Realizing that a true Tomme may be crafted with skimmed milk, I decided to build in a little extra richness by using part skim and whole milk.
1 1/2 gallons Twin Brook Creamery 2% creamline milk
1 1/2 gallons Twin Brook Creamery whole creamline milk
1 gallon Cozy Vale Creamery whole raw milk
1/2 tsp MA4001 (LL,LC,LD,ST)
1/16 tsp LH
1/8 tsp PLA
1/32 tsp Mycodore
1/16 tsp LM057
1/2 tsp CACL
1/16 tsp dry calf rennet
Started this make 1/5/12:
Milk started out a tad bit high: pH 7.02 (milk was fresh: pulldate 1/21/12)
I wanted to try to shortcut a mother culture. Typically I have been just adding the dry cultures to the milk. This time I warmed a cup of milk and added the cultures to it. When it read pH 5.24, I added it to the kettle which was reading pH 6.98 @ 86F.
It still took almost 2 hours to reach pH 6.56 @ 86F, at which time I added the CACL and rennet, both dissolved in cold distilled water. Yes, 2012 will be the year I move to the
mother.
Floc was in 16 minutes. I used a 3x multiplier.
Cut, rested 10 min, whisked to hazelnut-size, rested 10 min.
Washed with 1 1/2 gal 130F water, while raising kettle heat so that curds were cooked to 103F over 30 min.
Placed curds into Plyban-lined mold and pressed down into corners of mold.
Pressed in kettle, under whey, for 30 minutes using .75 lb wrench and 2 pulleys => 22 lbs. Flipped, stripped Plyban, and pressed naked under whey for 30 min. Got nubbins showing. Flipped, rotated wheel so nubbins weren't lined up with holes and pressed for 30 min. Flipped, rotated wheel, and pressed with level & piston weight alone => 11 lbs for 8 more hours (next morning).
pH 5.22: Into brine (pH 4.84) for 13 hours, flipped at midpoint.
Out of brine, dried with paper towels, placed into minicave, rested and dried at room temp for 2 days.
Into white cave with lid cracked @ 54F.
Today marks 2 weeks since I started this, my 40th cheese. The rind is different than I've seen before, so far. Seems like each of these Tommes have behaved differently. I intend to concentrate on washing with simple 3% brine to hydrate the rind, develop the linens, geo, and mycodore. At this point, it appears that the geo and mycodore may be coming out. There is a fine white dusting that appears to be a little gritty. I will keep that minimized.
I just wanted to point out that there are two ways I know of when "pressing under whey":
- pressing down on the curds in the kettle with your hands or a flat weight while the warm whey still covers them.
- pressing the curds in the mold while it sits in warm whey.
I choose the latter method and have pictured it here.
With this make, I may have been a little too aggressive with the pressure while under whey...hence, the
candles on the cake, or nubbins. :o :(
-Boofer-
nice looking Tomme Boofer. Thanks for the of the make and the photo's.
I thought the candles looked cool. You should have left them on! :)
Looking good Boofer. I've yet to make a tomme, but I enjoy seeing how the one's people here make progress.
- Jeff
Very calming rind treatment for me. Different than what I've done before and certainly non-standard. Not a complex rind, full of various colors of the rainbow.
I'm curious to find what profile this gives the cheese.
The pictures may seem slightly saturated with orange color. It is pretty deep color. I stopped washing a little over a week ago and now just rub it all around and air it out every other day. It still sits in its minicave so that the humidity is maintained. No foreign incursions. Well protected rind.
-Boofer-
Wow! Where are my sun glasses? 8) Ahh that's better.
Ah, anut, you're killin' me! ;)
-Boofer-
Whoa! I took the cheeses out to air this morning and for their morning rubdown...Holy cow, what a smell!!! ::)
I opened the lid of this puppy and almost fell on my keester. I may have mentioned my sense of smell has been lagging of late...not this morning! I could not believe it. I've done cheeses with B. linens before, but this one stands out...way out! That's not to say it's a bad thing...just a little unusual. ;)
I'll let it go for a bit to develop the paste and then brush it back. I have been just rubbing it for the past two weeks.
-Boofer-
You might want to wait until the next time your wife is out of town to eat that cheese! ;)
Looks great Boofer. love the color. I got one that color once and I thought it was really kewl! i had ordered the wrong linens but loved the color.
Thanks Debi. It really is nose-iferous. ::)
-Boofer-
I was chasing some other thread when I came across one of linuxboy's gems (https://cheeseforum.org/forum/index.php/topic,1591.msg27702.html#msg27702). It underscores what this rind is all about. I feel much better now. :)
"It becomes basically straight b linens, which can be a cool rind if you manage it and lower the humidity so the b linens dies off and hardens."
-Boofer-
I looked at the wheel this morning and decided I needed to minimize the B. linens covering the wheel. Out came the cheese brush...and off came the orange veneer. Never done this procedure before. A bit of an education. :-\
I feel better having removed most of the linens. When pressed, you can feel that the cheese is firm but not soft, and it gives slightly under modest pressure.
Today it seems like the cheese planets aligned themselves within the vacuum of space. It was vacuum-sealing day. I will monitor the wheel to ensure that it doesn't sweat or weep inside the bag. I don't expect it to, but then I have been surprised before. :o
I'm targeting 3-6 months for this cheese.
-Boofer-
Yum! You have a nice collection going to look forward to. Sorry you lost you're pretty color though.
Quote from: anutcanfly on February 12, 2012, 08:51:26 PM
Yum! You have a nice collection going to look forward to. Sorry you lost you're pretty color though.
Hey, my cheeks are still rosy. :)
Now I have some shelf space in the caves so I can redo Reblochon and/or Taleggio. The only one still hanging out in there is the sticky-rind Tilsit #2. There's a bit of an
echo...
echo...
echo...when I look in there. :P
-Boofer-
That's good to hear. I thought I was going to have to work a little harder at being a tease! ;)
I'm about ready to make another stinky. What would be a good follow up to the last one?
My cave should have run out of room months ago... don't know where all goes! A)
My family and friends have gotten tired of free cheese - go figure? SOme doctor in town is telling everyone cheese is a heart attack on a plate so no one is eatting cheese these days. :-\
Debi, that's so terribly inaccurate; how unfortunate. It is carbs and dietary imbalances that tend to cause heart disease. Fat actually helps to prevent it. Cheese from grass-fed cattle especially.
Debi - I would be most happy to take some of your cheeses off your hands! >:D
Quote from: linuxboy on February 15, 2012, 08:31:04 PM
Cheese from grass-fed cattle especially.
Hey, where else can you get your daily CLA and have it taste so good?
Debi, maybe if you charged them some trivial amount for the cheese, then they'd realize it had more value.
-Boofer-
My brother and brother in law have both had heart by passes and their doctors say you should not eat a piece of cheese bigger than a dice cube so they quit eatting it. My guys at work will eat anything I feed them and ask for more but they prefer meat with their cheese! I have requests for sausages and meat products all the time which I get a good price for but cheese not so much.
Yeah I hear you about the wrong info but what does our Billion dollar food pryimid/plate say? Eat more carbs! Go figure!
Its still not definitive that saturated fat (as from cheese) causes artery problems , the accuall reason is still unknown.
It all depends on what drug companies are pushing out and what studyies they are financing.
I say eat moderatly what ever you love,excercise and dont smoke.
If that doesnt work ,you were likely born not to live to be a 100.
I read an interesting article about how modern western science only knows how to deal with disease , they dont know how to keep you healthy when your healthy.
Quotewhat does our Billion dollar food pryimid/plate say? Eat more carbs! Go figure!
It has been one of the most insidious lies of modernity, that the food pyramid in any way makes sense. In truth, the studies that started this entire line of very damaging thought started with Ancel Keys in the 1950s, who used poor science to push an agenda through. We were not designed by and large to eat carbs and grains. Out diets for thousands of years have consisted of a great deal of fat, meat, and veggies.
QuoteIts still not definitive that saturated fat (as from cheese) causes artery problems , the accuall reason is still unknown.
It actually is known, with a high enough correlation to diet (with a contribution of genetics). Basically, processed foods high in carbs, as well as high carb consumption seems to be a directly contributory cause, whereas consumption of high quality fat seems to reverse heart disease factors.
It helps to remember/remind that the people trying to tell us abundant carbs are good, are the same people that insisted that polyunsaturated fats were healthy.
check out the book Nourishing Traditions." what the diet dictocrats don't want you to know" by Sally Fallon..it gives the full scoop on all of this and is a really good read.. it is actually a cook book.
I have had to deal with this stuff as I have a son who is type 1 diabetes.... they try to tell me he should be eating non fat foods.....
MIssy
Thanks, I'll look into the book. I like to be aware of these things. It's upsetting how often what we are told has little to due with what is healthy and more to due with what is profitable. >:(
That's a really good book. Lots of the olde ways in there I really like it.
I do believe genetics plays a huge role in heart problems but as long as doctors say don't eat cheese people will do as they say. Or try. In the mean time my sausage and deli meats (which are about 25% to 30% fat) are irrisistable! ;)
My Sweety doesn't eat meat, so I try not to when he is home, so needless to say I'm generally salivating when I look at all the sausages you make. I consume a lot of eggs and cheese. Also butter, I have a special taste bud tuned into butter, not polyunsaturated fat. I find that I feel satisfied much faster/easier if there is a little butter included. My blood pressure is normally 100/60, or less. My weight... not telling! ::) But it's bread and cake that really packs weight on me quick...I go on a maintenance diet every winter. :) I'm a paraglider. As such, I have to keep my weight in the range that my wing is designed for.
Always wanted to try that! Looks exciting!
You can likely arrange to go on a tandem flight, but you need to be warned... it's addictive and known to create serious changes in life style! :o I went on a very brief tandem on a date, and immediately changed everything in my life to accommodate the need/passion. You can bring up a topic of a sexual nature that will normally catch and hold peoples attention... but around paraglider pilots the topic will switch right back to flying in less than a minute! We are all just that badly hooked.
I'll bet you are!
Well this is an interesting development.
The rind is dry with no weeping, but it is pliable as is the rest of the cheese. The pic shows an obvious poofiness, but the overall feel of the wheel is softer than other Tommes I have made. You can see the marks that the cheese makes where it sits on the rack. The weight of the cheese combined with the softness slightly pushes the cheese into the rack. Thankfully it is encased in the plastic or it might sink right through the rack. :o No, not really. ::)
-Boofer-
Curious. It's bulging on one side just like the cheddar I made and waxed. I thought it was due to waxing too early, as when I removed the wax the swelling went down as the gas was able to escape. After developing the natural rind a bit longer I eventually re-waxed and it's been fine ever since. But I see this was at least a month before you bagged it, so that's curious to me. I bet if you take it out of the bag, in a day or two the swelling will go down and it will be able to run with it's friends again.
- Jeff
Quote from: JeffHamm on March 14, 2012, 08:14:18 PM
it will be able to run with it's friends again.
What a friendly idea. Perhaps I will free it from its gaseous dilemma.
I actually believe the gas is not just relegated to the one side, but is throughout the wheel. Some combination either in the culture mix or the milk (silage?) has brought on this development. At this point it is not escaping the cheese and filling the bag.
-Boofer-
I have has cheese lines from the racks on youngs cheeses many times. Sometimes I just rotate the cheese to make a cross. Softer cheese do that. Interesting little bit of gas there. Perhaps she needs burping? ;)
Gas production from silage milk is normally late blowing, which is why it's so bad. You age a cheese out and then bam, it starts blowing. Most large factories would have a bacerfuge to remove the spores, which is why they can produce cheese like swiss year round. When we make swiss in the winter time we always have to use holdbac in case there's spores in the milk.
Curious. I have never had this happen but I have seen it here a few times. If you poke a pin in the bump will it release and keep the cheese from blowing?
Hi DeejayDebbie,
I hadn't seen it before until my Cheddar (shown here : https://cheeseforum.org/forum/index.php/topic,8724.msg62723.html#msg62723 (https://cheeseforum.org/forum/index.php/topic,8724.msg62723.html#msg62723) ), and since then there's been a number of incidents. I wish to formally apologise to everyone for starting, quite inadvertantly I assure you, some sort of cheese pandemic. Hopefully, we will all pass gass soon.
- Jeff
Quote from: JeffHamm on March 15, 2012, 03:51:50 AM
Hopefully, we will all pass gass soon.
Boy will
I be relieved! Yeah, Jeff, you're the culprit. LOL ;D
-Boofer-
Mabe I shouldn t have read this topic, as I am new and get scared quickly when making cheese, so I do not want to take the microbe of cheese swelling ;D
Boofer, JeffHamm,
you guy crack me up!!!
A)
we're ready ......
;D A cheese to you Debi! That was the best part of my morning!
I couldn't resist!
The gassiness appears to have been absorbed by the cheese. No bubble any more. As a consequence, the entire cheese wheel is very soft. Along with the tendency for the wheel to sink into the cave racks, there are areas along the edges that seem to be cracking rather like a mousse would. Have I created a cheese mousse? I tried to capture that in the first pic.
-Boofer-
Boofer
Maybe you could try re-bagging it, that might firm it up. I really could not tell, but it looks like there is some moisture in there too. I had this happen with one of my cheeses, I re-bagged it and it firmed up a bit.
Ian
Look at the poor thing all limp. You killed it Boofer! What did it ever do to you? ;)
How odd this cheese is like 3 months old now right? Almost like something is breaking down the cheese curds. What are the little orange spots?
Perhaps that color is from the Brevibacterium linens.
Almost looks like it has a colored cheddar in it. COuld be theb.linends they doo seem to stand out though.
Quote from: DeejayDebi on March 29, 2012, 09:53:06 PM
How odd this cheese is like 3 months old now right? Almost like something is breaking down the cheese curds. What are the little orange spots?
I started this on January 19th. If you look
here (https://cheeseforum.org/forum/index.php/topic,8941.msg64658.html#msg64658) you will see what the orange spots are.
There is no moisture in the bag. I don't believe that rebagging it will firm it up. There is some curd breakdown occurring. I am probably close to opening the bag and cutting into it to see what's up. Very curious.
-Boofer-
So some of the orange has remained. Maybe Pav or Francous knows what this strange breakdown is?
Hi Boofer,
I think cutting the bag open is called for. I wouldn't cut into the cheese just yet though, just get it out to the air and see if it firms up with some exposure to the air. If that's going to do it I think you'll notice an improvement in 24-48 hours, then it's just a matter of waiting until the rind improves enough before you bag it again.
- Jeff
Quote from: JeffHamm on March 30, 2012, 04:04:57 AM
Hi Boofer,
I think cutting the bag open is called for. I wouldn't cut into the cheese just yet though, just get it out to the air and see if it firms up with some exposure to the air. If that's going to do it I think you'll notice an improvement in 24-48 hours, then it's just a matter of waiting until the rind improves enough before you bag it again.
- Jeff
Yessir, I will heed your directive...forthwith! I have a feeling the linens will resume where it left off once it gets a breath of air. I'm kind of afraid to pull it out of the bag because it is so soft. I'm probably going to incur some rind damage. Eh, what the hey! :P
-Boofer-
Quote from: Boofer on March 30, 2012, 01:29:18 PM
Quote from: JeffHamm on March 30, 2012, 04:04:57 AM
Hi Boofer,
I think cutting the bag open is called for. I wouldn't cut into the cheese just yet though, just get it out to the air and see if it firms up with some exposure to the air. If that's going to do it I think you'll notice an improvement in 24-48 hours, then it's just a matter of waiting until the rind improves enough before you bag it again.
- Jeff
Yessir, I will heed your directive...forthwith! I have a feeling the linens will resume where it left off once it gets a breath of air. I'm kind of afraid to pull it out of the bag because it is so soft. I'm probably going to incur some rind damage. Eh, what the hey! :P
-Boofer-
try cutting all four edges and lifting the top off gently. then you could flip it onto a drying mat and not have to handle the cheese too much.
Yeah, that was my thought. But it won't be clean or easy.
-Boofer-
I removed the cheese from the bag and spotted what I thought was some ooziness at a break in the rind on the edge. That prompted me to proceed with cutting the cheese. I had no idea what I would see.
Well what do you know? The cheese isn't oozy. There are a lot of gas pockets around the rind. That explains the really soft, pliable rind. The cheese slices well, doesn't crumble, acidity seems right, and the flavor...wonderful!
The culture mix that included PLA, mycodore, and LM057 created a really different rind (and cheese!). I wonder now what would have happened if I had not brushed the linens down. By doing that I believe the rind stayed drier and didn't have as much tackiness as my previous linens rinds have shown. There was a very slight linens tackiness between the cheese and the bag, but there was no moisture in the bag or weeping from the cheese.
Overall, I am relieved (of my gas concerns, thank you :) ) and believe that, with a little more aging, the flavor will improve greatly.
-Boofer-
Quote from: Boofer on March 30, 2012, 04:44:28 PM
The cheese slices well, doesn't crumble, acidity seems right, and the flavor...wonderful!
That's what I like to hear! It looks pretty tasty as well.
It's still alive after all! So what does wonderful taste like? :)
Fabulous. Sir, you are a rock-it scientist.
Quote from: anutcanfly on March 30, 2012, 05:05:27 PM
It's still alive after all! So what does wonderful taste like? :)
bacon. ;D
What a great looking result! And the taste sounds wonderful too. :) Now, can you do again, on purpose?
- Jeff
WOW! Almost looks like you had a slipskin going there any geo in your area when you made this? was there moisture in the holes? Maybe that's why it looked ozzy? Look much betterout of the bag than it did in the bag. Boys those cows had gas bad!
Quote from: anutcanfly on March 30, 2012, 05:05:27 PM
It's still alive after all! So what does wonderful taste like? :)
"Wonderful" => breakfast!
A little sourdough toast, freshly cut tomato, and
this cheese.... 8)
Quote from: DeejayDebi on March 30, 2012, 06:16:24 PM
WOW! Almost looks like you had a slipskin going there any geo in your area when you made this? was there moisture in the holes? Maybe that's why it looked ozzy? Look much betterout of the bag than it did in the bag. Boys those cows had gas bad!
The PLA has geo. No moisture in the gas holes. I believe the gas was from the LM057, not silage-stuffed cows. The sponginess of the cheese was like a mattress commercial...very comfortable. ;)
Quote from: JeffHamm on March 30, 2012, 06:14:00 PM
What a great looking result! And the taste sounds wonderful too. :) Now, can you do again, on purpose?
That sounds like a challenge. Yes, I accept...after a while. It's an interesting culture mix.
-Boofer-
:P