Formally...Fourme d'Ambert (#2)

[hoeklijn]

Keftedakia me domates ke tiri  ? That must sound familiar, Dukegus!

[dukegus]

Keftedakia me domates ke tiri  ? That must sound familiar, Dukegus!

ha ha hahha hah aha
Omg mate you are amazing!
Are you sure you are not from Greece???

[Boofer]

More precisely,

σάντουιτς με κεφτεδάκια ιταλικά γίνονται με βοδινό και χοιρινό κρέας με ντομάτα και ροκφόρ (sántouits me keftedákia italiká gínontai me vodinó kai choirinó kréas me ntomáta kai rokfór)

Am I close? 

-Boofer-

[dukegus]

σάντουιτς με κεφτεδάκια ιταλικά γίνονται με βοδινό και χοιρινό κρέας με ντομάτα και ροκφόρ (sántouits me keftedákia italiká gínontai me vodinó kai choirinó kréas me ntomáta kai rokfór)

Am I close? 

Pretty close but you sound more like google translator were hoeklijn sounds more authentic :p
So the meatballs was just meat, no herbs/spies, bread, egg etc?
I'm still drooling though

[hoeklijn]

Are you sure you are not from Greece???

Nevertheless my dark hair, big nose and the fact that I get a tan fairly quickly, yes, I'm pretty sure I don't have Greek blood in my veins...
Unless my late mother had some big secrets....

[Boofer]

Pretty close but you sound more like google translator were hoeklijn sounds more authentic :p
So the meatballs was just meat, no herbs/spies, bread, egg etc?
I'm still drooling though

Busted! Yeah, you got me. I must admit I have no Greek lineage. Just Irish and Swiss.   

The meatballs were Italian-seasoned...and very tasty in the sandwich.

-Boofer-

[dukegus]

Unless my late mother had some big secrets....

Lol mate, I laughed so much, you are so funny!!!

The meatballs were Italian-seasoned...and very tasty in the sandwich.

I can imagine...I'm drooling again, I will never look at the picture again!!!

[Boofer]

You could have just scraped some Castello cheese on your cheese instead of a slurry. I've tried the scraping method before and it works. Its ok if your cheese didn't have blue mold on the outside, internal bluing is a lot more important. Btw Blue mold doesn't like its feet wet. Also by making the rind wet, you'll probably attract unwanted micro organisms.

So how do the makers of Fourme d'Ambert get away with injecting their blue cheeses with wet Vouvray wine?

-Boofer-

I also wonder that. They probably have a special process. I've seen a video of Farmstead Fourme d'Ambert production and there was no mention of wine injection. They probably don't want to reveal its process. I have a feeling, that the "Affineurs" are the ones that do this wine injecting to make it unique and to give it their personal touch not the big producers/cheese makers. Affineurs buys young cheese and age it the way they want. I've bought Fourme d'Ambert before and it does not have wine flavor, it has a very milky flavor with a hint of blue.

I have had some time to consider the results of injecting or not injecting Vouvray into the Fourme d'Ambert.

Both of my efforts were very tasty and achieved the results I was seeking. I think the wine on my first FdA hardened the rind a bit. This make was very clean as far as the touch of blue and milky goodness goes. The recipe is definitely a winner. The only real question mark is the blue culture used. For this make, I got a little impatient and dosed it with two different PR strains. With the first FdA, I mixed the slurry in with the curds just prior to moulding. With this make, I added it to the milk with the cultures...then painted the second on at 4 weeks. What difference does that make when I go to duplicate this recipe? I think both methods were effective. I just needed a little more patience.

The next Fourme d'Ambert I make will follow this recipe but add an additional gallon of milk so that the mould is more fully filled. I will go ahead and try dosing the milk with PRB18 (what I have on-hand) instead of making a slurry. I think linuxboy cautioned against culturing from a cheese that had already been previously cultured, so I shouldn't take some culture from this make and attempt my next FdA.

I also got a cutting board from which I will cut a more proper follower so that the resulting cheese doesn't have "shoulders" from pressing. 

And no, I won't inject the next FdA.

-Boofer-