Eating my "tomme" fresh

[PacoSEDG]

Your cheese looks great, congrats!

[mikekchar]

Thanks guys!  I'm really happy with it.  I'm pretty surprised that it picked up that much flavour in only 2 weeks.  Looking forward to seeing what happens with #3 (which is scheduled for a month)

[GortKlaatu]

Congrats. AC4U

I have a Japanese neighbor who is lactose intolerant but he binges on my cheeses and says they are worth the aftermath. Haha. Glad he lives on the other side of the mountain

[mikekchar]

Just a quick update.  The blue coloured mould on the outside of tomme #2 is *definitely* blue mould, in case anyone was curious :-).  It's my nice wild blue mould and not offensive at all, but...  I've come to the conclusion that it really is inappropriate on the rind of a tomme.  It's just too strong flavoured.  Even though it didn't penetrate into the paste, if you eat the rind all you taste is blue.

So, on #3 and #4 I've been trying to dissuade the blue.  Unfortunately for #3, it had already gotten into the rind and then slowly softened it, so I think I'm stuck with it.  #4 I've done a better job, but it's still really tricky.  I don't have any enough moulds in my cave to provide competition.  Lately #4 is growing white mould at a rate considerably higher than the blue mould, but in removing the blue mould, I'm knocking back most of the white.  I think it will be a struggle until I can get some nice cultures growing.  Affinage is hard :-)

This is the first time I've used bamboo mats as drainage mats.  I was surprised at how much mould grows on them.  When the blue gets into it, I boil them, but I think when I finally get a culture going that I like, this will be a handy innoculator.  It's frustrating that I have to go to the UK this spring....  I'll have to abandon all this and probably start again in the summer :-(

[mikekchar]

I figured it's time for an update:

Here's tomme #3:



I was sure that I'd never get the blue off of it, but what do you know -- it's almost clean (the bottom as a few spots, but it seems dormant).  It's not so obvious, but there is a bit of b.linens in there that helped to get rid of the blue.  I was surprised at how effective my counter actions were: washing with brine and vinegar, spot cleaning with a toothpick, reducing the humidity a bit.  It's got some geo and PC going on.  Strong smell of broccoli.  The paste is a bit soft, so it's going to be interesting.  I was supposed to cut this yesterday, but various things happened and it's going to be next week instead.  I wish I could age it longer, but I'll have a couple of kilos of cheese to get through in a month before going to the UK as it is...

Here's tomme #4:



You can see the b. linens did it's thing!  That was my intent with this one to begin with, but when I started having blue troubles with #3 I changed my mind.  Obviously it was too late.  I'm getting a bit of blue, which I'm a *bit* worried about, but I'm hoping to encourage the PC that's forming a thick rind on the top.   The bottom is still quite bare.  We'll see how it goes.  So far, the paste seems firm and it's dried off, so I'm not really worried about the b. linens making a washed rind cheese out of this.  The smell is mostly gone now too.

So, I'm very much encouraged with them so far.  Now that I'm getting them to this stage, I really want to age them for a few months, but I'll have to wait for cheeses in the summer to try that.  It will be very interesting to try them.

[mikekchar]

Hope nobody minds more pics.  I cut Tomme #3 today:



In the left hand side you can see some softening of the paste near the rind.  Here's a close up of a smaller piece:



This is after about 5 weeks (March 5 to April .  You can see some blue got back onto the rind, but despite my fears there is no indication of it anywhere in the paste.  The PC/geo definitely started to soften the paste a bit, but it's not actually that noticeable.  However, the cheese as a whole is too moist IMHO.  As I suspected when I made it, I did not dry out the curds enough.  #4 will mostly have that fixed, I think.

My only other slight quibble is that the paste is probably too acidic.  I don't have a lot of experience eating tomme (probably only had it once in my life and it's possible not even that many times -- I only have a vague recollection).  The fresh #1 had a lot of buttery notes.  #2 started off with a nice havarti like flavour to start and then picked up some cheddar tones as I slowly ate it (there is still a small piece left).  #3 starts with that cheddar tone and the butter is not so obvious.  The paste is also a bit "short" and has a soft consistency, a bit like cream cheese.  I think some of the problems will be solved with drier curds, but I wonder if I need to do a washed curd to limit the lactose.

Still, I'm *very* pleased.  It's a definite step forward from #2.  I've very curious at how #4 will turn out.

[cheesehead94]

A cheese for you! That's n impressive looking cheese...i've only made Tomme once, but it was a small wheel aged for 6 months and as such was pretty dry. I've eaten real Tomme once too, and it definitely seemed closer to yours...it had some definite softening near the rind and a very mushroomy flavor.

[awakephd]

Mike, AC4U, not just for the cheese, but for the systematic progress you are making in refining the cheese.!

[mikekchar]

Thanks guys!  Learning is fun, so I'm having a blast trying to puzzle out this stuff.  If I don't do it this way, I'll just get muddled. :-)  One thing I learned when I was doing the non-rennet cheeses last year was that my favourite thing is affinage.  It's so much fun to open the ripening boxes every day and be rewarded with a little change here or there, or a slightly different smell, or a different texture.  But what I've found really rewarding with rennet cheeses is how dependent the affinage is on the make.  Really tiny differences make huge differences later on.  Of the 3 tomme style makes I've done so far, my wife is convinced that they are completely different cheeses.  And yet it's more like I balanced a little more on my left foot for make #2 and breathed slightly differently for make #3.  It's a bit like magic.

[mikekchar]

I'm in the UK now.  Tomme #4 ended up in the regular fridge while I'm here.  I'm hoping it's still OK when I get back.  The sides have all curved inwards like a very tiny Beaufort.  But the exciting news (for me anyway) is that I managed to find a Tomme Fleurie at shop in Clerkenwell in London.  I was really surprised to find that Tomme #3 was really not far off the mark -- just a bit young.  The texture was just about perfect.  Firm, but still quite creamy under the tongue.  The flavour surprised me as the thermophilic character *really* came through on the example that I had.  It's a bit like if you had a creamy, young emental with just a hint of buttery notes underneath.  I only picked up a little bit of cheddar flavour coming through, which was really interesting.  The rind was complex.  I had it in my bag a work and when I opened the bag, the smell of sweat socks was undeniable -- so it definitely has some b.linens going on.  The rind for this example was also quite soft and much thinner than I was expecting.  You can see some red underneath with tan dominating and just a hint of puffy white on top.  It's not he typical mucor that you see in most pictures of Tomme de Savoie.  However, it is very enjoyable and I'd be happy to get a rind like that (mine is fairly bitter and has a dry texture).

Today I'm picking up a reblochon.  I'll update my washed rind post, but for those who want a spoiler, it went off :-(  Outside of the cheese was super bitter with ammonia and polyphenols.  :-(

[Susan38]

Well I have been wondering just exactly what a "tomme" cheese is, and thanks to your investigations I now know!  Yes please keep the updates coming...

[mikekchar]

Yesterday I went to Guilford in Surrey and ran across a cheese shop: https://partisan-deli.co.uk/.  If you are ever in the area, I highly recommend it.  It's only about a 30 minute train ride out of London and it's also a very interesting place, so great for sight seeing if you are a tourist.  Anyway, they had a Tomme de Savoie there and they gave me a nibble.  It's much closer to what I imagined a Tomme would taste like: more butter and and more firm than the Fleurie that I had last week.   So this is where I'm going to aim my next attempts.

Anyway, I picked up quite a lot of cheese: an old natural rind Caerphilly (which was my #1 cheese to look for on this trip!), a Cornish Yarg, and then a semi hard goat's cheese and *very* old hard sheep's cheese (whose names I forget at the moment).  We must have tasted at least 10 different cheeses while we were there.  The shop was quite small and they didn't have a massive selection, but what they had was of really, really good quality.  Like I said, if you are in the area, it's worth popping in.

[AnnDee]

How exciting!
Will you be in London only? If you like Brie style be sure to try Baron Bigod, you can get them in lots of cheese shop but I love going to Neal's Yard Dairy in Borough market, that is one tasty cheese. Also try some Appleby Cheshire and Montgomery Cheddar and of course the ever delisioso Stichelton. If you like washed rind like Reblochon, try David Jowett's Rollright. It is a pasteurised milk cheese but quite tasty. Have a wonderful travel!

[mikekchar]

Thank you for the suggestions!  Yes, unfortunately I'm stuck in London (I'm working here for a month).  I'm doing my best to sample as many cheeses as I can because cheese is extremely hard to come by and very expensive in Japan.

[mikekchar]

Here is a pick of Tomme #4, aged a little over 16 weeks:



If you remember, I experimented with letting b. linens go to town on the rind and it obliged.  About 5 weeks of the 16 were actually done in the normal fridge because I was in the UK.  The cheese is still fairly firm, though it has definitely softened a bit.  The smell is pretty strong though!  It will be very interesting to taste this, especially since my beer washed reblochon was a complete bust.  The rind here is quite sticky and is flaking off (you can see the odd exposed area if you look hard).  Will be opening this very soon (possibly even tonight).