Raclette!

[Thewitt]

The first Raclette drying after pressing. At $35 a pound, this was a steal

[H-K-J]

Nice AC4U

[TailPipe]

Looks great. I just made one myself. How is your mold developing? I have had mine aging at 53F for a week now and it looks the same as when it came off the press. Any idea on when mold should start showing up?

Cheers

[Thewitt]

I'm starting to get some good color and saw just a little slippage today.  Wiping with brine every 2 days.

Mine came off the press on 4/7 and went into the cave on 4/10.

[TailPipe]

Mine came off the press 4/13 and into the cave 4/15. I used 1/16 tsp B. linens for 12 L of milk. Still no color. Should I add some B. linens to the brine during washing? Happy to leave longer to see but I thought after a week I would see some mold develop.

[Thewitt]

I think you are probably ok.  Im nearly a week ahead of you.

[TailPipe]

Wondering if someone can comment on my raclette. Now at 11 days in cave. A faint Brown Red starting, but greyish mold starting and also raised dots all over. Is this normal or should I intervene with some other action? I started brine washing with a little B. linens in the wash.

Thanks

[Gregore]

Never seen a cheese with chicken pox before.

Do they have air under them?

[Thewitt]

I'm getting a fair amount of rind rot now in my Raclette.

It turns out that I washed for the last two weeks with a 30% calcium chloride solution and NOT my simple brine!  I laughed today when I discovered this, but I suspect it played a role in the improper rind development.

I'm looking for help in recovery.

I've put a "replacement Raclette" in the queue for tomorrow but I would like to recover this one if anyone has a solution.

I've washed with brine and rid myself of some unwanted molds, and in the process removed some of the rind as well.

I was thinking about lightly salting and leaving it out of the cave for a couple of days, but that's just guessing on a method to try to slow this down.

Thoughts?

[River Bottom Farm]

30% ca cl would be fairly off putting in taste I would think. If it were mine I would put it in a brine for a while to try and disolve off some of the ca cl and maybe kill off any undesirable flora then dry for a couple days and re start the wash routine with b linens

[Thewitt]

I have a pretty good b linens rind already forming. I salted the exterior yesterday after washing with brine and let it dry over night. It actually looks much better today - much more firm with very little slipping and no sign of unwanted flora... It will be interesting to see if it stays this way after a few more days in the cave.

What an idiot I am... 

If it appears to be softening again I'll brine it overnight and see if that penetrates better than the surface salting did.  The salt definitely firmed up the rind.

I don't know how long I actually washed with the calcium chloride solution. I had a partial pint jar mixed up at 30% in the fridge and someone moved it in with my pint jars of brine mixture. I grabbed the wrong one, did't read the label, and only when it was empty the other day as I was washing off more unwanted mold than I ever see... did I find the mistake. That was at the bottom of the jar, which I think was only about 20% full. Probably means I washed 6 cheeses twice I think... Maybe three times.

The other cheeses have either been eaten, waxed, or show nothing unusual.  For whatever reason the Raclette is the only one that seemed to take it very poorly.

Live and learn

[River Bottom Farm]

Sounds like a good reason to revive this old thread in my opinion https://cheeseforum.org/forum/index.php/topic,10888.0.html

[TailPipe]

Hi all - I am about 16 days in the cave and still having mold issues with little signs of B. linens. If you squint a bit you can imagine it starting to show some orange. I managed to clean all of the white/blue fuzz off the cheese with a 3% brine with a little sprinkle of B linens. I was washing every two days with 2% and then switched to 3% and B. linens.  The first few washes I was also just rubbing with my hand and the last time I used some cheese cloth with actually removed quite a bit of mold. I may have just been moving it around before.

Any thoughts - am i loosing this cheese or is it just slow?

It is in a ripening box in a fridge at 54F. Lid on loose. It has more of a musty smell which worries me (smells like the mold i see!). Although maybe not to worry? I know the mold is expected, just not sure how prolific is in the normal range. I am really unsure if i'm to worry or not. But i'm trucking along and hoping it will still be OK. Based on other things I've read I think i should have started seeing better B linens development. If i'm still OK should i try a little stronger brine with B. linens? (it was a new culture, unopened, so i think it should be OK too).

Any advice would be great.

Interested to know how the CaCl2 washed cheese is turning out too for Thewitt?

Thanks

[Thewitt]

My cheese is recovering well. The rind has firmed up and I'm getting good B Linens development. I think I lucked out, though the wrinkles will result in a strange rind...

[TailPipe]

Hi all - The raclette has recovered nicely after upping the brine to about 6% and doing a couple additional B. linens washes.

I do have one question for anyone that might have some insight on this: i have a big bubble on one side. It's been there for a while. I've tried flattening it a bit but it just stays. Is this just some rind slip from early on or is it a cause for concern? There is no other bulging on the cheese and it hasn't really grown much.  Other than this bubble i think the cheese is doing well.

This has been in the cave for 25 days now.

Thanks

PS Just out of curiosity why is raclette not in the wash rind/smear ripened section?