He talked of Luigi Guffanti’s caves and their aging techniques.  The Guffanti caves are essentially one huge room where certain cheeses are concentrated together and form an aura or “ambiance” around themselves.  If one were to move one of these cheeses to another parcel of the cave, around different types of cheeses, one could see the rind begin to develop differently, taking on the molds, yeast, and bateria of the aura of another group of cheeses. 

I instantly had flash backs to my time in the caves of Guffanti after the Slow Food Cheese Festival.  The Guffanti cave is made mostly of brick, and is built over a stream.  All they have to do is lift up one or two bricks to increase the humidity of the space.  It struck me as beatiful and simple.  A harmonious cheese moment.

Ancient Humidity Control!!

Old Cheeses Left to Age, Stacked ontop of Each Other

Gorgonzola Piccante: Rich, Chocolate, Paprika and Cayenne

Phillipe suggested that we keep the Comte wrapped in its paper in the cave.  We would see that the rind would keep better, as it would be able to sit in its own ambiance, and the total ambiance of the cave would not affect the rind development.

This made me think of a moment during the development of the cheese cave project, when I stormed up to Ihsan with a wheel of Unterwasser that I believed has taken on the ambiance of our cave.  This was when I was arguing for a better ventilation system for the caves.  Ihsan replied that he thought my point was valid, but that the paste still remained the same flavor.  It was only the rind that was affected.  I think this is ultimately true…the difference is not completely apparent to the average taster who does not spend time underground with the cheese upon its arrival and through its storage life.  Yet I did not know at that time that the solution was to let the wheel sit more within its own aura by protecting it with paper.  The more we play around with these difference cheeses, I think we will all come to agree that the cheeses that come to us at a perfect peak/goal, they should thrive as much as possible in their own environment.

This is true cheese care.  I am excited to see where it goes.  How many cheese auras can I read???  Ha ha.

The point is not to return to some unbeknownst romantic era of batches of food made only in the home and through preservation techniques.  The point is to understand that historical context and adapt to a global market of sharing and preserving that knowledge.

Us microbiological fiends of the US should look at this as an opportunity to understand our food better…how yeast relates to heat and enzymes.  How yeast is also not necessarily a bad thing.  How the taste of the animal comes through in a raw cheese and how much should this animal be stifled?  Shall the animal flavor arrive on the finish as an afterthought?  In most cases, I would say yes, because the animal is the vessel in which we taste the essence of the earth:  the soil, the grasses, the sugars, the enzymes.  A hint of animal is desirable.  Perhaps it is not liked by all who taste it.  But its balance of bacteria, yeasts, enzymes yield a well rounded profile of exacting production.

My intention from this point forth is to focus on varieties of food production and forge definitions of quality.

All information is derived from Le Fromage by Andre Eck andJean-Claude Gillis and from Cheese: Chemistry, Physics, and Microbiology.

Les enzymes, agents de l’affinage, ont trois origines: les enzymes naturelles du lait, les enzymes coagulantes, les enzymes des micro-organismes qui peuplent les pates.

Les enzymes naturelles du lait

Le lait contient a l’etat natif un tres grand nombre d’enzymes, plus de 60 ont ete isolees ou indentifiees et l’activite de nombreux composants a ete detectee.

Les deux enzymes qui sont plus particulierement important: La plasmine et La lipase

La plasmine

La plasmine, une enzyme presente dans le serum sanguin, responsable de l’hydrolyse des caillots de fibrine.

Le <<systeme plasmine>>: la plasmine, le plasminogene, des inhibiteurs de la plasmine, des activateurs du plasminogene, et des inhibiteurs des activateurs du plasminogene.  Il y a 0,1 mg/l du lait.  Les activateurs du plasminogene presents dans le lait sont des proteases a serine de type urokinase….serait relativement limitee dans le lait cru, meme incube a 37 degres C.

La plasmine augmente en fin de lactation et est plus elevee dans le lait des vaches agees.  Les mammites augmententes la permeabilite de la glande mammaire vis-a-vis des proteines du sang et entrainent une augmentation des niveaux de plasmine et de plasminogene, laugmentation de plasmine pourrait etre dans ce cas egalement due a une activation du plasminogene par des proteases des cellules somatiques.

La plasmine est inactivitee par les inhibiteurs specifiques ed ces enzymes tels que le diisopropyl fluorophosphate…La plasmine possede une bonne thermostabilite…Apres la pasteurisation a 72 degres C, la quantite de plasmine augmente, augmentation qui a ete attribuee a l’inactivation thermique des inhibiteurs des activateurs du plasminogene..  L’enzyme resiste partiellement a un traitement UHT de 142 degres C pendant 3 s et necessite un traitement de 16 s pour etre totalement inactivee.  Selon certains auteurs elle pourrait jouer un role dans la gelification des lait UHT.

La plasmine possede une specificite etroite de type trypsine.  Elle hydrolyse les liaisons des caseines. Il y a les caseines specifiques qui sont plus augmentees que les autres.

L’action de l’enzymes au cours de l’affinage est appreciable et elle a ete bien mise en evidence, notamment dans les pates pressees a affinage lent.

La lipoproteines lipase

Compte tenu ses caracteres, on peut admettre que la LPL est capable d’intervenir de maniere signative dans les pates pressees non cuites mais seulement dans les fromages de lait cru.  Le degre de lipolyse dont ellse pourrait etre responsable reste cependant a preciser pour la plupart des pates fromageres.

MOD RIPENED CHEESES: Lipolysis during mold cheese ripening is caused primarily  by microbial lipases because the native lipase in milk is lairgely inactivated by pasteurization (except in cheeses in which rennet paste or pregastric esteraseis used).  As a result of lipolysis, the concentration of free fatty acids in cheese is usually 1-5 g/kg.  There is a close link between the content of free volatile fatty acids in a number of cheese varieties and their flavor.  Most of the free fatty acids arise from lipolysis.

2 lipases: acid and alkaline.  Alkaline lipases has a piquant or soapy taste.

SWISS CHEESES: Lipolysis is unwanted because of the atypical rancid taste it produces.  However, it is sometimes supposed that a slight amount of fat hydrolysis in milk contributes to the development of the characteristic aroma of raw milk Swiss-type cheese.

ITALIAN CHEESES: Extensive lipolysis occurs in hard Italian varieties (Romano, Parmesan, and Provolone) and in blue-veined cheeses.  In blue veined, lipolysis is due mainly to the action of lipases screted by P. Roqueforti, although indigenous milk lipase may also contribute, especially in raw milk cheese.  The hard Italian cheeses are probably unique in that an exogenous lipase is a normal additive.  They have a sharp, peppery flavor primarily due to relatively high levels of short-chain fatty acids, especially butyric.  The desirable ‘piccante’ flavor is due to the action of pregastric esterase (PGE) activity in rennet pastes, which are still used in Italy as the source of both coagulant (proteinase) and lipolytic agent.    PGE exists in the salivary glands and is secreted by at least 13 species.  Its role is to aid in the digestion of fat by young animals with limited pancreatic lipase…it is carried into the stomach with the ingested milk…The development of the desired flavor was related to the concentrations of both butyric acid and glutamic acid in Provolone cheese but only to butyric acid levels in Romano cheese.  Mucor meihi also secretes a lipase that is reported to give satisfactory Fontina and Romano cheeses although this enzyme must be used at five times the lipolytic activity of PGE to obtain satisfactory Romano cheese….it is commmercially available as  ’Piccantase.’

DOMIATI AND FETA TYPES DURING PICKLING: High concentration of volatile fatty acids.  In Bulgarian Feta, 89% of volatile fatty acids is acetic acid.  Fat breakdown increases with an increase in storage temperature or a decrease in brine strength; however, changes in cheese stored at 3-5 degrees C were slow and independent of brine concentration.  The sharp flavor of Feta is attributed to rennet paste.  Ewe’s milk yields higher levels of short chain fatty acids, which yield that piccante flavor.  Lipolysis happens during pickling.  This is due to milk lipase, bacteria lipase, PGE, milk clottinng enzyme prepartions.  The metabolic origin os acetic acid is still to be determined.  It is likely that acetic acid rises primarily from lactate fermentation.   During the later stages of ripening, acetic acid as well as other short chain volatile fatty acids arises also from oxidative deamination of amino acids by lactic acid bacteria.

One conclusion about lipase is that its sourcing in milk content is found in raw, uncooked, homogenized milk, where the fatty acids and the proteins are well distributed for maximum lipolytic activity.

Les autres enzymes du lait

LA PHOSPHATASE ACIDE: de pH optimal voisin de 4,6-4,8, est tres thermoresistante et elle possede une activite important sur les caseines, mais elle est presente dans le lait  a faible concentration et seule une petite fraction, associee a la membrane du globule gras, doit se retrouver dans le fromage.

LA PHOSPHATASE ALCALINE: en grande partie localisee dans la membrane du globule gras, presente un pH optimal d’action importante sur les caseines isolees de 6,8.  Elle n’a pas d’activite sur la caseine native du lait mais les caseines isolees peuvent etre dephosphorylees sous son action.  Son activite au cours de l’affinage serait donc a preciser mais sa faible thermoresistance rend celle-ci peu probable dans les fromages de lait pasteurise ou thermise.

LA PROTEASE ACIDE: de pH optimum d’action voisin de 4 et presentant une stabilite thermique assez elevee, et sans doute en mesure d’agir sur les caseines au cours de l’affinage…Mais son action, s’apparentant par sa specificite a celle de la chymosine, est difficile a mettre en evidence et elle ne semble pas jusqu’ici avoir retenu l’attention des chercheurs.

Mycoflora:  The fungi characteristic of a region or special environment

Mold and yeast work side by side in this game of cheese ripening.  

Molds metabolize lactic acid and lactate which yields a higher pH that is ideal for proteolytic (proteins) and lipolytic enzymes (lipids) to work on the cheese flavor and texture profile.

Interior mold example: Penicillium Roqueforti.  This traditional blue mold is still produced within caves using barley and rye loaves as growth substrate.

This is the blue strain of mold found in many blue cheeses.  A blue cheese develops well if it is stimulated by yeasts, primarily Debaryomyces hansenii .  Gas producing Leuconostic , and high fat milk that is non-homogenized and low acidity gives a more crumbly textured, open curd.  The oxygen stimulates the yeast development which in turn stimulates the blue mold.

Sometimes, Geotrichum Candidum can contaminate the P. Roqueforti development because it enjoys similar conditions.

Exterior Mold examples: Penicillium, Mucor, Cladosporium, Geotrichum, Epicoccum, Sporotrichum.

Camembert is a good study of mold development.  Initially, there is a proliferation of lactose-fermenting yeasts on the fresh surface.  These yeasts include D. hansenii, Kluyveromyceslactis, Saccharomyces cerevisiae. After one week of ripening, P. camemberti is observed.  It takes two to three weeks for the P. camembertii to cover the surface of the cheese.  The predominant bacteria that develops are B. linens and Hafuia alvei. 

Mycoflora in cheese ripening rooms:

These molds found are xerophilic species.  Xerophiles are extremophilic organisms that can grow and reproduce in conditions with low availability of water.  Some examples are Aspergillus penicillioides, A. versicolor, Eurotium spp., Wallemia sebi.

Brines:

These are dominated by salt tolerant yeasts: D. hansenii, Trichosporum inkin, Cryptococcus laurentii, Candida versatilis, Candida apicola, Rhodotorula aurantiaca.

Air is found to be the major source of cheese contaminants.

Information sourced from Food Mycology: A Multfaceted approach to Fungi and Food

Walk into a Parisian cheese shop, and see rind developed, plump and balanced from their ripening in the cave attached to the shop.

Ultimately, I would love to emulate this “affinage” process in the states.  But can these dreamy soft-ripened cheeses from France truly be reenacted here in the states?  Firstly, we must buy pasteurized fresh cheeses, inoculated with the right cultures for ripening.  It is nearly impossible to get away with raw cheeses these days from France.  Secondly, they must be packaged by a genius, who knows how to vacuum seal, as well as maintain the integrity of the cheese body through at least 3 weeks of transport on a ship.  How can you hold a fresh curd at the right acidity level for three weeks without the chemistry altering?

Often times, our experiments in aging result in much “poil de chat” growing (the fuzzy hair mycor mold) which is a result of over saturation of the curd.  My vote is to do it locally.

This way, there are more controls, which means higher quality ripening results.  

Or, we must convince the French it is worth their while to put extra effort into shipping so sensitively across the seas. Why should it be within their vested interest?  My main thought is for the sake of spreading the integrity of artisan cheese into the US, a place with power to alter regulations and food production standards for the entire globe.

Shall we be more true to seasons?

Pierre Androuet, in his Encyclopedia of French Cheeses, shows the cycle of when it is best to chose which type of cheese.  In the spring, for example, there are certain cheeses that are at their peak, versus other cheeses that make an appearance later in the summer or even the winter.  How does this seasonal perspective of purchasing affect the consumer climate?  For example, we see at Formaggio Kitchen, and at any other cheese shop, that the influx of cheese buyers happen around the holidays.  

But what cheeses are truly at their peak at this time?  There are many to chose from, from harder styles, to wash rinds, to soft-ripened styles…but is the selection of what is truly at its peak to be sold something that matches up with consumers’ desires?  

Often times in America, a consumer desires to have a certain cheese when they want it, and at an extremely consistent level.  I agree with the standard of consistency.  I think a cheese has a desired peak state of being, where its bouquet and aroma are at its most wonderful.  There can definitely be the opportunity to chose between a younger or older variety of the perfect cheese, but the focus should be about reaching that state of “immortality.”

The main issue is that globalized lifestyle has not come to hold that qualitative standard.  It is the direction the world is going, and we must accept that any attempt to enhance quality with the least amount of waste possible is a step in the right direction.

This is the art of business that I so duly love.  

So, my question is not fully answered at this point as to the future of aging soft-ripened goat cheeses of the highest quality imaginable.  The French are our comrades in our quest to enhance qualitative living.  The more we can learn from their art, the better.  Hopefully we will come to a ground where we do not have to constantly live vicariously through them to achieve these goals of better quality food.

The more I discover, the more I realized it is a combination of uniting local food forces with a global atmosphere of discussion.

At the moment, I am exploring ideal conditions for each type of soft-ripened goat cheese variety during aging.  Working with different types of space, it is interesting to me to see how well it works to put soft-ripened styles with wash rind styles in the same room.  Definitely, the soft-ripened styles must be covered if they are to be place in the same room.  My one concern is that wash rinds need slightly warmer conditions with higher humidity levels than the soft ripened styles, so the soft-ripened styles would ripen too fast.

Let the conversation continue as we carry on to discover the best way to age cheese at Formaggio Kitchen Cambridge.

All information below is derived from Cheese Making Supply in South Deerfield, MA.

Click here for link

Mold Ripened & Washed Rinds

1. What is the difference between smear and washed rind cheeses? 

Smear and washed rinds are essentially the same. The key here is the red to orange yellow surface with a characteristic B. Linens aroma that can range from mild to strong. All of these cheeses rely on a surface developed from washing or smearing with salt water and Coryneform (B. Linens) enhanced solution.

Look for a moist but not wet surface. There should be no slimy surfaces or dried cracking surfaces. It should be red to orange/yellow with perhaps a light white mold growing through it. The paste needs to be fully ripened with little to no opaque curdiness in the center.

2. Can I age my mold-ripened cheeses in the same area as my washed rind cheeses?

The best way to age them is in separate plastic containers with covers. That way, they can all be in the same aging space together. It helps if you wash your hands between opening the different boxes.

3. My mold-ripened cheeses are getting too runny in the middle.

This is a common problem caused by insufficient draining and drying of the curds before moving the cheese to the aging area. This is a very important step because too much moisture will accelerate the protein breakdown. Since this begins near the rind where the white mold is growing, it will result in a runny overripe area just under the surface. Make sure the draining area stays in the 70-74F range and that your drying time is sufficient to get rid of any residual moisture on the surface.

4. The white mold on my soft ripened goat cheese is forming a skin and separating from the cheese.

The problem is not the skin. It is from too much residual moisture in the early curd caused by one or all of the following:

1. In the early part of your process you are not setting your milk firm enough and hence it becomes more difficult to drain.

2. You are not draining them well enough before drying off (can be a problem with late lactation milk). Remember that the curd will lose 10-20% moisture in the drain/dry phase.

3. You are not drying enough or fast enough before the mold starts to form. (Using a fan may help.) Keep the RH below 75-80%. The ideal target here is optimum moisture in the cheese coinciding with the beginning of mold growth – about 5 days.

In a nutshell, what is happening is that your mold begins to form before the cheese has dried down to its desired size. Once the mold forms, its jacket and the curd continues to shrink due to moisture loss and the cheese becomes a size too small for its coat. Another problem here is that this is also the area where protein breakdown (proteolysis) happens the fastest with excess moisture. This can result in a very runny paste, which is why the skin falls away. These cheeses generally ripen very early near the surface while they are chalky and firm in the middle.

Silvery Moon Cheese in Maine took a step by creating a feasibility study for cheese aging facilities.  I applaud them.

 I find that the issue is that much of the information is privatized and not easily accessible to the public eye.  Granted, this information is sacred and the people who attain it work hard for everybody else in the field.  What I often find is that people hold on tight to their knowledge base when it comes to cheese.  Anyone in the industry fears competition.  They know how they have been able to make money and sustain themselves:  it has been through filling a niche that nobody else fills in a given region.  

My perspective is that I invite competition.  As any true cheese explorateur truly knows, this well of knowledge and creativity within the craft is not something that stops giving.  Although my given circumstances make it so I am not tied to a piece of land with my animals.  I am able to freely wander and learn from the investment of others.  Yet we seem to forget that cheese making started out through nomadism.  Lactating animals, in fact, inspired this nomadism.  And we also must acknowledge that even though people have found themselves successful in this artisan cheese field, it is few and far between that make a fortune off of it.  

It is only big industry and the retail cheese realm that really turns more of a profit.  My question is:  Why must all these industries be so separate?  The classic framework is the big shark eating the small fish.  This predator/prey dynamic is inherent within basic survival instinct.  But we need more people who know how to feed off both the predator and the prey, to make the playing field a bit more even.  Why couldn’t these bigger industries have private sectors devoted to distribution of small farmers?  It would just take a little more regulation and consumer action….But this conversation is a long ramble about basic human instinct.

In ARTISAN cheese,however, nobody is ruining it for the rest of us.  We all strive towards this labor of love and passion where pragmatism is necessary; both through scientific exploration and viable business practices.  And we must challenge each other to make better cheeses, with smarter business plans, if we are to get anywhere. 

As artisan cheese business people, we must be ready to be challenged by our neighbors to make out businesses better.  We should not try to escape this challenge.  For the formula keeps growing and seemingly diverging in order to build a bigger picture of flourishing, in the lime light, dairy products.

Our focus can be obscure and esoteric, but it is also very much related to all local and global food ventures.

With a peasant mindset at heart, to make the most of what is at our fingertips in our tactile reality, we can get to know the nuances of our craft.  There is artisan cheese philosophy at its best.

Cheese Cave Report

Before this direction, there hadn’t been anything remarkably odd about these regions except that they had a high proportion of people with the globally rare ability to digect the lactose in sweet milk throughout their adult lives- a genetic fluke that didn’t stop sour milk and fresh cheeses from being cornerstones of household dairying for centuries or, more likely, millennia.  But after cheeses proliferated as specialties destined for particular markets and sweet milk for drinking began to be produced in large volumes for urban clienteles, northwestern Europe and Britain never looked back.  (The first change happened about four or five hundred years ago, the second toward the start of the nineteenth century. )  It’s this heritage that has chiefly shaped American perceptions of dairy foods.” (p. ix, The Surprising Story of Milk Throughout the Ages, Anne Mendelson)

The cheese of the peasants, when milk and fermented products were intimate and every day.  I am going to go to Eastern Europe to discover both heritage and the roots of this culture that still remains today.  People often forget that artisan cheese is not only a particular bourgeois market, but also a way of life that every person can take part in.

The Old Word pumps through my veins and calls my name…

I think it is wise to look at the American work ethic.  It is something of a beast…we Americans can be said to have an addiction, just like an addiction to alcohol, drugs, and pills.  I am in awe for the amount Americans who are willing to work, and at low pay to say the least.  We are driven to work:  it is our hope, our liberation, and our prison.  The utopian work environment is a constant quest:  a place where one can be free from bureaucracy, a place where one is ideally efficient.  A place where one can truly be oneself.  A place one can call home.  We live our lives with the intention of building that home whether we are aware or not.  Almost speaking Freudian language is MY intention….I feel like I am constantly searching for that return  Home.  I want love, money, land, good food, travel time…I want it all!

Now, this perspective is not very traditional peasant is you ask me, but there is something to be learned from all of those farming peasants out there.  This is their surrender and satisfaction and commitment to…their land!  and to themselves!  The way farmers live the life of the labor of love is something venerable, honorable, and to be modeled after.  

Where does labor of love meet justice?  One must be just to oneself, and hold that law intimately.  How does one be truly just?  One does not follow the popular as much as follow the awareness of oneself and one’s growth.

When I chart the growth of a cheese, I chart the same rhythm with my own personal growth.  It is steady, it is incremental, and it is just as esoteric.  Just as I know the ideal conditions for a cheese to thrive, so I know and seek the ideal conditions for my body to thrive in its life engaged state of challenge, balance, structure, and free form.

The way a farmer works in a field reflects all of that quest.  Their vision is tied to the land.

To me, this gets back to the American dream in a way we can all understand.

***Read C. Wright Mills.  White Collar: The American Middle Classes

What a great little shop, and a genius idea to have all the basic cheese knowledge spelled out so clearly. I love their redefining American Cheese map, showing the ever growing number of cheese makers in the country.

Their shop was well kept, the people were inviting, positive, and concerned with local quality…try Chabrin…the goats milk cheese from the Pyrenees. It is made by the same people who make Ossau Iraty.

www.antonellischeese.com