Hello Everyone,
I have made a batch of cheese a couple of weeks ago and now that they have air dryed I placed them in oil and some vinegar with hot chili spice.
As I was doing this I noticed some of my cheeses had a "pinkish stain" on parts of the rind. I decided to cut one throughthat area and when I did noticed that it was pinkish. Not sure what may have caused this so I wanted to ask if anyone of you would know what this is. I eat some and it seems fine to me. No funny smell either. What could this be? Is it dangerous to eat??
Attached are some pictures but I dint think you can really notice it.
Anyway whatever you can tell me would be appreciated.
Thanks,
Cacio
Hello Cacio
Nice looking cheese except I don't think those eyes (https://cheeseforum.org/Glossary.htm#Eyes) are supposed to be there, I've read some on gas bloating but don't remember right now. I'd try eating some let us know how it tastes?
The pinkish rind is visable, I think, in your picture on the round piece on right, could it be from the chilis?
Hi Cacio,
Can you give us a little more information on your recipe and what kind of cheese this was supposed to be? I can't tell from your pic if you have a lot of eye formation or poor curd knitting. If it is eye formation and you have not added propionobacter then you have a bacterial contamination probably coliform. As for the pink color there are a number of microorganisms that could be responsible including certain yeasts (ever see a little pinkish color around a shower drain? Same yeast).
CC
Hi Cacio and welcome back. I too have some pink mould on a cheese that I have been marinating in oil. Only one of them developed it. I was going to scrap the cheese and rub some salt into it, and see what happens, as I don't want it to infect the whole esky full of cheeses.
Thanks again for the oil bath idea too. I have four cheese at the moment in an oil bath, and at various stages of aging. I am looking forward to opening one in a month or two and see how they are going.
This is what mine looks like...
Hello Everyone,
The eyes are from not pressing the curd enough when putting it in the form (I think). The cheese taste good and had some last night and I am still here.
The recipe is a simply a "queso blanco" I believe. I simply heated milk to 38deg Cel. when the curd formed I broke curd and then put it in my cheese forms. I let it air dry until it I get a nice rind. What was different this time is I removed the cheese from the form a little too early which caused it to loose its shape. It kind of got "squashed". It did not bloat. It is not a mold but rather the color of the cheese. I removed that part from teh cheese and now have themm sitting in a little oil and vinegar.
Anymore ideas??? Dangerous??
I will take some pics of them now in the oil.
Thanks for the feedback.
Cacio
Well I discovered that a couple of other cheeses are infected with this mould too, so I took them out scraped them, brined and rubbed with salt. Next morning the mould was there as happy as ever. So I decided to open one, cut off the offending mould ad tasted, but it had definately compromised the flavour of that section of the cheese.
So I have move these cheese into the fridge and cut off all the mould. Hopefully I can save what is left.
Tea, is your cave infected? You might want to sanitize it if the mold is getting on everything.
Thanks Carter, I hadn't thought of that. You just created another job for me to do today. I only have waxed cheese and cheese submerged in oil left in there, so was thinking that there is obviously too much moisture in there.
Sorry for the extra work.
Just reporting that I have cleaned and disinfected (hopefully) the cheese esky.
I noticed in the other threads you are oil aging other cheeses are those the same oil baths as before...pardon me if I missed something again I just woke up from a nap and I'm a little punch drunk.
Sorry Carter I'm not understanding your question?
I have a few experiements going at the moment. Some cheese are being marinated in herbed oil, for a couple of weeks, and then I am aging them out of the oil in the cave, while others are being marinated in the oil then submerged completely in another oil where they will age for a couple of months. The apline I just air dried for a few days, and then submerged into the oil bath, where it will stay for another month or so, before I try it.
I marinated two Jacks in the herbed oil, then one of them I left to age normally in the esky, which was one of the cheeses that became infected with the pink mould, and the other was submerged completely in oil.
Not sure if I answered your question or not.
Sorry as I said back them i was a little off.
I meant if you were having a mold problem could the oil be infected or is the oil new?
Well it could have been, but the cheeses that were in the oil were protected from the mould forming. In any case, the oil is going now, only the oil in the oil bath comtainer, which is completely sealed.
Thanks for the prompt anyway, I wasn't thinking of the esky being infected.
So was I, but I thought of it and thought I'd mention it. I've never done an oil bath but mold can grow in oil.
http://www.jstor.org/pss/3863636 (http://www.jstor.org/pss/3863636)
http://www.thelabrat.com/restriction/sources/Serratiamarcescens.shtml (http://www.thelabrat.com/restriction/sources/Serratiamarcescens.shtml)
http://www.jstor.org/pss/4461966 (http://www.jstor.org/pss/4461966)
Hi, I hate to re start up this subject but the pinkish coloring is something I learned about in a round of sort a way. May or may not apply to cow milk as the incident I speak of was a problem with Human Breast milk turning pink AFTER exposed in a partly filled bottle or a empty bottle left in the sink over night for clean up. (I worked as microbiology lab assistant/tutor putting my way thru college. There is a bacteria whos primary hint there is an infection by pink milk AFTER the milk has been stored at a certain temp and in Oxygen . This bacteria does cause mastitis in humans as well as bovines and it affects milk glads but can also become a systemic disease too. This bacterial infection may not be diagnosised for the milk may look white...but at somepoint based on the heat and oxygen it multiplies and produces a pink tinge and can get really bright pink in the one case I saw as a nurse...and the deciding fact if that this bacterial does not grow real fast...and once introduced to lots of oxygen outside of the teat....the milk will lool fine and it was put in frig to feed the little preemie with and it would at some point look a but off, pinkish, but not one quite got it cause the Mom was not symptomatic for mastitis. However after going home her situation got stranger because she would pump clean milk and give it to child in bottle..then store rest in frig and empties went to sink for morning. She would wake up with PINK milk in bottle and pink fatty film on the bottle left in the sink. Turns out she got this bacteria in her breast that got out of control (for we all have this natural amounts on our bodies. and she because systemically infected and even her child got infected. So she went to formula...stopped breast milk and still his empty bottles had pink residue in sterilized bottles. He had just enough of the bacterial NOW for him to contaminate a sterile bottle just by sucking. Cows do get this same bacteria and it does cause mastitis and stillbirths. I can't say that it is the exact Serratia (there are several forms) or whether it is really dangerous to a healthy person...but just something that I learned about the subject when this lady was getting really pretty colored breast milk...but only after it sat in the frig with air space in the bottle that allowed it to multiply. I had 3 pots of a lite pink semi soft cheese (same batch) and they all got a really like pink tinge to it...and taste was off. I remembered my past experience in learning about this and decided Id eat it but not give it to anyone else. I didn't get sick at all...but then again I ended up throwing it out so I could make something better. Good Luck
You mentioned you used some Chilli spice. Could that be the Tannic acid from the Chilli breaking down?
So is the pink mould danqerous to health? can it just be scrapped off?
I just removed it and it was fine.
Cacio
If it were pink spots or blotch like mold I would be concerned but a pink tinge or color to the whole cheese can be cause by flurecent lights.