Teasing the Tomme (#5)

[DeejayDebi]

I'll bet you are!

[Boofer]

Well this is an interesting development.

The rind is dry with no weeping, but it is pliable as is the rest of the cheese. The pic shows an obvious poofiness, but the overall feel of the wheel is softer than other Tommes I have made. You can see the marks that the cheese makes where it sits on the rack. The weight of the cheese combined with the softness slightly pushes the cheese into the rack. Thankfully it is encased in the plastic or it might sink right through the rack.  No, not really. 

-Boofer-

[JeffHamm]

Curious.  It's bulging on one side just like the cheddar I made and waxed.  I thought it was due to waxing too early, as when I removed the wax the swelling went down as the gas was able to escape.  After developing the natural rind a bit longer I eventually re-waxed and it's been fine ever since.  But I see this was at least a month before you bagged it, so that's curious to me.  I bet if you take it out of the bag, in a day or two the swelling will go down and it will be able to run with it's friends again.

- Jeff

[Boofer]

it will be able to run with it's friends again.

What a friendly idea. Perhaps I will free it from its gaseous dilemma.

I actually believe the gas is not just relegated to the one side, but is throughout the wheel. Some combination either in the culture mix or the milk (silage?) has brought on this development. At this point it is not escaping the cheese and filling the bag.

-Boofer-

[DeejayDebi]

I have has cheese lines from the racks on youngs cheeses many times. Sometimes I just rotate the cheese to make a cross. Softer cheese do that. Interesting little bit of gas there. Perhaps she needs burping? 

[FRANCOIS]

Gas production from silage milk is normally late blowing, which is why it's so bad.  You age a cheese out and then bam, it starts blowing.  Most large factories would have a bacerfuge to remove the spores, which is why they can produce cheese like swiss year round.  When we make swiss in the winter time we always have to use holdbac in case there's spores in the milk.

[DeejayDebi]

Curious. I have never had this happen but I have seen it here a few times. If you poke a pin in the bump will it release and keep the cheese from blowing?

[JeffHamm]

Hi DeejayDebbie,

I hadn't seen it before until my Cheddar (shown here :  https://cheeseforum.org/forum/index.php/topic,8724.msg62723.html#msg62723 ), and since then there's been a number of incidents.  I wish to formally apologise to everyone for starting, quite inadvertantly I assure you, some sort of cheese pandemic.  Hopefully, we will all pass gass soon.

- Jeff

[Boofer]

Hopefully, we will all pass gass soon.

Boy will I be relieved!  Yeah, Jeff, you're the culprit. LOL 

-Boofer-

[Corina]

Mabe I shouldn t have read this topic, as I am new and get scared quickly when making cheese, so I do not want to take the microbe of cheese swelling

[MacGruff]

Boofer, JeffHamm,

you guy crack me up!!!

[DeejayDebi]

we're ready ......

[anutcanfly]

  A cheese to you Debi! That was the best part of my morning!

[DeejayDebi]

I couldn't resist!

[Boofer]

The gassiness appears to have been absorbed by the cheese. No bubble any more. As a consequence, the entire cheese wheel is very soft. Along with the tendency for the wheel to sink into the cave racks, there are areas along the edges that seem to be cracking rather like a mousse would. Have I created a cheese mousse? I tried to capture that in the first pic.

-Boofer-