Yep, I've really got the bug. I know people seem to recommend getting one recipe right and sticking to it but I like all kinds of cheese so I just have to give them a go.
I make notes and sterilise everything just like the books say but I have little understanding of the chemistry, have never checked PH, so I just follow the instructions and I find if the timings work out right, the cheese seems to work out right as well. My first few makes (the ones that were disgusting) all took forever to set, like 4 hours for my Cheddar!) and I had no idea what a clean break looked like so my chances of success were slim and they were taking so long I took some shortcuts to catch up so looking back there's no shock they were not good. Once I understood the importance of the correct amount of rennet, learned about floc times and realised that accuracy of temperature was pretty important, things seemed to work better (surprise, surprise).
I will post updates as the Fourme progresses, first pics attached. I was aiming for 4 x four pounders. I ended up with 4 x 4.25ilbs and a bonus cheese of another 4.5lbs which is great, but I ran out of 4" moulds as you can see.
This will be my third Fourme make. The first two were a little different insofar as the first was softer and more creamy, the second was firmer like I think it should be, the flavours were similar and very, very nice so I hope I stay lucky and these work out as well.