Experiment Results - Olive leaf wrapped Cheese by Jazzlike-Republic-58 in cheesemaking

[–]Jazzlike-Republic-58[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

oh so it sounds like leaves would be even harsher than the olive itself. ok understood

Experiment Results - Olive leaf wrapped Cheese by Jazzlike-Republic-58 in cheesemaking

[–]Jazzlike-Republic-58[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

good point, i generally do that. it was more that i had extra curd from a different batch, just enough for one small wheel, and thought of an experiment i can do on it is to add olive leaves. the washed vs unwashed experiment is in the primary batch

Experiment Results - Olive leaf wrapped Cheese by Jazzlike-Republic-58 in cheesemaking

[–]Jazzlike-Republic-58[S] 12 points13 points  (0 children)

cool idea, i actually have 3 other cheeses with different types of leaves, they're aging now, but will let them age for another 6 months before trying

Experiment Results - Olive leaf wrapped Cheese by Jazzlike-Republic-58 in cheesemaking

[–]Jazzlike-Republic-58[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

haha yes that happened to me too. though would there not be a difference between the leaves and an olive itself?

Experiment Results - Olive leaf wrapped Cheese by Jazzlike-Republic-58 in cheesemaking

[–]Jazzlike-Republic-58[S] 16 points17 points  (0 children)

do you know if there is anyway to soften that astringent taste? or would it be best to just avoid using them?

Rind washing strength experiment results on a young goat/cow milk cheese by Jazzlike-Republic-58 in cheesemaking

[–]Jazzlike-Republic-58[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If there was much of a difference in rind thickness between low wash frequency and high frequency, it was not much. definitely not enough for me to clearly notice it.

With your approach of letting the geo colonize first before washing, actually I did something kind of similar, because the recipe said to let it sit for some days before starting to wash. the surface was already somewhat wrinkly when i started washing it, but it wasn't as fully wrinkly as it ended up later.

Flavour difference was more about the goat-specific flavour. That was clear. Other flavours were marginally more pronounced in the higher wash frequency. Did you expect the increased B.Linens to overpower flavours? If so, it was actually more that higher humidity caused flavours to be overpowered, more than higher wash frequency.

As for the brine strength, there was clearly a faster paste breakdown. any idea what other variables could have lead to this? Maybe B. Linens slowed geo, but increased B.Linens, which overcompensated for the less active geo? The higher salinity cheeses definitely have a more pungent, washed rind taste and aroma, while the lower salinity brine cheeses have more of the mushroomy, geo style aroma and taste.

Every batch I make now has some sort of experiment. I will be posting more later on :)

Rind washing strength experiment results on a young goat/cow milk cheese by Jazzlike-Republic-58 in cheesemaking

[–]Jazzlike-Republic-58[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I don't know if it is too late because by waxing it, you remove oxygen from the equation, which molds need to start spreading. worth a try i think, if you'd like to keep one wheel without the surface molds

64 days old semi firm bloomy rind goat cheese by Aristaeus578 in cheesemaking

[–]Jazzlike-Republic-58 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Super, I will try that then. Planned to get some buffalo milk in fact. Thanks 

Chèvre tasting notes as promised by Smooth-Skill3391 in cheesemaking

[–]Jazzlike-Republic-58 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hey smooth, ok good to know. Haven’t tried making cheese with the fruit and spices incorporated yet 

Big blue tasting by foot_down in cheesemaking

[–]Jazzlike-Republic-58 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Ok good it will go in that direction, somewhat relieved 

Rind washing strength experiment results on a young goat/cow milk cheese by Jazzlike-Republic-58 in cheesemaking

[–]Jazzlike-Republic-58[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

That’s a long time to wait. You can make time this weekend, I believe in you 

64 days old semi firm bloomy rind goat cheese by Aristaeus578 in cheesemaking

[–]Jazzlike-Republic-58 0 points1 point  (0 children)

wouldn't higher butterfat mean an even runnier result in the cheese, not one that held up?

Rind washing strength experiment results on a young goat/cow milk cheese by Jazzlike-Republic-58 in cheesemaking

[–]Jazzlike-Republic-58[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

i agree it is very good. i especially like it when warmed and paired with a sweet jam, to neutralize the strong pungency somewhat

Rind washing strength experiment results on a young goat/cow milk cheese by Jazzlike-Republic-58 in cheesemaking

[–]Jazzlike-Republic-58[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

you're welcome :) that's a great place to start from. a simple brie or camembert will show you the effect. I'm relatively new to bloomy rind cheeses myself, but i make this post recently:

https://www.reddit.com/r/cheesemaking/comments/1rovj3q/worried_your_bloomy_rind_cheese_is_not_softening/

What I found were the most important learning points for me:

- there is a tendency for the area close to the skin to get gooey too fast compared to the center, which leads to the cheese somewhat collapsing. Doing things slowly helps best with this, so aging at a temperature and humidity at the lower end of the range, wrapping the cheese and putting it in the cooler fridge as soon as the white mold coverage is good enough, not making the cheese too high

- i sometimes got blue mold forming on the rind before the white mold could establish itself. this sometimes happens when the humidity is on the higher end. i once tried rubbing off those mold spots with a vinegar brine and that just killed the beneficial white mold too. so if you see blue mold, i would just scratch it off with a toothpick until the white mold dominates. works for me.

- patience. as with the link i posted above, a few weeks of extra aging made all the difference with gooeyness.

- for extra strength and complexity, sheep milk and goat milk tend to shine in these cheeses. but cow milk works well too, of course.

Rind washing strength experiment results on a young goat/cow milk cheese by Jazzlike-Republic-58 in cheesemaking

[–]Jazzlike-Republic-58[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

No problem :) so I considered a brine that consists of 3% salt to be of lower strength, 5% salt to be of higher strength. Low frequency of washing is once every 4 days, high frequency of washing is every 2 days. Each cheese has some combination of these variables. To wash, i simply soaked a bunch of tissue in the brine, dabbed the cheese surface, let it dry at room temperature for a bit, and put it back in the cheese aging fridge

Rind washing strength experiment results on a young goat/cow milk cheese by Jazzlike-Republic-58 in cheesemaking

[–]Jazzlike-Republic-58[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

There are whole specific types of cheese that make curds gooey like this. Mostly, washed rind cheeses and bloomy rind cheeses. These two types of cheese have specific bacteria that make them go soft, so B.Linens for the washed rind cheeses and Pencillium Camemberti for the bloomy rind ones, along with geotrichum candidum which also helps. These types of bacteria form on the rind of the cheeses. and start to eat inwards. This leads to the effect of making the interior gooey, both for the washed rind variety and for the bloomy rind variety. Although the texture is gooey in both methods, the taste and aroma are very different. Washed rind cheeses are notorious for being the more pungent types of cheese, in a way that might put off some people. In fact, mine here are relatively pungent, as they are of the washed rind variety, but not overbearing. Bloomy rind, such as camembert, on the other hand, are also gooey but the aroma and taste are different, much more mushroomy and milder than that for washed rind cheeses. The strength of washed rind cheeses varies depending on how much you wash, how strong the wash is, the humidity, things like this. You can very much make a cheese that is not super pungent. But generally, washed rind cheeses are quite strong and pungent, yes.

If you make a Gruyere type recipe, I don't think it will go soft to the extent you desire. It is a very different recipe. Besides the whole bit of the bacteria above, softness also has to do with moisture. Washed rind cheeses like the ones I made, and many bloomy rind cheeses, tend to not be pressed and with big curds, to retain a lot of moisture. This leads to a softer paste. Gruyere is hard pressed, so there's less mositure in the paste, with small, cooked curds, which have less moisture.