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Karin, I have had similar experiences and outcome was always the same. Cheese looked great and smelled a little more acidic than normal and after a week of slow realising of whey, it turns a little slimey and starts smelling terrible. Wish I could give you more hope but that’s my experience.
Ulfnamib, don’t know if my last message went through but I have been to your country and loved everything about your land and people. Look forward to exchange of ideas and stories.
James, I am new to the website, and even new to blogs and forum’s but find this a great recourse now that I discovered it. I made only raw milk cheeses for the first couple years and find it fascinating. I would pirate milk (Michigan is a no raw milk state) from several area farms and learned how every farm produced a different milk and resulted in different cheese. By different milk I mean that a different breed of cow, a mix of breed, what they feed, how they treated the stock, when they milked, how sanitary they were. It ALL made a huge difference. I had a retired dairy Farmer that loved just having a few cows and I got 40 gallon of high butter fat Gernsey milk each week for a couple years. It was fun but there were eventually issues and that came to an end. I have made cheese from pure holstine milk and found it to be good tasting but grainy in texture. I have a supply of goat milk in the summer and love to work with it straight or mixing it with store milk. I just have a great time with experimenting.
Boo, I am sure you already figured it out but do you think it is the cream content? I know my high cream content cheeses have a tendency to hold whey.
Gabe, I know it’s been a while but here’s my two cents worth. It sounds like your cheese aging space may be too warm for storage. I like to develop my white mold at about 50 degrees and after packaging I keep it around 40 to retard further action and suspend the aging process. I think the 55-68 may be too high.
H.W. I have used several ways to harvest good bacteria but not self-harvesting. I would like to know how that works out for you. Please report along the way.
Martin, I believe you should be adding the CC after you pasturize the milk. The pasturization process depletes the calcium content so adding it before will not help. I have also used calcium chloride with goat milk just because sometimes you can get a delicate curd without it. I use it sparingly because I don’t really like the taste and do believe it has some impact on the final product.
Liv. I am no expert here but I am very careful of what I add to cheese. The fact that cheese can last virtually forever and most other foods rot or spoil is some indication of just what can be added. I microwave even dryed herbs for ten or twenty seconds to sterilize them. I only use pickled hot peppers or dryed pepper flakes. I don’t believe fresh anything and aged cheese make a good combination. Fresh cheese is a different story and herbs and fresh ingredients are used. I used to even microwave horseradish before I added it but found it made the flavor bland so I began using high quality horseradish straight from the jar but still try to consume in a month or so. The environment inside cheese is acidic, salty, and void of much water. All three help make for less bad bacteria growth but still one needs to err on the side of caution.
I have done this by using a slice of real sourdough bread or real pumpernickel bread. Regular store bread won’t work. Use a pea size speck of your blue mold and let it set on the bread in a moist container. Once fully covered in blue mold then air dry the bread and either zip lock or vacuum package. It will keep indefinitely if completely dry and just scrape a little of the mold into the milk as it ripens.
I am no expert but doubt that chlorine will do any good for your finished product. I understand that it will disappear over time but most likely will leave a taste and inhibit natural aging process.
I have done a few hard goat cheeses with very good success. Goat cheddar was one. I made several 3# wheels and aged them in cream wax over several months. It was excellent with only one issue and that was that the cream wax was difficult to separate from the cheese. I have also made Romano and it has become my favorite no fail cheese. Only problem is that I can’t age it over a few months before it gets eaten. I love goat milk and mix it with store milk to give it a little creamy texture if I am making table cheese or use it straight when making aged cheeses.
I know it has been some time, but how did it turn out? I have done cloth bound also and have had similar situations. I left the block to breathe a few days after unwrapping and it helped but the mold/amonia taste persisted. I ended up converting to cream waxes.
I am no expert but have had similar things happen. I believe they call it “blowing” and I know several things can cause that. Poor sanitary conditions are one cause but others are simply bacteria producing gas and may not make the cheese bad. Loosing weight can be from the gas pushing moisture from the cheese. I have eaten some of my cheese that blew and I have thrown some out depending on smell and texture. I ate some cheese at a Texas cheese making facility that was a few years old and had blown. It was fantastic. Just be careful.
Cheese coatings have been problematic for me also. I had the same problem with waxing small wheels. A pound or less. Larger blocks we’re less impacted by the taste but I began to get mold pockets under the wax and went to cream waxes, bandaging, and vacuum package. All have draw backs. I think the secret is to find the one that is best for you and experiment enough to perfect it.
I tried bandaging a couple times and some mold always gets to the cheese surface. It was a good way to keep some moisture in the cheese block but some of the mold taste permeates the cheese even with the lard barrier. The best one I produced I mixed about one third bacon grease with the lard. Was not over powering and cut the lard taste and the slight mold taste. The type and brand of lard will have an effect on the taste. They look very colorful when aging.
