Mont d'Or advice

[Lancer99]

This is a build from Dec. 19, two gallons into my clever "I didn't need the top of that bucket" 8″ hoop:





I sprang some change for a French spruce tree bark belt, so now it looks okay outside of the beltway, with a nice growth of mold:



But the rind looks too red (B. linens-y?) and brainy:



Any advice? 

Thanks,
-Lance

[awakephd]

I don't know this type of cheese, so not sure what it should look like - but I agree that you likely have b. Linens going, as well as geo (that would give the brainy look). To me, it looks promising for something that will be soft, gooey, and flavorful in a few weeks ...

[mikekchar]

It seems like there are a large variety of styles of this cheese.  However, I noticed this pic on Wikipedia:

Edit: The pic doesn't seem to be showing for some reason, so here's the link:


I think if you reduce the humidity and get the rind to dry out, it will be pretty darn close to that!  But either way, I guess the goal is to be able to eat it will a spoon, so I think you are good to go!  AC4U!

[MacGruff]

Regarding pictures on this website, I've noticed that when I want to add them, I have to do it in two steps:

1.   Put in the text I want and post it.
2.   Go in to Modify the post and only then add the pic as an attachment.

Weird, but that's the only way it seems to work for me.

Now, if I can figure out how to make them come out right side up!!!   

[mikekchar]

I figured it out.  Wikimedia is doing some weird things in how it serves up it's images in order to tell you what the copyright is.  I just needed to link to the *actual* image.

[Lancer99]

Thanks all, your advice and encouragement much appreciated. 

Looking back into my notes, there is this:12/29 B. linens wipe

D'oh!  I was making some other cheese and wiped the wrong one.

Maybe I just invented the German Mount!

L

[fattyacid]

Looks like a fine cheese in the making
B. linens and geo is a typical brine wash for this cheese. It is basically a Reblochon with a bark belt. If it is a soft body already stop washing and let dry for a few days flipping daily, wrap in two ply cheese paper and let age two more weeks in the fridge-keep flipping in the fridge daily.


FA-

[Lancer99]

I expected this to be really soft at 10 weeks, but wasn't, so I let it go for another two weeks.



I'm a little confused - - the recipe from cheesemaking.com doesn't call for any B. linens, but I mistakenly gave it a wash . . .

The rind is wrong (peau de crapaud), at least according to the pictures I've found.

Initial cutting, and it started to ooze out pretty quickly, but not as quickly as I expected.



I left it out at room temp for some 12 hours. Freed from its bondage, the paste starting gooping out and broke the rind.  Now I know what the spruce band was for!



But, you ask, how did it taste?

Okay, not great. Camembertish with some hints of Limburger, certainly due to the wash. The parts nearest the rind were a bit ammoniacal, unsurprisingly after such a long aging. Otherwise pretty good, unctuous if a bit over-salted.  I've never had this cheese (commercial version) so I don't know how close I got.



-L

[mikekchar]

A cheese for you!  You seem to be having the exact same experience with washed rinds as I do.  Long aging seems to result in... Um... not so nice flavours.  I *think* the key is to reduce the temps and control the speed of the b. linens.  This allows the ammonia to travel through the paste and soften it, without ripening to the extent that it's basically going off.  Who knows, though...  Experience is the thing you get just after you needed it, as they say ;-)

[Lancer99]

Thanks Mike!  I'm just about to post about my Taleggio, kept at 46-50 degrees, which kind of proves your theory

L

[MacGruff]

You guys are amazing! Those cheeses looks fantastic!!  Wish mine came out looking half as good.....

I tried melting my failed cheese this morning. ....  it blistered! but did not run...

Oh well.. Maybe my cheese future is more in the lines of Goudas? 

[mikekchar]

Melting is all about getting the pH of the final cheese right.  Doing is Gouda (or any other washed curd cheese like a colby) is a good way to control the pH because you are removing lactose from the curd.  It won't get too acidic.  Jim Wallace's taste chart for different pH's is actually really awesome, though.  I've been experimenting with it and found that my cheeses are acting the way I expect in those pH ranges (don't have a meter to check).  Go to this recipe and check out the section near the bottom titled "Pressing and Turning" - https://cheesemaking.com/collections/recipes/products/reblochon-recipe-traditional

As you are pressing, you can taste the whey.  The whey is always a little more acidic than the curd (apparently because the casein in the curd acts as a buffer).  Once the whey is getting a slight tang to it, you are in 5.2-5.3 territory.  If you wait a bit more (because the curd is lagging behind a bit), then you should be able to time salting the cheese right in the 5.1-5.3 range, which is optimal for melting and stretching.  At that point, salt the cheese.  Quite a lot of recipes say things like "press overnight", etc, etc and I think the cheeses get really over sour.  You should only press until you hit your pH target (cheddars being the exception, of course, since they are salted before pressing).

[Susan38]

 

The whey is always a little more acidic than the curd (apparently because the casein in the curd acts as a buffer).

I've been researching this subject as I'm using whey pH as one of my indicators while pressing.  So far what I have found is the opposite (that the whey is a little less acidic than the curd).  This is  mentioned in a few of this forum's posts, including one from linuxboy in the mozz board...but also in Caldwell's book where she talks about pH of milk and what happens when it turns into curds and whey...something about the curd soaking up the H ions and thus the curd becomes a bit more acidic than the whey. 

[mikekchar]

Have I got it backwards?  Typical if so :-P  Can I blame dyslexia?