Hi Mike, well, first let me tell you, anything I once knew has in the large part go lost, so grain of salt, etc. If you haven't read them, look up the work of FRANCOIS, linuxboy, and I'd rather 'fly. I did do a number of trials and thoughts on the style, because I'm pretty mad for it. If you read any of that, I hope it was helpful.
Firstly, and forgive if you know all this - but though the Savoie tommes contains some corynebacteria, and sometimes express B. linens, even with heavy mold rinding, the Savoie is a very mold-centric cheese, as it looks like your. As usual, you can achieve any rind, almost, if you create the right environment, allowing them to out-compete. I've been playing around French world and they use a couple of Penicilli I'd not heard of before,
If the Savoie is mold-based, the Pyrenees version is washed rind and there you see so much more of the lines-type species, and washing generally. First of alll, in their essentially farmhouse tomme blend, they use much of the same as (we use another species, I think, can't recall - arthobacter nicotanae?), but the use Kl. marxianus. Presumably in lieu of what we are accustomed to, KL 71. I am just now digging some so again, take this for salt, but I don't believe there is much morphological or biochemical, etc., difference between these two Kluveromyces species. I could be totally wrong, but a good farmhouse culture will get you going.
However, I was intrigued by the Coquard material:
SIGMA 41 Penicillium NALGIOVENSIS (lyophilisé) 500 L Pâte pressée 005DAC
Moisissure blanche. Adhère bien au fromage, limite le Tomme de pays
développement de mucor. Très adaptée aux pâtes pressées.
SIGMA 43 Penicillium gris (liquide) 500 L Tomme de pays 005DCC
Moisissure grise pour croûtage Tomme.
A utiliser préférablement en mélange avec sigma 21 ou 22.
-it's the second one, "biforme" or here, "gris," is the one that has me particularly geeked. I don't know if we can get it here in the States but I'd love to try. I think Mycodore and Mycoderm are cool (though Mycoderm is way too prohibitive for me), but I would like to go about inoculating a cave with this gris and others. About 92%, and 54 F.
