This is an update from my last post, it's a raw milk cheese made hybrizing the processes of the raclette and the Italian Toma, however there was a very small deviation from the inteded recipe...the B Linens never showed up on the rind, thus the cheese never developed the flavor that it should have had.
In the end I'm left with a very interesting result I'm still satisfied with it since this is only my third make. The paste is elastic (the texture on the cut is just an artistic method of splitting the wheel) and it tastes on the plain side, just what you would expect from a standard Toma but you can still feel the effect that the curd washing had
Obviously, I don't know how you aged the cheese, so I'm only talking generally here: b linens only shows up at a pH of 5.8 or above. Before I knew this, I often had weird problems like you describe. The solution is to let the rind grow geotrichum first (which will pull the pH up), and then wash it off. If you wash regularly (especially with brine), you inhibit the geotrichum and therefore have more trouble getting the conditions you want for b. linens. Though it may also be a humidity issue.
The reason you might want to wash early is to pull up paste into the wash. This gives you a thick, but flexible rind which is good for cheeses with eyes where you want it to be able to expand without cracking. You can also do it to fill in problems in the rind (for example, if it didn't close perfectly).
Looks like a really nice cheese, though!
Hey there, we did talk under my last post. On my next washed rind I'll follow these steps for sure. That will take some time tho, still have to find a way to fetch a B.Linens colture and the wine fridge i had my eyes on to use as an aging cellar got sold before I could put my hands on it
is that an eyelash in the right side near the lower edge?
Yes, I probably missed it before taking the photo! Probably fell down while I was hunched over working the knife to split it, my eyebrows are thick so they shed a lot