Making

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Cheese Making Steps

Basic Principles
Milk:
◦ Types
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◦ Products
Acidification
Starter Cultures:
◦ Function
◦ Manufacturers
◦ Manufactured Products
Lipases
Colourants:
◦ General
◦ Annatto
Acids
Coagulation
Calcium Chloride
Rennets:
◦ Animal
◦ Plant
◦ Microbial
◦ Fermentation
Milk Additives
Curd:
◦ When to Cut
◦ How to Cut
Salt:
◦ Function
◦ Types
◦ Salting Curds
◦ Salting Rinds
Pressing Curds
Brine:
◦ Making
◦ Using
◦ Maintaining
◦ For Preserving
Turning Cheeses
Ripening
Rinds:
◦ General
◦ Natural
◦ Ash

Defects

General:
◦ Coagulation
◦ Surface
◦ Body
◦ Aroma
◦ Flavour
Specific:
◦ Blue Mould
◦ White Mould

Equipment

Books
Cheese Caves
Cheesecloths
Hygrometers
Mats
Miscellaneous
pH Meters
Scales
Vats (Stockpots)
Thermometers

Natural Rinds

This page is divided into the following topics:

1. General
2. Clean Natural Rind
3. Benign Microorganism Rinds - Added During Pressing/Brining Phase
4. Benign Microorganism Rinds - Added After Pressing/Brining Phase

General

Natural rinds are a class of aged cheese rinds where the rind is natural and not covered with some a low permeability material such as:

1. Wax Coating (common on Edam cheeses).
2. Sealed Vacuum Plastic (common on many cheeses).
3. Cheesecloth wrapping and larding (common on some cheddars).
4. Milk based edible casein based bag or cloth wrapping cheese as common with large Gouda wheels. This is the same materials used for labels on large cheeses.

The aim of the natural rind is to create a protective layer through the cheese aging phase such that i) unwanted microorganisms are kept at bay and ii) it is easier to control the moisture content of the cheese from dehydration. There are three groups of Natural Rinds:

Clean Natural Rind

To create a truly hygienically clean Natural Rind with no induced microorganisms is very hard to do due to high chance of airborne wild contaminants and thus this method is almost never done.

Brine & Salt Rubbed Rind

After a 5-7 weeks the rind would darken and toughen and then it would be ready to oil. I used saturated brine to dab mold at first, with intermitent rubbings with coarse salt (once a week or so). It's important to keep the humidity down when you rub the salt on as the moisture on the rind can cause spots of yeast that, once you start rubbing, spreads it around.

Salt & Oil Rind

Rubbing rind with oil and dry salt is a very popular long term rind. It should be done only after a high % salt or saturated salt brine has been used to rub the rind for a couple months to build a hard thicker neutral pH natural rind, earlier can result in a yeasty mess. Common oils are:

1. Extra virgin olive oil, imparts a string fruity flavor.
2. Extra light olive oil, imparts a lighter flavor.
3. Herb infused olive oils.
4. Soybean oil.

In general, moist lightly pressed washed curd type cheeses such as Gouda and Edam should not be oiled but instead waxed. This is because these types of cheeses have a high pH early in the aging process and a lot of food on their surface and thus have a high potential for yeast to grow.

Benign Microorganism Rinds - Added During Pressing/Brining Phase

A protective rind is preferred from ????bugs.

Benign Microorganism Rinds - Added After Pressing/Brining Phase

Many cheeses have their natural rind coated with a permeable barrier to control unwanted microorganisms during aging. Examples are:

1. Washing with a fluid with live microorganisms. Examples are beer, cider, wine.