First Morbier- good or not?

[IngaF]

After 10 days since start, my Morbier looks like this

As i never made before any other cheese with Bact. linens, i am not sure if those multicolored dots are ok.
I have washed cheese twice with prepared salt and bacteria solution and none of dots are removable (not superficial)

I hope that more experienced cheese makers could help me with an advice- do i continue to ripen my Morbier further in cheese box in refrigerator (+11 degrees C) or i have to throw it away or do anything else.

Many thanks in advance!

[mathewjones]

Hi Inga,

I'm fairly new to cheesemaking, and my only experience with a linens cheese was a gruyère that ended up being too strong and stinky to eat. But those spots do not look right to me, and if they can't be rubbed off, they may reflect many multiple mold colonies that have penetrated deep into the paste. My first instinct would be to judge by the smell, but because it's a linens cheese it probably smells bad anyway, so that might not help in this case. I think you are right to be concerned. Before throwing it away, wait for more expert advice on this forum.

Cheers,

Matt

[Aris]

After 10 days since start, my Morbier looks like this

As i never made before any other cheese with Bact. linens, i am not sure if those multicolored dots are ok.
I have washed cheese twice with prepared salt and bacteria solution and none of dots are removable (not superficial)

I hope that more experienced cheese makers could help me with an advice- do i continue to ripen my Morbier further in cheese box in refrigerator (+11 degrees C) or i have to throw it away or do anything else.

Many thanks in advance!

It looks like you neglected it. How many times did you wash it? Don't throw it away! Orange dot is the one you want. Wash with brine every other day for a week then stop when the color is uniform. The B. linens might overcome the black spots. You can also try using a toothbrush to remove those black spots. I posted a picture of my raclette style cheese which was 22 days old as an example. I washed it almost everyday with 4% brine for a week then occasionally or when I feel like it. Not a single unwanted mold grew maybe a little Geotrichum Candidum which isn't bad. Now at 1 month it is starting to develop an orange rind. This kind of cheese require a bit of dedication to get it right.

[mikekchar]

Also agree that it looks a bit like it wasn't tended regularly.  I don't know how those orange dots grew.  My gut feeling is that you had some geotrichum, but since the humidity was too high, it ended up staying isolated and you just got a few spots that were high enough pH to grow b. linens.  The black is mildew.

When doing a washed rind, my experience has been that you want to have enough humidity so that you wash one side of the cheese and by the next day the surface has just dried out.  You don't want it to be shiny the next day.  Then you flip and wash the top side again.  You do that every day (if you are doing that style of washed rind).  It's not terrible if it's slightly moist or tacky the next day, but it definitely shouldn't be shiny.

Mildew is always a good indication that you have too high a humidity and potentially not enough gas exchange.  If you cut back the humidity a bit (well, I would do it *quite* a bit, personally) and flip the cheese every day, that should solve that problem.  Unfortunately, the mildew stains the rind forever, so there isn't much you can do about it.  If you wash fairly vigorously (use a cloth and really pull up a bit of the paste into the wash), you *may* be able to conceal it for the most part, though.

[IngaF]

Thank you for comments, i got confirmation that something is wrong as i expected.
Cheese in first photo was shiny because photo was taken right after washing, before washing it look like in photo below with some white mold on it and not shiny at all.

I will try to wash few more times (currently cheese has been washed 3x,it is made 13 days ago) and reduce humidity. If it does not change anything, probably i need to discard this one.

[Aris]

The mildew is just on the surface and won't make the cheese inedible. Keep aging the cheese. It might be delicious when you eventually try it. A wheel of Tomme de Savoie for example looks inedible but it is a delicious cheese underneath its moldy rind.