but I cleaned that odd and oiled it thinking all would be well.  But the flavor is strong.....sort of musty but now I'm wondering if it could be the Lipase also that is creating this strong smell.  If I take the rind off the cheese is sort of tasty.....but still stronger than I expected and it's hard to parse out what is mold must and what is Lipase.  Comments anyone?

Tomer1

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Re: Honey, I need help with my Honey Tomme
« Reply #22 on: November 11, 2012, 12:44:12 PM »
You could crystalize the honey if you had a burner and create a hard shell.

Just to show you how resilient yeast are,  I started developing a black currant wine recipe based on a 65 brix (over 600 grams of sugar per liter) concentrate, basically a very sweet jam with alot of solids.   
The package managed to ferment (this is done by a type of osmotolerant yeast).  obviously something went wrong with their packaging but its still cool.       This same yeast (S. Baily) also spoils honey.  :)

smilingcalico

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Re: Honey, I need help with my Honey Tomme
« Reply #23 on: November 12, 2012, 06:24:20 AM »
The must was mostly external. The interior flavor was really Ho hum. I heard recently that if you really want to knock down blue mold, a 6% brine wash is ideal.  I learned long ago however that if you don't want blue mold, but insist on a natural rind, you WILL have to repeatedly wash your cheese, and that's all there is to it. I still subscribe to not washing the second you see a mold developing. Once a week is fine, backing down the longer it matures.