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I followed Iratherfly's Chaource recipe and so far so good.  It's nine days after the make, and I couldn't resist trying one, even though it's young.  The consistency of the paste was very light -- almost like cream cheese.  There's a layer of gooeyness between rind and paste that's just starting. 

I'm holding on to the bigger two pieces for a few more weeks at least before eating.

Looks great! How long do you plan to age them?

According to what I've read they can be eaten anywhere from immediately to 4+ weeks.  This is why I was tempted to try one after 9 days.  Anyway, I wrapped the two bigger ones just now and think I'll cut into one when it's 3-4 weeks old and decide on the other one from there.

I searched high and low and for some reason I cannot find Iratherfly's Chaource recipe   Yours look so nice I was going to give it a go in a week or 2.  Can you plz post the recipe or link?
Thanks Beans

That looks really good!

Happy to oblige!  I was really happy with it and am making more.

The original thread where iratherfly's recipe is posted is here: https://cheeseforum.org/forum/index.php/topic,8555.0.html

The attachment is kind of hard to find -- it's several posts down, but I'll reattach it here.

Good luck -- post pics!

So, how did the bigger ones turn out?  More pics?  These look lovely.

Totally missed that thread!

Looks very nice!!!
I would open day 14 minimum. You want the paste to begin breaking down and the texture to turn from flaky to creamy.
The many wrinkles on the skin are an indication that the rind has formed before the cheese was done shrinking, so my suggestion is to let the rind develop slowly.  Chaource has lots of velvety fluffy PC on it so you want to tame the geo from taking over and stop ammonia from building up (which would give you bitterness and slip skin). One of the best ways to do this is to move it from the cave into the refrigerator as soon as it is well covered with bloom. Still keep it in a high moisture aging container but the cold temperature will enable the PC to accelerate and the geo to slow down.  It's totally okay if this move to the fridge happen as early as day 10. It's more important to judge it by the condition of the cheese rather than the prescribed time that has passed.

The recipe posted here doesn't really work (is something broken with the message board? it attempts to save it as index.php instead of the word document that is posted there).  In any event, it's an aggregation that boofer took from my conversation with him and I would write it a bit differently. I should take a look and re-post it somewhere here with photos.

Iratherfly: Thanks for the tips.  I am indeed having recurring issues with slip skin.  The PC doesn't appear to grow all that aggressively at first -- i.e. about 10-14 days for full coverage -- so I thought the cheeses were having ample time to drain with the lid cracked on the aging boxes for the first several days.  Anyway, I'll definitely try moving them to the fridge as you suggest and will report on the results.  I have a third batch aging at the moment.  I made several different sizes to experiment.

I'm attaching pics below.  The first two are from the first attempt documented above, aged several more weeks.  The slip skin is evident, but the taste was pretty great for a first try. 

The second two pics are from a small batch I made with a half gallon of raw milk from a co-worker's neighbor's cow.  The first picture is perhaps 10 days in, and the second two weeks.  I brought these two small rounds into work to share with people, and the guy who gave me the raw milk brought in fresh, home made sour sough bread.  It was delicious!!

Quote from: iratherfly on March 05, 2012, 09:29:28 PM
Totally missed that thread!

Looks very nice!!!
I would open day 14 minimum. You want the paste to begin breaking down and the texture to turn from flaky to creamy.
The many wrinkles on the skin are an indication that the rind has formed before the cheese was done shrinking, so my suggestion is to let the rind develop slowly.  Chaource has lots of velvety fluffy PC on it so you want to tame the geo from taking over and stop ammonia from building up (which would give you bitterness and slip skin). One of the best ways to do this is to move it from the cave into the refrigerator as soon as it is well covered with bloom. Still keep it in a high moisture aging container but the cold temperature will enable the PC to accelerate and the geo to slow down.  It's totally okay if this move to the fridge happen as early as day 10. It's more important to judge it by the condition of the cheese rather than the prescribed time that has passed.

The recipe posted here doesn't really work (is something broken with the message board? it attempts to save it as index.php instead of the word document that is posted there).  In any event, it's an aggregation that boofer took from my conversation with him and I would write it a bit differently. I should take a look and re-post it somewhere here with photos.

Yoav, here's the recipe link. I had no problem downloading it as a WORD doc. Please excuse my taking liberties with our Chaource conversation. I think we could all benefit from you actually authoring your own recipe rather than my transcribed version.

BTW, I responded to your PM.

-Boofer-

That's still not a bad looking cheese.  I would suggest a few things:
-reduce the amount of yeast added to the milk
-wrap and chill the cheese much earlier.   By day 14 at the latest you'd want a cheese like that at 4C or less.
-consider using a double or triple cream recipe, you'll get less runniness in the ripened paste.

Thanks for the tips everyone!  Below are two pictures from the third batch I mentioned above,  Up until the pics were taken, 16 days after the make, they were in aging containers in the "cave" at 50 degrees.  After reading your comments, I've wrapped them in cheese paper and put them in the fridge.

That said, what difference should I expect in terms of aging in the fridge between leaving these cheeses in the aging container versus wrapped?  I.e. assuming I move them to the fridge after the PC bloom covers the surface, when is the optimal time to wrap them versus leaving them in the aging boxes?

Oh, how nice, it looks amazing. This is my goal, to make cheeses like that, but I have still to practice with easier ones.

Thanks Corina!  It's not too difficult actually.  I've only made a few dozen batches of cheese, and gravitated towards my personal favorites, mold ripened, quickly.  Give it a shot!  This particular recipe was super easy too, compared to, say a Camembert with all the required flipping during the make. 

Thank you for the encouragement, maybe I will.
But I only have 12 cheeses made yet.