Hello All
First post and hopefully the right board. I'm trying to locate good reference pictures to help identify mould and/or fungi types that can be found on cheese. Something useful for to the naked eye.
Example of some cheeses coming out using raw milk and CHR R-703 starter but I have no idea what's there.
Thanks!
First, welcome to the forum :-) It's nice to see new people.
I'm afraid I mainly see what appears to be geotrichum candidum (the white) and some kind of blue mold. There seems to be some brown showing up on the first one. I forget the name of the mold that I suspect it is. It's quite common. For a natural rind, you don't really have to worry. If the blue got in early, it might make the cheese somewhat blue, but you have enough geotrichum going there that I suspect you are completely fine. Just let it go.
Quote from: mikekchar on October 01, 2020, 01:17:22 PM
First, welcome to the forum :-) It's nice to see new people.
I'm afraid I mainly see what appears to be geotrichum candidum (the white) and some kind of blue mold. There seems to be some brown showing up on the first one. I forget the name of the mold that I suspect it is. It's quite common. For a natural rind, you don't really have to worry. If the blue got in early, it might make the cheese somewhat blue, but you have enough geotrichum going there that I suspect you are completely fine. Just let it go.
Thanks mikekchar. I'm going for natural rind and thought it was blue coming through, but then it looked a bit grey/green and thought mucor? Some of them I brushed every few days - top pic, but later ones I'm leaving as is and with a gentle pat during a turn. Will the geo ever come through as dominant if left long enough, or will there be a bit of camouflage effect?
Mucor is quite different. It literally looks like cat's hair. It's normally black or brown or grey. In my experience, the geo will never take over, but you should get a "succession" mold showing up very soon (Just looking at your cheeses, I guess they are between 4-8 weeks old). What I would do is just reduce the humidity a bit to disadvantage the blue and let it go. Like the top pic, you will probably start to get some brown showing up and it will very slowly grow over the entire cheese.
I had a cheese that looked pretty much exactly like yours and this is what it ended up like:
(https://i.imgur.com/zH9nSpv.jpg)
The geo in this kind of rind is always intended to set up the rind, not to be the final cover.