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Well, I haven't had much luck with my reblochons so far, but I'm feeling fairly confident this time.  We'll see :-)  However, I decided to photograph every day of the aging to document the aging process that I'm doing and I thought I would make a post here my kind of diary.  I'll probably post with a few pictures every once in a while, or when something interesting happens.  First the recipe.  I'm experimenting with a new format:


    |---------------------+-------------------------------------|
    | Reblochon           |                                     |
    |---------------------+-------------------------------------|
    | milk                | 3.5% protein, 4.5% fat              |
    | MA4001              | 15g/litre mother culture yogurt     |
    | CaCl                | 5 drops/litre                       |
    | rennet              | 45 IMCU/litre                       |
    |---------------------+-------------------------------------|
    | ripening            | 60 min @ 34 C (93 F)                |
    | flocculation target | 15 min @ 34 C (93 F)                |
    | multiplier          | 2.5x                                |
    | target set time     | 38 min                              |
    |---------------------+-------------------------------------|
    | vertical cuts       | 3 cm (1.5 inch)  5 min heal         |
    | cuts                | 1 cm (0.5 inch)  5 min heal         |
    |---------------------+-------------------------------------|
    | initial stirring    | 15 min @ 34 C (93 F)                |
    | stir until cooked   | ~30 min @ 34 C (93 F)               |
    | target drain pH     | ???                                 |
    |---------------------+-------------------------------------|
    | drain method        | drain to top of curd                |
    |                     | transfer to cheesecloth lined mould |
    | mould size          | 115 mm (4.5 inch) / 2 litres milk   |
    |---------------------+-------------------------------------|
    | flip schedule       | 15 min, 30 min, 60 min x 3          |
    |                     | first press no weight               |
    |                     | subsequent press < 2 kg             |
    |---------------------+-------------------------------------|
    | target depress pH   | 5.6                                 |
    | depress time        | ~ 4 hours @ 16 C (61 F), 95% RH     |
    |---------------------+-------------------------------------|
    | target salting pH   | 5.4                                 |
    | dry salt            | 2% of weight, 2 applications  |
    |                     | ~ 3g / liter total                  |
    |---------------------+-------------------------------------|
    | target yield        | 140 g/liter (14%) after salting     |
    |---------------------+-------------------------------------|
    | warm age            | 16 C (61 F), 95% RH                 |
    |                     | ~4 days or until first geo bloom    |
    | wash                | 3% brine, once                      |
    | cellar age          | 12 C (54 F), 95% RH                 |
    |                     | ~4 days or until second geo bloom   |
    | wash                | 3% brine, top side only             |
    |                     | every day until b. linens bloom     |
    |                     | ~4 days                             |
    | cold age            | 6C (43 F), 95% RH                   |
    |                     | 4 weeks                             |
    |---------------------+-------------------------------------|
    | final yield         | ???                                 |
    |---------------------+-------------------------------------|

    Notes:
      - 1/64 tsp of DVI culture ~= 15 g of mother culture yogurt
      - 100 drops = 1 tsp
      - single strength rennet is 10 IMCU per drop.
      - Do vertical cuts, wait 5 minutes, then do vertical and
        horizonal cuts.


I did not hit my yield target at all: 333g for 1.9 liters of milk for a yield of 17.5% yield.  So, much more moisture than I planned. However, I'm not completely unhappy with the way it is acting at the moment, so maybe it's fine.  We'll see later on in ageing :-)  I stuck with a total of 6g of salt.



^^ Here is me salting the first side of the cheese.  This means that it sat for 4 hours draining and already started slumping.  You will notice that I use flake salt that's pretty big.  This works OK in this style of dry salting where I'm not doing the sides.  I kind of wish I had taken a picture right out of the mold so that you could see the difference before and after the slump, but oh well.



^^ This is day 2.  You can see that it's finished slumping now.  I'm quite happy with this amount.  It *should* slump a little bit more when the paste softens.  If it doesn't slump before softening, then what happens is that it goes the opposite direction -- so the curve goes concave rather than convex.  Imagine a Camembert, for instance.  The secret for getting this slump is having a relatively high pH before salting.  That's why my pre-salting pH goal was 5.4.  The downside is that the higher the pH, the less paste softening you will get.  It's a delicate balance.  I've got pretty much the exact slumping I planned for, so I *think* I hit my pH target (tasting the whey, it was *just* going tart, so it might be just a bit lower than that).



^^ This is day 3.  On day 2, I had wiped off the excess whey with a paper towel.  On day 3, the top was relatively dry and the bottom was as you see (this is right after I flipped it).  This is about the correct moisture level for my plan.  I don't mind if it's a bit drier, but this is fine, I think.  I will be wiping out the box daily and dumping the CO2 out of it.  On day 2, the smell was very lactic (smells like yummy fresh cheese).  Today it's just starting to get a yeasty smell, so hopefully we'll get sliminess tomorrow.  I definitely won't get a geo bloom tomorrow, though.  Currently the cheese is in its box in my spare room, which is about 13-15 degrees -- just a bit lower than my target.  I will age it one more day and then it will go into the cave, but I won't wash it until I see some white spots appear on the rind.

Note that there is no added geo or b. linens (or PLA) in my recipe.  I'm relying on the beasties in the wild, so it will probably be a bit slow.  I also sterilised the bamboo mat and ripening box just to give a more representative example for someone who hasn't been making these cheeses a lot.

Hope this proves interesting for people.  I'll make another post in a few more days.

This is a fantastic idea for a series. While I am not interested in Reblochon itself, please keep it up!

On to days 4-7.  Because I sterilised my mat, the geo is pretty darn slow.  Usually I'd have full coverage by now, but it doesn't really surprise me that the geo hasn't bloomed yet.  I'm holding off on washing until that first bloom (which will be soon, as you will see).  I should point out that all of the aging at this point was in the cave at 10 - 12 C (actually pretty steady near 12 C as the weather has been cooperating -- I will be picking up a wine fridge very soon, though!)



This is day 4.  You can see that it's still shiny from whey draining.  The other side is fairly dry, actually.  I will not wipe is off excess whey any more as this is the level of moisture that I'm looking for.  My box is actually a bit big for this cheese, so I'll be fighting a bit to keep the humidity up.  The yeasty smell is picking up, but it is still dominated by the lactic smell.  Going to have to wait for that geo...



Day 5.  Almost identical to day 4.  It's dried out a bit, though.  However, at this point the yeast aroma is picking up and it smells mostly of yeast.  I was a bit surprised that the cheese didn't go slimy, but I think the geo is just very slow -- been a while since I started from scratch.



On day 5 I also put half a sheet of paper towel in the box to soak up whey.  There was quite a lot coming out of the mat and I find it's better to contain it up in a paper towel.  By the next day the paper towel was soaked and I had to replace it (I have a picture, but decided not to upload it as you have all seen wet paper towel before :-).



This is the cheese in the box.  The paper towel is beneath the bamboo mat.  This cheese is half the size that I would normally put into this box, but I don't really have an appropriately sized box.  However, since it's a washed rind, I won't really have a problem keeping the humidity up, so it's not a problem.



As a point of comparison, here is my 16 week old Caerphilly (which I will probably be opening either this week or next).  The box is just a little bit small for this cheese, but I'm used to it.  BTW, I'm super happy with this Caerphilly after a considerable struggle with the rind.  Hopefully it will be good!



Day 6.  Unfortunately the picture is overexposed.  However, the rind is now completely dry, although a bit tacky.  The aroma is just like fermenting wine.  None of the lactic smell is evident any more.  No real sign of geo, but it's clear from the aroma and the tackiness of the rind that it is just around the corner.



Day 7.  Still no geo bloom on the rind.  I was actually a bit surprised as I was expecting to see a tuft here or there, but it's determined to be slow.  There was some condensation on the box today, but absolutely no whey drained past the mat (the paper towel was bone dry).  I wiped up the condensation with the paper towel and replaced it under the mat.  This keeps the water inside the box and is how I keep my humidity constant.  I find that in these early days it works best if you have to mop up condensation every day.  Sometimes just adjusting the temperature is enough to swing the RH where you want it to be (higher temp == lower RH, lower temp == higher RH).



Although there is no geo blooming on the cheese that I could find, it has started to bloom on the mat.  I'm leaving it one more day and then I will be washing the cheese tomorrow.  Likely I'll be able to see the bloom by then, but even if I don't the geo is clearly established.  By doing a wash with a 3% brine, you spread the geo, which leads to better coverage on the cheese and faster de-acidification of the rind in my experience.  It should be all go from here.

I had a lot more pics than I expected, especially since really nothing has happened, but I hope you are enjoying them :-)

I wasn't going to post today, but something interesting happened:



You can see a small spot of blue on the side of the cheese.  It's hard to tell, but this is surrounded by a kind of gelatinous substance that's reddish brown.  The whole rind is *very* soft and sticky and smells strongly of bread yeast (rather than fermenting wine).  What's happened is that the geo has bloomed, but the rind was a bit too wet.  When that happens, rather than having nice fluffy white powder, the geo develops a slimy mucus.  If you let it grow a bit, you can touch it and find a surprisingly dry, white geo growth *inside* the mucus.

The blue and geo fight with each other and where the blue has popped up, the geo has surrounded it.  The blue will slowly spread outward if left unchecked, though.  So now it's time to wash.



Proof that I don't know how to use my camera properly ^^.  Probably not better than the not blown up version, but who knows...

One thing to keep in mind is that for a washed rind, I am *completely* unconcerned about the blue.  Once we start washing regularly, it will die off.  However, even for a geo based rind, I wouldn't be too concerned as likely the geo will take over after this.  I will say, though, that if you want to keep blue at bay, it's best to get geo going as early as possible.  If you can get full coverage in less than a week, the blue really hasn't got a chance.  So it's ideal if you can add a bit of geo to your milk, or transfer some from another cheese one or two days after salting.  For this, I'm just going from scratch and trying to get what I can get naturally out of the air/cave.



It's all washed.  You can see stains where the blue was.  This is typical for some reason.  Not sure why.  Of course for a washed rind, nobody will notice.  I washed with a 3% brine, which is what I prefer.  Some people prefer a  5% brine.  I think I only tried a 5% brine once and the geo seemed to be very slow.  With a 3% brine, things seem more predictable (for me).  YMMV.

As the cheese has been a bit too wet (I would prefer fuzzy geo at this stage), I've left the cheese to air dry for about an hour before going back in the cave.  Although, it's going to rain today, so maybe it won't really do much good :-)

I'll post again on the second bloom, which I expect to be in 2 to 3 days.

Mike, you are doing a fantastic job of walking us through the biological rind development process!  I think it's so interesting that each cheese has its own little "ecosystem" going on it it.  This discussion should  help me tremendously in the future when I start making these types of cheeses.  Thanks for taking the time to do this.

For those of you wonder if I'm ever going to post more pics: yes.  I've just been super busy lately.  I work for a company in the travel industry and I'm rather keen to appear useful in the short term, if you know what I mean (although I'm looking to move to a more stable situation, so if anyone is looking for remote programmers that can work in Japanese time zone, give me a ping ;-) ).

Just a quick update to whet your whistle.  After I took the last pics, I got blue again the next day, so I dove straight into the washing schedule.  Wash one side one day and the the other side the next day.  I kept that up for a few days (can remember how long), until I started to detect a distinct "cheesy" odor coming from the cheese.  At that point I put it in the fridge.  At the same time I swapped mats because my first one was covered in blue (I think it's a seasonal thing -- it happened last year as well around this time).  After a few more days, I picked up some more blue and I washed the cheese.  Then yesterday I got just a tiny bit more blue, so I've washed it again.  Never had this much trouble, but it's fine.  I'm also getting a lot of mildew (black spots).  It's kind of disappointing because it mars the look of the cheese, but from experience it doesn't affect flavour.  I'm not sure exactly where it is coming from.

The b. linens is definitely on the rind, but it's growing very slowly.  This seems to happen with all of my reblochons.  I'm not sure exactly what the cause is because my Caerphillys will turn red if I even look at them funny.  But I'm happy with the progress.  Slow and steady wins the race.  I don't want it to got super orange because it will move from being a reblochon to a full on washed rind.  I might be being a little over-cautious, but we'll see.  I've got good geo coverage now and the aroma from the cheese is striking a balance between the mushroomy smell of the geo and the cheesy notes of the b. linens.  If it goes to far b. linens, it will start to smell sweaty and I want to avoid that.  The rind has just started to settle into a yellow/cream color, which is different than the white it was at the beginning (using winter milk, and I think the cows were on hay because it was *very* white -- even the Jersey milk).  There are areas of the rid that are just picking up a rose/brown color and I'm expecting that to spread slowly over the next few weeks.  We'll see.

I'll try to get up the next batch of pics in a few days.

A cheese after my own heart. Nice photo essay. Enjoyed reading and examining the pics. Have a cheese.

-Boofer-

I *am* going to complete this, BTW :-)  I ate the cheese ages ago.  It was really really good and I think both the recipe and the technique are quite good.

A couple of spoilers, though. 

• I've decided that the mildew on the rind was a product of the cheese being too wet at the beginning.  So next time I will make sure to keep the humidity down for the first 2 days or so (probably just keep it open in the cheese fridge, or maybe even room temp).
• I think I aged it 6 weeks total.  It needed one extra week to be perfect, but the texture was amazing.  Really, the best runny cheese I've done.  I just couldn't get over how nice it was and for weeks I was wishing I had more.  Getting the b. linens going and then straight into the fridge was an absolute winner technique.
• Having said that, I put it in the fridge probably 1 week too soon.  The end result was just slightly rosy (which is OK), but it just kept getting blue on it.  This was really not a problem at all -- it's a washed rind!  I can wash it as much as I want ;-)  But I was hoping to get a nice dusting of geotrichum at the end and it never happened.
• One downside flavourwise was the paste was not buttery enough for a reblochon, IMHO.  There are two things I would do: first up the fat content.  I thought I was OK with something like 4.2% fat (can't remember -- it's in the recipe), but I've since discovered that you really want more than that.  A tiny bit of cream would go a long way.  I also discovered that Jersey milk (as much as I like it) is *much* more expensive than Holstein-Friesan milk with a little added cream, so I'm going to try that next time.
• I think I made a mistake on the make temperature.  Next time I'll reduce it to encourage LLD.  Probably 30 C is better.  I've also got some Flora Danica now, so I'll probably use that (2 changes at once???  Probably a bad idea...)
• The other problem I had flavour wise was bitterness from the b. linens :-(  I *think* it's just my wild b. linens, but to make sure I've bought some (FR22, I think... Either that or FR23... I forget which is which... The one with the higher pH range).  We'll see how it goes.  The bitterness was very faint thanks to the long fridge aging, but I could still taste it.  My wife could not (which is consistent with the other washed rinds I've done in the past).  Looking forward to seeing if this is a technical problem or a culture problem.

But I've got to say it was a massive success.  We scarfed that thing down in no time.  I had a pretty nice Camembert ready to go right after that and it wasn't anywhere near as good.

One last thing.  I bought some geotrichum (since I was buying stuff and compared to shipping whatever I buy is practically free :-P ).  I made a crescenza and am aging it with a little bit of geotrichum added to the milk.  OMG that stuff takes off if you add it to the milk!  Normally, I have to coax it along and get the environment *just* right.  If you add the DVI, you've got geotrichum coming out of your ears in a day or so!  I suspect the next reblochon will kick into gear at least a week earlier as a result, so it should be considerably easier than willing the cultures to come out of the air ;-)