Author Topic: Achieving a Picodon style goat cheese  (Read 3015 times)

Offline WrinkledRind

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Achieving a Picodon style goat cheese
« on: January 04, 2023, 09:54:19 PM »
Hello. I've done about 4 or 5 makes, mostly goat lactic set cheeses aged to about 4 - 6 weeks. Geo 17 and/or P. Candidum. I'm getting some great, gooey pastes and (on the Geo makes) very wrinkled rinds which I enjoy. So while that's all good, I'm finding it harder to get an alternative that I would have assumed would be easier: firmer rind and paste in a small aged goat cheese. I'm thinking of cheeses like Picodon or Buton du Culotte. (Reading up on Picodon, I was surprised to learn that some producers wash the cheese a couple of times after about 2 weeks of aging). https://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:C:2009:074:0074:0080:EN:PDF


On my last make I started with a Picodon style attempt, but after a week or so of aging, realized the cheese had other ideas in mind. Even with a smaller amount of Geo 17, they still developed a loose rind that eventually became quite wrinkly with a gooey paste to the core. Delicious but not what I had wanted. Some details of that make:
4L pasteurized, non-homogenized 4%mf goat milk. At 74F added 1/4 tsp Aroma B, 1/64 tsp Geo 17, then 1/4 tsp calcium chloride solution and 1/4 tsp animal rennet (both in 1/4c water dilution). Held at 73F for 18hours. pH dropped from 6.55 to 4.42. Good break. Cut curds to 1/2" and pre-drained through butter muslin for 30 minutes before ladling into moulds. (In retrospect I would have increased # of moulds from 6 to 8 -- individual cheeses were about 125g each ... bigger than I think they should be for this style). Drained for about 48 hours (turning every 12h) at room temp. Salted tops and bottoms then moved to aging boxes in a cheese fridge at 10C. Humidity somewhere in the 80-90% range.


Any suggestions on how to get the other outcome I'm looking for (aged, spicy/peppery, with a solid hay-coloured natural rind and more solid paste). Changes to cultures, draining, salting, aging temp/humidity? Thanks much.

Offline mikekchar

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Re: Achieving a Picodon style goat cheese
« Reply #1 on: January 05, 2023, 03:48:36 AM »
It's tricky in lactic set cheeses because it's hard to adjust the moisture level.  Since you are adding some rennet (which some people call a "semi-lactic"), you can up the rennet a bit and cut the curds earlier.  So basically as soon as it sets (maybe 8 hours in?) make vertical cuts and then leave it for your total 18 hours.  This will help it drain a bit.  This will help the rind be less wrinkly.

I would also actually avoid adding any geo to the milk at all.  In my experience, geo shows up anyway.  Since you've already been growing it in your cave, you'll probably get the same that you've been using, but you may also get your wild version.  I like my wild geo *a lot*.  It's super dusty and flat growing.  Great for the application you have in mind.

I would start off for the first few days (up to a week) at 16 C.  This will reduce the humidity, let it dry out and get your cave geo (and other yeasts) going.  Then reduce the temperature down to 10 as you were doing.  If you can't manage 16 C, then just lengthen the room temperature aging (but keep an eye on it so it doesn't dry out).  Once you get white growing on the rind (or anything, really) give it a wash with a 3% brine (3 grams of salt in 100 ml of water).  3% is the salt tolerance for geo, so it doesn't kill it.  It just slows it down a bit but also crucially spreads it evenly on the rind.  Make sure the cheese is touch dry before you return it to the cave, though.  Again, it's totally OK to leave it at 16 - room temperature until it is dry.

It's interesting reading the PDO description (this is one of the better ones I've seen).  I feel like I understand what they are doing (though, I've probably not had this cheese -- so take with a huge grain of salt!)  That initial 8 days at 12-18 C is done in what's usually called the "yeast room".  It's really to keep the humidity down and get the yeasts going.  Note that 80% is still fairly low humidity.  And then they do another week at an unspecified lower temp.  So it's still quite a young cheese.

The other one does 2 weeks at a low temperature (I imagine for draining and protease), then a warmer phase to get the yeasts going.  The washes will be to distribute the yeasts.  Notice the 24 hour drying period.  That's crucial because without it you will get brevibacterium linens growing since the pH will already be in the ideal range for it at that point.  B. linens won't grow without a fair amount of humidity, so you'll probably just get some nice, lovely, spicy orange highlights without a washed rind cheese (I assume that's what's giving the hay color your are referring to).

I may give something like this a go myself.  I don't have any goat milk, but it should still be delicious with cows milk...

Offline WrinkledRind

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Re: Achieving a Picodon style goat cheese
« Reply #2 on: January 05, 2023, 05:24:15 PM »
Thanks very much for the detailed and practical response. That all makes sense conceptually. I had wondered about possibly skipping Geo altogether (or just reducing to a few grains anyway). I'll give all this a shot on my next make and let you know what comes out of it.

One question: would you skip any dry salting early in the drying process and just do the 3% brine wash (after some initial mould growth)?
 
Many thanks.

Offline mikekchar

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Re: Achieving a Picodon style goat cheese
« Reply #3 on: January 06, 2023, 04:13:07 AM »
No, definitely salt.  When you "dry salt" your cheese, it pulls whey from the cheese and you essentially have a fully saturated brine solution (~30%) sitting on the outside of your cheese.  The wash is *very* little salt - 3 grams in 100 ml, but you'll only be using maybe 5 ml of that when you wash.  I find that lactic cheeses don't need that much salt for some reason.  If you are going to wash it later, I'd probably start at 1.5% of the total weight of the cheese as salt and take notes.  I tend to salt my lactics at 1.6% (without washing later), but I prefer mine at the lower end of the salt threshold.  You *could* go as high as 2% if you like it really salty.

Offline Aris

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Re: Achieving a Picodon style goat cheese
« Reply #4 on: January 07, 2023, 06:59:21 AM »
No, definitely salt.  When you "dry salt" your cheese, it pulls whey from the cheese and you essentially have a fully saturated brine solution (~30%) sitting on the outside of your cheese.  The wash is *very* little salt - 3 grams in 100 ml, but you'll only be using maybe 5 ml of that when you wash.  I find that lactic cheeses don't need that much salt for some reason.  If you are going to wash it later, I'd probably start at 1.5% of the total weight of the cheese as salt and take notes.  I tend to salt my lactics at 1.6% (without washing later), but I prefer mine at the lower end of the salt threshold.  You *could* go as high as 2% if you like it really salty.
I made a lactic cheese once and it was salty using 2% weight of cheese in salt. I got to use 1.5% next time.