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GENERAL CHEESE MAKING BOARDS (Specific Cheese Making in Boards above) => STANDARD METHODS - Aging Cheese => Topic started by: mdoherty on March 15, 2016, 02:45:24 PM
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Hi, I'm a cheese monger based in Virginia and I was noticing on the Asiago Fresco I was working on has a very pale pink spot right underneath the rind of the cheese and omits a very yeasty scent. I've looked online and there are a bunch of difference sources that state that it's either a part of the aging or it's a a toxin. I was wondering if I could get a clarification on it as I'm not sure how reputable the other sources are. Toxic? Nontoxic? Is it a yeast bloom?
Thanks in advanced!
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Welcome to the forum! I'm afraid I don't know the answer to your question -- pink and yeasty is not a combination I'm familiar with.
Maybe others will have something helpful, but keep in mind, while there is a lot of information available here, I think most of us, maybe nearly all of us, are amateurs at this endeavor -- passionate, and often highly skilled, but probably not qualified to offer a definitive judgment on a possibly toxic bloom on a cheese that will be sold commercially! (My apologies to all of my fellow forum members for slandering you in this way.)
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I checked to see if Calwell (Mastering Artisan Cheesemaking) had anything to say about pink microbiological flaws in cheese. She did mention pink defects as a possible strain of coryneform bacteria. I would not expect a yeasty odor from coryneform bacteria, present in washed rind cheese (Munster, Limberger, et al.)
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Yes, that's what is throwing me as well -- pink suggests B. Linens or one of its cousins (coryneform bacteria), but I don't think that smell would ever be called "yeasty."
If it turns out that B. Linens is the answer, I'm sure the OP will be tickled pink ... but I'm afraid that's the yeast of his/her problems. :):)