Rind Porn

[Cartierusm]

Here are some cheese I found at Whole Foods and they just look good. I didn't buy them but wonder how to get the rinds like that.

[Cartierusm]

Not my hand, my GF, if you've read my other posts and seen the things I've built you'd know my hands, kind of rough...that aligator from the lotion commercial.

[Tea]

The goat cheese one, looks like it is an ash rind.  I am not sure how to apply the ash, but I am assuming that it is pressed/rolled on after the cheese comes out of the brine.

The second one looks like it has been wrapped in muslin, which has later been removed.

I'm glad someone else looks at cheese and wonders "how did they do that"?

[FRANCOIS]

The italian goat cheese is produced with a multitude of surface flora.  It is a wash rind with mild brine.  Looks like a mix of mycodore and mycoderm actually.  That cheese will be very fruity and firm inside, not hard, and bone white with few or no inclusions.  I suspect it is aged 4-6 months and probably has a distinctive goat burn to it.

The second cheese is Etorki, a sheeps milk cheese made in Spain.  It is not a cooked curd, but washed I believe and the surface texture is from the mold.  It is a scrubbed rind with a soft texture inside, very sheepy as I recall.

[wharris]

Interesting post.  Not sure what mycoderm is.  When you say washed rind, i think of limburger cheese. 
Is mycoderm a type of brevibacterium linens?

Is this something you make?  Love to hear more about it.

[FRANCOIS]

Mycodore and Mycoderm are the yeast and mould used in Pyrenees style cheeses.  In my old cheese factory I made a goat tomme that looked very similar to that one.  The whote whisps are geotrichum.  My version of that cheese had 6 ripening cultures, it is a very complex rind that invloves bacteria, yeasts and molds.  From memory I used:

Starter: MA4001 and sometimes thermo to stabilise

Ripening:
Geo 13
Mycoderm
Mycodore
DH LYO
KL 71
MVA


Here is mycodore:
http://www.fromagex.com/product_info.php?products_id=937
mycoderm is another Danisco culture, but Fromagex doesn't carry it standard.  I used ot buy it from Glengarry in Ontario.


Not all washed rinds are b.linens.  In fact most of my cheeses were washed in some way, it's a great way to control surface growth, rind texture and final appearance to the customer.  I would agrue that the majority of aged cheeses are in fact washed rinds.

uisually I would innoculate the milk with ripening cultures and also make up a 2-3% salt wash with them as well.  After brining I would dry the surface then start the washing.  Frequently at first but becoming very infrequent over a few months time.

[DeejayDebi]

You washing technique sounds like the way I do my Asiagos. Make a nice rind.