I am working on my first Tomme (first hard[ish] cheese for that matter) and have mad a bonehead mistake.
Make was textbook, 13 minute floc, 40 minute set. Curd cutting was a little messy, but during stiring I was able to cut the larger curds so that all was fairly uniform. Whey expulsion was good, curds matted readily, but were easily broken up. pressed by hand under whey to load the mould, then 12 hours under 4kg weight.
Stupidity struck during the brine making.
I had been mixing saline solution early in the week(long story), and made a 20% saline instead of 20% brine meaning 80g salt in 4L water instead of 800g. I soaked my 2.2kg tomme in this for about 6 hours, realized my mistake, fixed my brine, and then restarted my soak leaving the cheese for 15 more hours in the corrected solution. My cheese came out with a relatively firm rind that is well knit, not slimy.
After 12 hours drying, it is rather patchy but otherwise seems fine, texture is uniform with no soft spots. Brining and drying temperature have been higher than ideal, closer to 19C RH is between 60-70%(uncontrolled).
Do I need to take any precautions or extra step with this cheese to compensate for my earlier stupidity or just keep drying it?
Thanks,
D
you're fine, don't sweat it.
Thanks Pav,
Your recipes and tips on tomme have been invaluable.
This is the first cheese i have had to dry for aging, are there any tips or links you could share to help me be sure it is dry enough for the cave (tupperware in a wine fridge)
Cheers,
D
What rind style are you trying to imitate? There are so many directions to take it.
I'm shooting for a geo15/cylindrocarpon blend. My wife and I are debating adding b. linnes. I am inclined to use only the former 2 molds.
Make a spray with those two if you did not add to the milk and spray it for 2-4 days until it is just a tad sticky. Rest will grow in over time and you can pat it down or brush it back
I did add a pinch of each mold to the milk. Would a daily 3% brine rub with both molds work instead of misting? My only spray bottle is used in bread making and I worry about wild yeast contamination.
Thanks again, I really appreciate the time you spend answering questions for beginners.
I'll post photo's and progress updates as we go along.
K, so let's talk rinds. Why do we use a 3% brine? Because it closely resembles saltwater. saltwater is full of life. For cheese, that most often means yeasts and bacteria, as molds rarely survive very long in saltwater. We build up initial yeast and bacterial slime on a cheese to help deacidify the surface and prep the way for any mold growth.
When you spray mold spores on top, think of it like planting seeds in the ground. You need to water the seeds. These seeds are so small that the water also carries them and deposits on the surface. After you plant them, then you wait and watch them grow. It's not really different. Doing a 3% wash during this time is unnecessary UNLESS you are trying to build up a thicker yeast/bacteria rind and have the mold grow through that later on. The mold spores will stay on the rind and when conditions are good (surface moisture and pH mostly), they'll start to grow.
for you, if you can't spray, then don't. Wash somehow to get the seeds on there. And then wait for the bloom to take place.
Hi Linuxboy,
Sorry for the delay in posting this. As we put both Geo and carpo in the milk we will wait to see if they develop. The attached picture was taken just before we put the tomme into the cave.
When we flip the cheese, it seems to always have a tablespoon of whey collected on the bottom of the tupperware. Not sure if this is normal, or if the cheese should be dried a little more.
We will keep you posted as this develops.
Thanks
Looks like I am starting to get some surface mould developing. there was a speck of something blue green(visible in one photo) that I removed. It is likely because we had the cave set a little too high(16C). I am not really certain if the brown is what I want for this or not, I will just let it go for now.
So far it looks great, good luck in aging it, and yes 16 may be a bit to hot try a 9-11 and what humidity is it at, and yes brown is fine depending on what rind style you are going for.
Thanks for the feed back! We already lowered the temp a couple days ago, my wife got the ageing temperature from a different cheese. I'll post again in a week or so.
The blue has come back and is now more prevalent (see photo in next post), I think that I might have to do something about it but am not sure. The milk was inoculated with geo 15 and carpo, and I wanted to see what would develop before adding to much to the rind.
The temp is now at 11C as for the humidity, I can't be sure. It is high, in a Tupperware in a wine fridge. We rotate it every day, and allow it to breathe for about 5 minutes at that time. The container is close fitting on the sides(not touching) but it has about 15cm of head space above the cheese. Below the cheese is a cheese mat on a wire rack about 1 cm tall.
I read a suggestion in one of boofer's posts to hit the blue with vinegar, I am wondering if that is the right course here. I want the rind to be primarily Geo and Carpo for now and I may add some b linens around the 4/6 week mark.
Suggestions?
Technical difficulties
Well yes if you want to get rid of the blue spots on the surface just rub down with vinegar and then in a weak brine solution
Do I need to remove the blue? what kind of flavour will it add? If it doesn't need removed, I will just do a wash with a weak brine with some geo/carpo mixed in to give them a boost.
Well unless you want it to have a blue flavour you do have to remove it, not removing it will add a massive "blue flavour and yes that should work
Quote from: seasofcheese on February 06, 2014, 08:21:50 PM
Do I need to remove the blue? what kind of flavour will it add? If it doesn't need removed, I will just do a wash with a weak brine with some geo/carpo mixed in to give them a boost.
I'm no expert here , but just from personal experience , not all blue molds are good , some impart a terrible taste to cheese , so don't always assume because it's blue , that it's PR.
When I have spotty molds like that on any of my cheeses , I wash them clean , and try to get a consistent coverage of the mold I was going for , Geo , PC , PR , etc.
I've always found spotty mold growth to be dicey , I like to see a nice even coating of the desired mold(s) , of course if you plan on trimming the rind before eating , it may not be that important , I like most of my rinds edible though.
Just my experience , and the way I like my cheeses.
That is correct, the rind in a semi-hard cheese will only impair a certain flavour "if you eat the rind" your cheese will be fine even if you let a wild mix of molds to grow unsupervised and then just brush it once in a while, if it was a bloomy rind, or a washed rind cheese then you really need to see what is growing because the molds will reach inside.
looking at the photos it looks like your tome has very high moisture kind of what a reblochon looks, so in this case the molds will penetrate the inside and change the texture close to the exterior (they won't reach the inside) you might want to create a thicker dryer rind by leaving it outside of the tuper ware and washing a few times with brine
Thank you both for the feedback and advice. It is fun trying for a tomme, but it highlights how much I have to learn. My only other aged cheese was a camembert that I tried a couple yeas ago. I didn't give it enough air and the environment was to humid so I ended up with ammonia patties.
I doubt the blue is roqueforti, it's not common here on the prairies. I have done a vinegar spot cleaning of all the blue mould spots I gently wiped off what I could, though there is some blue left in the crevices. I am hoping the vinegar will knock it back the most. I waited about 10 minutes after spot cleaning and then used a 3% brine wash with Geo/Carpo in the brine. We can certainly pull it out of the tupperware and I will try to pick up a hygrometer this weekend to see the humidity of our wine fridge. The prairies are notoriously dry in winter.
How frequently would you suggest I brine wash?
Just a few times, you will notice the rind becomes a little dry and translucid (a little darker) when it has formed a protective barrier. then you can let anything grow on it to add character.
even in a small wine fridge without a hygrometer you will get the feel by observation when things are too moist you open the container, when too dry you close it, in this case you want to be much dryer a few days
Update time. Began brine washing, and left the container cracked for a couple days after the first brine wash. Looks like the Geo15 has really taken hold. though the blue stuff cam back. I opened the lid entirely for about six hours yesterday, and some serious cracks developed in the rind on one corner. First photo.
I used vinegar to spot clean the blue mould, and then applied salted butter to the cracks to seal them(as read in some other posts) washed the whole thing with 3% brine and put it back into the container. Got a cheap analogue hygrometer so hopefully that will help me keep things consistent.
The second photo is after the brine wash.
It looks like the gremlins won't let me post pics so I will have do do separate posts.
hope this works
success
There appear to be some voids/gas pockets developing beneath the rind. Nothing looks like it is expanding, but there are some areas that move to the touch. they are mostly on the side of the cheese, and do not appear to be related to the cracks.
Anyone have any thoughts on what that might be?
It is probably exes moisture in the inside. it could develop small flaws in the cheese where the rind becomes soft, but the rest of the cheese will be ok. for your next make you can do the things that help achieve a dryer curd (cut smaller, less coagulation time, more cooking time)