Tomme attempt #4 - Still too acidic

[MacGruff]

Tomme #4 is out of the cave, looked good, so I cut it open and tasted it. Darn! Still too crumbly and even tasted a bit sour. Too acidic.

Here are my make notes, maybe one of you helpful folks can tell me where I went wrong?

Started out by calibrating my Extech meter using the 4.0 and 7.0 solution. Three gallons of supermarket milk purchased the day before the make and refrigerated overnight.

Time   Milk Temp   pH   Notes
Day 0
0000   54      6.71   Put in pot on stove and started warming up slowly
0020   73      6.80
0030   82      6.80   
0040   90      6.82   Added 1/8 teaspoon Flora Danica and 1/15 teaspoon MA315. Sprinkled on top. Let rest for a minute, then stirred in. Also added ¾ teaspoon Calcium Chloride that was mixed into ¼ cup distilled water. This was stirred in as well.
0110   92      6.78   Added ¾ teaspoon calf Rennet diluted in ¼ cup distilled water. Stirred in to milk
0125   88      6.93   Flocculation achieved. Using a multiplier of 3.5 gives 52.5 minutes. Since some of the recipes say 3X and some 3.5X, I decided to only wait 50 minutes.
0200   82      6.82   Cut the curds
0210   80         Turned the heat back on
0250   88      6.79   Moved curds to mold. No weight
0350            Flipped in mold. No weight
0450         6.69   Flipped in mold. No weight
0550         6.65   Flipped in mold. No weight
0750         6.46   Took out of mold and put in brine overnight
Day 1         5.57   Took out of brine, patted dry and let rest at room temp
Day 2         5.20   Moved to cave
Day 3         5.12   In cheese cave at 54 degrees 89% Relative humidity
Day 4         5.32   From this point on, the pH keeps increasing as I measure it on the rind.

The pictures I am adding are of the cheese after I cut it after six week in the cave. I flipped it daily for the first month. Then twice a week for the remaining two weeks. I also charted the pH curve from the data above.

Any thoughts?

[Bantams]

What recipe did you follow?
It doesn't sound like any Tomme I know, as they usually involve a cooking phase, bringing the curd up to 100 or so.
Allowing the curd to chill to 80, not cooking, and not pressing will result in a very different cheese - more of a lactic style due to the high whey retention.

First of all, make sure your culturing/renneting milk doesn't drop below 89 (a water bath works well).
When I make Tomme, I use a flocc of 3.5, cut curd over 5 minutes, then heat from 90-100 over 30 minutes. Then stir for 20-30, drain, then into the molds. Then pressed lightly for 5, flipped, pressed moderately for 30 and then flipped, then pressed at about 1.25 psi until brining (until pH is achieved or about 6-8 hours).

[Bantams]

Also, I know taking pH can slow down the process a bit.  You may want to stick with taking pH at the beginning (when heating milk, just to make sure the milk is normal) and then again when curds are nearing readiness after cooking. And then again when you suspect it's ready to brine (should be 5.3-5.4 I believe). The extra pH marks in between don't tell much so it might make things easier for you if you skip those. 

[Boofer]

Check these out:

• Tomme #4
• Tomme #7

-Boofer-

[MacGruff]

I feel like a complete idiot!

 

Bantams comment of "what kind of cheese is this?" had me going back through my notes. Luckily I saved them. Unluckily, they were not all in the same place. At some point in time, between Tomme #2 and Tomme #3, I dropped the cooking step. My, oh my! No wonder this is not working out. Oops.

Thanks, Boofer, also for the links. I know you had shared them with me before and I had used them. It's just my own sloppiness that caused the problem.

More milk will be purchased, and another attempt made.

Sigh...

[paulabob]

MacGruff, have you done another attempt at Tomme yet?  I've been reading through your old notes, will be making another in a week or two.  I used Caldwell's recipe for my first, and was very happy with it.  Tasted great till 12 months in, where some off flavors from vacuum bagging crept in (I guess?).  Still ended up OK as a food ingredient (made pimento cheese spread, daughter ate it all up).

Planning to do a natural rind with my next one, with mycodore instead of vacuum bagging.

My very brief notes from that make are here:
Begun 11:30, Jan 23rd 2020   
2 gallons raw, 1 past.   
1/8 + 1/32 generous MA4002   
3/8 tsp rennet   
Heated 40 minutes total, pH 6.39   
Waited 2 minutes, began draining   
5.65 at 8:52   
5.25 at 9:56, into brine   
3.6 pounds   
Brining 12 hours   
Letting air dry, see where natural rind takes us.   

Note, I did not, lol, see where a natural rind would take me.  Molds were too agressive and I dried off and vacuum packed.

Just wondering if you came to a recipe you were happy with.

[MacGruff]

No, I never went back to a Tomme. I started working on bloomy rinds and have had much better success with them so am sticking with those for now.

If your make is a success, please let us all know, I am still interested in making a Tomme, so your success may convince me to try it again.

Thanks~!

[Mornduk]

I opened a good one a couple of months ago, didn't post about it but I have my notes, so if you want I can just take 10 mins and create a topic

[MacGruff]

Absolutely!

[Mornduk]

There you are