Tomme - Aging Recommendations

[steffb503]

I have a few raw goat milk Tommes aging. How long can I age them for?
btw Linuxboy--they turned out great.

[linuxboy]

Ohh yeah! That's how to do it. Awesome 

Love those goat tommes with or without a light curd wash.

The aging is a very hard question to answer because we are here talking about very nuanced aspects of the make and of affinage. Did you hit a moisture target that was 35%, with a drain at 6.4-6.45? And age at 50F, 95% RH? If you did, you can age those guys for 2-3 years. More, even, but optimal to me at 18 months. Did you do a washed curd and try to sell more water, at 40-41%, like you would for an adjuncted tomme? Those have a shorter window, optimal at 3-6 months. Did you do somewhere in between? Then it depends on what you like and what you want to sell.

I recommend to do this:

Save a wheel and age it like you normally would. Every week, take a trier, and take a bit out. Take extremely (I mean extraordinarily extremely) detailed notes. Try and describe the flavors, try and train your tongue and senses. And then go back and compare that with your make notes. Not only at one area, but along the length of the trier. You will find it varies as you move along it. Do this and you will notice profound changes in your cheese week to week until the flavor stabilizes for a few weeks and becomes mmmm-good. When that stabilization occurs, it is the earliest time to sell. Usually, for tommes, it is at 75-90 days. From there, keep tasting and keep taking notes about the aroma, flavor, texture. And figure out when at that point you are proud of the product, and then figure out your price point.

If you do that, congratulations, you now have a signature, flagship-type cheese that you can keep selling, and whose flavor customers will come to expect.

To sum: aging starts when you milk the goats. I can't tell you without being there during a make. If you had technical numbers for me, I could be more exact. But regardless, go through the exercise I just described and keep learning so you can gain confidence with this cheese type. If you can make tomme well, you can make any cheese well.

[ArnaudForestier]

Another ringer, Pav.  Thanks.

[steffb503]

Pav are you nuts?
Seriously how am I supposed to know the moisture content. I am just happy it tastes good wheel after wheel.
I followed this recipe

    * Warm 2 gallons milk (17.2 pounds) to 88 degrees F
    * add 1/4 tsp MA4000
    * Ripen for 30 mins at 88 F. pH should decrease slightly (.02+)
    * If needed, add CaCl2 diluted in cold water
    * Add .8 ml double strength rennet dissolved in 1/4 cup distilled water, stir up and down 15 strokes (4-5 ml double strength per 100 lbs milk, convert according to your rennet activity)
    * Wait for flocculation, multiply by 3 to get total set time from the time you added rennet. Time to floc target is 15 minutes. Use more or less to try and hit the target the next time if you're off a little.
    * Cut into 1/4 inch cubes, let rest 5 mins
    * Stir and increase temp to 100 F over 30 mins. Hold at 100F until the curd is at the right texture. You can tell this by pressing a tablespoon of curd in your hand. It should mat together slightly and be somewhat firm.
    * Drain in vat or warm colander. pH should be 6.35 or higher. Let curds mat and press slightly under whey.
    * Put into cheesecloth lined molds. This cheese sticks, so soak the cheesecloth in pH 5.2 whey beforehand.
    * Press under own weight turning at 15 min, 30 min, and 1 hour increments.
    * Press until pH is 5.4 or overnight.
    * Brine in fully saturated brine 3-4 hours per lb of cheese.
    * Leave at 55-65 degrees for a day at ~70% RH for the outer rind to dry a little before moving to the cave.
    * Age 3-6 months at 50-55F, 85-92% RH (or higher if using special rind treatment or making a b linens variant). Natural or oil rubbed rind.

I do not have a PH meter but everything else goes as stated.

I have opened 2-3 now at about 2-3 months old. Every body likes them.
I will try to leave one but it might be difficult over the summer. Perhaps when the goats freshen in the winter and I have not so many customers.

So it is OK to let it go for a while.

Thanks again for all your help.Again over the winter I plan to experiment with washes.

[linuxboy]

Pav are you nuts?

I think everyone knows the answer to that... I tend to ride the mini version of the short bus. True story, in public education, I had to be in special programs.

If you have no way to measure, think of it in terms of comparison. A dry grating cheese like parmesan, that can get into the 20% moisture when ripe. A cheese like a gruyere will be in ther low 30s or high 20s. A cheese like a dry, aged cheddar will be 34-34%. A normal fresh cheddar will be around 37-38%. A monterey jack tends to be more moist, at 40% or so. A young gouda will be at 40-42%. A pizza mozz will be at 45-48%. A fresh mozz will be at 49-55%.

So think about your tomme and remember commercial varieties of cheese you have had. Is it more dry or less dry than some variety? Taste is different, of course, but think about the moisture, and mouthfeel. Sometimes, it's tricky because a lower fat cheese like parm will seem drier even though the moisture is the same.

Anyway, that's how to guesstimate. You don't need to send it in for sampling or anything. Honestly, the numbers don't matter all that much. What matters is the relative degree. It matters if you can tell that you did something during the make and it make the cheese more dry or less dry. Who cares what the numbers are or even if you can explain it to everyone, so long as you can make good cheese and know what you're doing

And if nothing else, at least take taste notes so you know. Moisture control is something that comes with repetition. I more wanted to make the point that if you change moisture in future makes, the flavor progression will be different.

Hope that helps

[Chris_Abrahamson]

OK - I'm going to have to ask.  How would you accurately measure the moisture in the cheese?  If I recall from college chemistry (30+ years) we weighed a sample to 3rd decimal place then totally dried the sample, reweighted and then computed % assuming we are only loosing water and not any VOC's, etc.  Same approach today?  Or are there more elaborate testing equipment available?

[linuxboy]

Same. heat in oven, dessicate, measure.

https://cheeseforum.org/forum/index.php/topic,5224.msg39250.html#msg39250