I have been doing a lot of reading on the forum today about brushed rinds. I have two wheels of Tomme, both 10 days old, and I plan on oiling one and brushing the other. There was no mold activity until day 8. There We're some light brown blotches that wiped away easy and some small black specks (probably mildew?). This morning I wiped the mold off of both with vinegar, and applied my first coat of oil to the wheel that I will be oiling.
My question with brushed rinds is should I keep spot cleaning the mold with vinegar or just let it go? I seem to be reading conflicting things on this topic across other threads. I have no problem with a funky "ugly" rind, so I am concerned that consistently wiping the mold that appears will keep a good rind from ever developing. But it does seem like there is a time and place for vinegar wiping, even with brushed rinds...I'm just not quite sure when that is
It's up to you and your tastes. How long do you plan to age them and how wild do you want it to get ?
I'd like to age them a while but they are pretty small (a bit under 2 lbs) so I'm thinking 3-4 months is the most I could get away with before drying them out too much
I would probably try to keep the mold down for a while then. If you do let it grow you could always vac seal it at some point to slow down the mold and retain some moisture
Thanks for the suggestion. So are you suggesting that increased rind mold growth dries out the cheese?
Let it grow .. brush it off then repeat
No increased mold growth will not dry out the cheese more. It would be more like a two birds one stone situation. If the mold was getting away a little or the cheese is drying out too much the vac bagging would help you in both situations