Resources for Intermediate Cheesemakers?

[Stinkycheeseman20]

Hello!

I have been making cheese for a few years, with some success and much failure. I do not get to make cheese very often, so although I have been at it for a few years now, I am not a particularly accomplished cheesemaker. I have hit a bit of a plateau, and I am looking for resources on how to make more progress. I especially have trouble with aged cheeses, which always seem to dry out after just a couple of months of ripening.

I started making cheese using instructions from Gianaclis Caldwell's books. First I worked my way through Mastering Basic Cheesemaking. The step-by-step approach, with each cheese being a little more complicated than the previous, was a great way to become familiar with the fundamentals without being too overwhelmed. I then moved to her Mastering Artisan Cheesemaking, which I still rely on whenever I make cheese.

A couple years ago, I took a two-day cheesemaking class with Merryl Winstein. The class was tremendously helpful, and my cheesemaking dramatically improved after it. She has classes this summer in Central Pennsylvania. I also use her Successful Cheesemaking books. I find them extremely helpful and informative, and they are generally my primary guide to cheesemaking at this point. Merryl is also a great resource. I have emailed her multiple times asking for advice, and she always replies with generous and valuable insights.

I have a few other books that I also consult, such as Rikki Carroll's Home Cheesemaking and Mary Karlin's Artistan Cheesemaking at Home.

Are there other resources that people used at this point in their cheesemaking development? Any essential or key books, videos, whatever that have helped people trouble shoot when cheeses go wrong? My current issue is with aged cheeses, but suggestions on any variety are appreciated.

Thank you!

[Bantams]

Hello and welcome!
Having a proper cheese aging environment makes a world of difference. If you share what you are currently using we can help troubleshoot or find a better solution.
What size batches do you typically make?

[Stinkycheeseman20]

I have a small wine cooler that I keep at 55 degrees during ripening. I put the cheese in an open Tupperware on top of a few cheese mats, and I put a few open cups of water in there too. That only gets the humidity up to about 80%, but I'm not sure how to get it higher other than keep adding more water. For the rind I am just using a couple coats of Plasticoat.

I use 4 gallons of milk at a time.

Thank you!

[Bantams]

To clarify, are the rinds drying out and cracking, or the whole cheese is just too dry overall?
I initially assumed you meant the rinds are drying and cracking, which would be an aging issue, but if you're coating them then that shouldn't be an issue.  Can you describe the problem more thoroughly?

[Stinkycheeseman20]

The rind is not cracking. Instead the entire cheese is very hard, from the outside through  the inside. Once it was almost too hard for me cut open at all. I attached some pictures of the most recent, which was a little better than the previous attempt. It was at least edible on the inside. But it was supposed to be a Tomme, and after only one month of ripening it had a texture closer to a Parmesan.

[Bantams]

What kind of milk? Whole?
Did you follow Gianaclis Caldwell's recipe for this one?
How did you decide brine time? Is it too salty?
How are you pressing? Weight and time?

[Stinkycheeseman20]

I used four gallons of whole milk.  I followed Merryl Winstein's recipe, which is similar to Caldwell's recipe. I dry salted it. I weighed the cheese to figure out the amount of salt to use based on weight, 1/3 oz salt per pound of cheese. I rubbed the salt on in 3 batches over the next 3 days. I pressed for about 24 hours total. I'm not sure how much weight. My press has a spring and screw that I turn to increase the pressure, but I don't know how to measure how much pressure I am adding. I suspect it is a lot of pressure

[mikekchar]

Keep in mind that there are a lot of types of tomme.  An Italian Toma is very much like a grana in many ways.  Some recipes are geared more in that direction than a Savoie style tomme.  A tomme is kind of subtle in that when you cut the curds, how much you cook it, what pH you drain the curd at are all quite important for the final texture.  The nice thing about a tomme is that no matter what you do, it's basically going to be good to eat and also basically a tomme :-)  It just might not be the style you were intending.

To get closer to a Savoie style tomme you'll want to cut the curd at about a flocculation multiplier close to 3.0.  Look up the "flocculation method" for details.  Basically you float something on the milk after you add the rennet (I use a plastic bottle cap).  Every few minutes you spin the cap.  When it stops spinning it has "flocculated".  I usually wait until removing the cap *just* leaves a mark when you remove it.  You record the amount of time that took and then multiply by the multiplier.  So if it took 12 minutes (typical for a tomme), then a multiplier of 3 would be 36 minutes and you should wait another 24 (12 + 24 = 36) minutes before cutting.  It's important to measure, though, because your milk may be acidifying faster or slower than normal, leading to a shorter or longer wait.  Recipes that say to wait x minutes are ok on average, but it might be dramatically different for you.  I always use the flocculation method for that reason.

You don't mention if you are using homogenised milk or not.  Homogenised milk is *very* difficult to work with.  If you are using homogenised milk you have to be really really careful when you are stirring not to break the curds.  Being too rough with them will also lose fat and whey, leading to a dense cheese.  The time to drain the cheese is really important for a tomme too.  To get that nice elastic paste, you need to drain while the pH is over 6 (i.e. very low acid).

You kind of have to be very precise about the amount of culture you are using in your milk because too much will acidify faster and too little will acidify slower.  If it's too much acid, then the cheese will come out very different.  You have to get to know your culture to get the right time to drain.  Normally I don't go much more than about 45 minutes from cutting to draining when doing a tomme.  But you also have to have the curds at the right point.

When it's getting close to draining time, take a curd and tear it apart with your fingers.  Early on, you'll notice that the middle of the curd is very watery while the outside is fairly firm.  The more you stir, the smaller the watery inside gets.  Right when the curd is the same texture all the way through is when you want to drain a tomme.  IMHO, though, it's better to drain early than late for a variety of reasons.  So if you think it's taking too long, and it's close, then go for it.  If it's going to fast and the curds are ready but it's been not very long, then drain as well.

Next pressing.  When the pH is very high (low acidity), the curds knit very easily.  Tomme is fairly high moisture as well (at least Savoie styles).  I've made tommes with *no* pressing at all.  You want to flip every 15 minutes or so at the beginning and the cheese should be closed (completely smooth on the outside) after 2 hours.  If you find that it's difficult to accomplish that then either the pH is too low (too acidic -- drained too late), or the moisture is too low (cut too early, or stirred too much), or both.  But between the two of these acidity is most likely to be the cause.

One quick thing because it's unintuitive: pressing does not materially affect how much whey the cheese drains.  It will drain completely on it's own without any weight.  You only press to close the rind.  If you press too hard, you can close the rind too quickly and that will *stop* the cheese from draining.  This leads to acidic, crumbly and sometimes spoiled cheese.

After you finish pressing, you need to leave the cheese until it gets down to a pH of about 5.3 or 5.4 for a tomme.  After that you salt.  The amount of time you wait depends entirely on the temperature and how your culture is faring.  I normally leave the cheese in the mold (without weight) and let it continue draining slowly.  I collect the whey.  Every hour or so I taste it.  When it just starts to taste noticeably tart, you are getting close to the right pH.  24 hours is certainly way too long unless you live in an igloo.

As for aging...  Blimely that's a big topic :-)  But basically get the bits above going well and aging will be much easier.

Hope that helps!

[Stinkycheeseman20]

Thank you so much for the thorough response! I am using non-homogenized milk. The bottle cap on the milk to check for flocculation is a great  idea. I'll have to try that, and your other suggestions too!

[Aris]

You are aging in a tupperware without a cover that is why humidity is only 80% which is too low for a Tomme imo. Next time cover the tupperware and remove the condensation that builds up below the cover every day. It is also possible you are over cooking the curds. My recent tomme style cheese has the right texture and amount of moisture. It was aged for 60+ days in a plastic container with a cover.
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