Robiolini with Geo 17 and mesophilic aroma type B
Hello fellow cheese lovers!
I am into day three of my first aged cheese.. I had been preparing, and have rigged up a temperature and humidity controlled mini fridge for my cave. Presently it can maintain itself without a tank refill on the humidifier for upwards of a month.. also installed a USB powered computer fan in there for some circulation. I impulsively decided I would try to make a short term aged cheese for my friends birthday at the end of July. I have a pile of cultures in the freezer that left me pretty well equipped for trying many different types, I think. She and I both love a Camembert or similarly ripened cheese, so when I found the robiolini recipe from New England Cheesemaking, and saw it could be table ready in a month or less, I thought YES this is it. Consulting some forums I saw people have success subbing the geo 13 for 17, which is what I had. Flora danica was not in my culture collection either, so again consulting some other posts it seemed like the aroma B would create a nice depth in lieu. Also this recipe was an excellent opportunity to use my sous vide. I culture my milk in a baine marie with a lid on it, and it's nice and stable and warms slowly when you're raising the temp.
I found the curd behaved very much like the recipe indicated, so that's given me some confidence. Salted them, used Himalayan but I'm wondering if that was the best choice, can see the residue in the photos.. now drying them out in a colder basement room around 62-65f throughout the day.. I'm now into day three so I am hoping to spot some blooms but nothing as of the time of this post.. I imagine that because it's on the lower end of the temperature for this which is 60-68 that the bacteria is just moving a little more slowly?
Thanks for any feedback :)