As I'm posting my pictures today, I'm noticing that I seem to have a thing for semi-hard sweet washed curd cheeses.
Though this Tomme is pretty hard, maybe that's not right, but hey it's still a cheese.
Anyway, I like seeing pictures of cheeses so I figured I should return the favor. My cave seems to have a very nice flora going on. I even got a few yellow spots which I've read the French think is a sign of a good Tomme.
It is very cheddar-y though. This is just 3 months old, so I'm throwing half of it back in the cave to mature into something more interesting. But I needed to pull out cheeses for Easter to impress the family ;)
My brother is a chef, so I need to show him up with my homemade cheese 8)
AC4U It looks awesome. My tommes have turned out pretty cheddary too. Next month I'm off to the UK (which is still barely in the EU ;-) ) so I hope to scrounge up a couple of tommes to get a better idea of the flavour I should be shooting for. BTW, I'm definitely going to copy your presentation style of photographing the half wheel resting up against the other half wheel :-)
I'd be interested in the details of your make. I'm also interested in your affinage. Did you have any problems? Did you do anything special?
This cheese was SO easy. I put it in the cave and watched it grow this rind. I may have brushed it once to knock back white mold, but generally, it just happened.
Here are my make details (they are spotty
2 gallons
1/16 t Kazu Farmhouse
1/16 t Thermo B
1/4 t CaCl
Rennet per manufacturer instructions
Heat to 70F, sprinkle cultures, wait 5 minutes, then stir.
Get to 90F, hold for 15 minutes.
Add CaCl, wait 5 minutes, add rennet
Keep at 90F (ish, mine got to 91), check for clean break at 45 minutes. Not a clean break, give it 10 more.
Cut the curds small(1/4 inch maybe) then rest 5 minutes
Stir the curds with a whisk to cut them further.
Heat to 100 F over 30 minutes. Stirring to prevent knitting.
Gather curds and remove whey. Check for dog hair. Mold curds (I didn't use cheese cloth)
Press with just the follower for 15 minutes.
Turn at 30 minutes, 1 hour
Brine for 5.5 hours (cheese was 2.5 lb)
Place in cave and try to remember to flip it daily. Cave is 54-58F and moisture isn't controlled well. Dry brush when something grows that looks not great. Make sure dogs don't get too close when flipping.
Try it at 3 months, re-bag half to try at 6 months.
That's really nice. I'm literally going to give that a try when I get back from the UK in mid June. I think reducing the moisture content of my tommes will probably make it easier to manage the rind.
Lovely looking Tomme. Have a cheese from me.
I am a little confused though. You mention washed curd in your original post but there is no mention of washing the curds in your make notes.
On the other hand, I'm glad that you checked for dog hair.
As for the yellow spots, I often get those when I have had to clean off wild blue mould. Could that explain yours?
By the way, have you thought about using the flocculation method for determining coagulation time?
All of the cheeses I've been making show up in the "washed curd" section of this forum, that's what I've noticed.
I haven't really need to do the floc method yet, so I haven't, I'm trying to keep this as simple as possible still.
I only had a little blue at the beginning I think, I did brush it but I didn't write it down. I was just going by look and smell.
Cheesemaking is my way to destress from working 2 jobs so I go very intuitively and cross my fingers.