Author Topic: Will you share photos of your caves? and Mini-cave techniques?  (Read 66320 times)

Spoons

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Re: Will you share photos of your caves? and Mini-cave techniques?
« Reply #150 on: March 29, 2015, 05:55:05 PM »
Susan, As Stinky mentioned, a Friulano is a Canadian version of a Montasio, but sealed and only aged 100 days. Texture and taste is somewhat similar to mozz, but has a nice slight ''Italian, or thermo'' tang to it.

I'll share my hybrid Parm/cheddar experiment when I'll open it in June for it's 12 month anniversary. I'll post all the details then. But in the meantime, I'll PM you the recipe. Don't want to hijack the thread. LOL. I'll PM the recipe to anyone interested until I open it in June. It was very good at 9 months BTW!
« Last Edit: March 29, 2015, 06:15:52 PM by Spoons »

Stinky

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Re: Will you share photos of your caves? and Mini-cave techniques?
« Reply #151 on: March 29, 2015, 07:23:43 PM »
Susan, As Stinky mentioned, a Friulano is a Canadian version of a Montasio, but sealed and only aged 100 days. Texture and taste is somewhat similar to mozz, but has a nice slight ''Italian, or thermo'' tang to it.

I'll share my hybrid Parm/cheddar experiment when I'll open it in June for it's 12 month anniversary. I'll post all the details then. But in the meantime, I'll PM you the recipe. Don't want to hijack the thread. LOL. I'll PM the recipe to anyone interested until I open it in June. It was very good at 9 months BTW!

I am interested as well.

cheesehombre

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Re: Will you share photos of your caves? and Mini-cave techniques?
« Reply #152 on: April 21, 2015, 10:39:15 PM »
 O0

Pavla

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Re: Will you share photos of your caves? and Mini-cave techniques?
« Reply #153 on: April 26, 2015, 09:12:59 PM »
Just wanted to ask is it better to convert to cheese cave fridge or freezer
Thank you Pavla

Offline Al Lewis

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Re: Will you share photos of your caves? and Mini-cave techniques?
« Reply #154 on: April 26, 2015, 10:30:48 PM »
I'd say it's easier with a freezer.  A fridge has a freezer to control and a fridge.  My freezer cave is only one thing to control and has a small footprint, if that is an issue.  Also easier to sanitize I would think.
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shaneb

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Re: Will you share photos of your caves? and Mini-cave techniques?
« Reply #155 on: April 26, 2015, 10:41:46 PM »
I think Danbo suggested an upright fridge with no freezer was better than an upright freezer as the compressor wasn't as aggressive, therefore provided better temperature control.

Shane

Offline Al Lewis

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Re: Will you share photos of your caves? and Mini-cave techniques?
« Reply #156 on: April 26, 2015, 11:27:25 PM »
I simply turned mine down to the lowest setting.
Making the World a Safer Place, One Cheese at a Time! My Food Blog and Videos

shaneb

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Re: Will you share photos of your caves? and Mini-cave techniques?
« Reply #157 on: April 26, 2015, 11:48:59 PM »
That's just the thermostat setting isn't it? The compressor will still run at full speed until it reaches the target. In our case though we'd cut power to the compressor before it reaches the internal thermostat temperature set point. I believe wine fridge have a tiny compressor so that all temperature changes are slow and relatively constant. I'm not sure how the compressor differs between a fridge and a freezer though.

Shane

Kern

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Re: Will you share photos of your caves? and Mini-cave techniques?
« Reply #158 on: April 27, 2015, 12:04:52 AM »
Just wanted to ask is it better to convert to cheese cave fridge or freezer

I went with an upright freezer.  I looked at upright fridges but the freezer seemed "cleaner".  I think if you compared the "guts" of both a freezer and fridge with no freezing compartment you'd find that they are pretty much identical.  Mine is controlled by a unit from Perfect Cheese.  The internal controls are set for the lowest temperature which means the the freezer is always running if it has power, which it only does when the external controller gives it power.  There is no such thing as "first, second and third gear" in these units.  They are either on and cooling or they are off.  Mine claims that it has a "max cooling" setting to get down fast when first fired up.  The only difference I've found with it is that the fan is circulating more air when this is set on.  Since I'm not trying to blow dry my cheeses I leave this off.  It's set point is 54F so it goes on at 55F and goes off at 54F.  If I open the door and get it to 56F the alarm sounds and the SWAT team is called.  Oh wait!  That's another story.  Where was I?  Oh yes, the alarm goes on and it takes about 90 seconds to drop the two degrees back to 54 with the "momentum" dropping the temps down to about 53.5.   8)   

shaneb

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Re: Will you share photos of your caves? and Mini-cave techniques?
« Reply #159 on: April 27, 2015, 12:22:46 AM »
I'm curious as to whether anyone is using an inverter controlled fridge or freezer as a cave. Control would be a little trickier, but it might give good results.

Shane

Kern

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Re: Will you share photos of your caves? and Mini-cave techniques?
« Reply #160 on: June 16, 2015, 05:44:07 PM »
I finally got around to taking a photo of the interior of my cave described two posts above.  You can see the controller wires entering through the hole drilled through the back wall.  This was very carefully located and a 1.5 inch hole saw used to punch through the liner, foam insulation and steel back wall.  A short piece of PVC pipe was laminated in using a two-part polyurethane sealant.  The controller wires were then shoved through the pipe, which was then stuffed with some insulation foam.  The hole was big enough so that the humidity probe could fit through without cutting the wires.  All controllers came from http://www.perfect-cheese.com/.  The unit itself is a 16 cubic foot upright freezer (Whirlpool) purchased on sale from Lowes.  I am happy with the way everything works.   ^-^

jmason

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Re: Will you share photos of your caves? and Mini-cave techniques?
« Reply #161 on: June 16, 2015, 08:16:08 PM »
Dang Kern, look at all that empty space.  I'll have to send cheeses over to you and you can age em and do the affinage. ;D

John

mswhin63

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Re: Will you share photos of your caves? and Mini-cave techniques?
« Reply #162 on: November 30, 2015, 01:11:57 PM »
Hi, I am new here and very new to cheese-making.

Made a few soft cheese with varying success (mostly successful), and decided to get into hard cheeses.

This is my hard cheese fridge I made recently, although have not yet finely tuned the humidity the temperature is working well.
I have also created a video of my effort if any one is interested.
https://youtu.be/K-djyDMVb0Y


dc-k

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Re: Will you share photos of your caves? and Mini-cave techniques?
« Reply #163 on: March 08, 2018, 06:18:20 PM »
I have limited space and have set up my cave in a cupboard using a coolbox which has active cooling and added thermostat and humidistat controllers. There's a fan in the lid along with a piezoelectric cooler which I have connected to the thermostat. It keeps a pretty steady temperature so far.

Image attached

Thewitt

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Re: Will you share photos of your caves? and Mini-cave techniques?
« Reply #164 on: March 08, 2018, 06:42:49 PM »
 I found a 4.7cf mini fridge at Walmart for $80, added WILHII controllers for temp and humidity, and a humidity generator. I'm changing out the humidifier to a bottle type later today...  First cheeses will be in here on Sunday - Farmhouse and standard Cheddar are drying now.