Hi everyone!
I have had the good fortune to be gifted raw goat's milk during the summer and fall. I've been making cheese for a couple of years, but I'm still a novice... so I wanted to try making the same recipe multiple times to learn how different things impact the final cheese.
Enter this trio of tommes. I mostly followed the Goat Milk Tomme recipe from the NE Cheesemaking website. I didn't have the specific culture they recommended, so I made the first one with C101, the middle one was half C101 and half flora danica, the third was all flora danica. Aged 3 months, 2.5 months and 2 months, respectively.
I made various mistakes in the make and used different cultures and aged them different times. This was my first try waxing cheese, so the middle one cracked and some mold got it. I was having trouble keep enough humidity in my cheese cave until it got a little fuller, so the first one was aging in a dryer environment than I'd like.
Despite the variations, they all tasted very similar. One had a bit more tang, one tasted a little grassier, all were quite mild... But the most striking feature was a tragically dry mouth feel. The texture was fine - they slice well and aren't too crumbly, they just aren't creamy at all. All three had a chalkiness that could be mitigated by some fig jam or melting it under the broiler... but they aren't great eating cheeses on their own.
I had hoped to repay my goat-owning friend with some cheese for her kindness, but I'm too disappointed in these to share. I have 2 more gallons of raw milk in my fridge right now and I don't want to make the same mistake again.
Any ideas what would cause the chalkiness?
Sometimes textural issues are resolved by longer aging - if possible I would rewax them and try at 6 months.
The curd likely dried out excessively during the cooking/stirring process. Maybe the curd was cut too small; maybe it was heated too quickly or rested too long before draining - unfortunately there's really no way for us to know and you'll have to experiment through trial and error.
Excessive acidity could also be to blame - maybe from culturing/renneting too long or too much added culture - but that usually results in a crumblier texture.
Cutting the curd earlier will also produce a smoother and more elastic texture.
One thing I noticed is the presence of lots of tiny holes in the middle cheese (can't see well enough in the others). They're round and shiny which tells me they're due to air development, not mechanical holes from light pressing. I know that some meso cultures contribute to light gas formation, but that looks to me like classic coliform activity.
You may want to perform some testing on the milk you're using or consider pasteurizing in the future.
(insert vomiting emoji)
Ewwwwww. Thanks for the heads up. I may have placed too much faith in the sterility of my friend's farm.
I wonder if that is also the source of my flavor issues or if I now have two problems to solve...
Yes, usually flavor, aroma and texture is off as well with coliform contamination. Unfortunately it's a very common issue with milk producers who don't test their milk or make cheese (if they made raw milk cheeses they would quickly become aware of the issue).