Author Topic: Mold bloom not appearing  (Read 2642 times)

kshathra

  • Guest
Mold bloom not appearing
« on: December 06, 2012, 04:04:21 PM »
Hi Everyone,

This is my first post (and basically first cheese), so please excuse me if this is in the wrong place. Will mold bloom not develop if the drying cheese gets too dry? I am making a semi-lactic with geo only (sheep's milk, if that matters), and during the drying phase my cheese has developed some extremely dry and yellowed sections on the exterior. I have been drying for four days in a temperature controlled fridge and have not yet seen mold develop. The resources I have been using (books, internet, this board) have said to dry at 60 degrees with moving air, which I have done, until mold cover forms. Unfortunately, I am also in the desert so humidity control is an issue.

Thanks,
-ksh

kshathra

  • Guest
Re: Mold bloom not appearing
« Reply #1 on: December 06, 2012, 04:17:08 PM »
Here is an image. Fuzziness is from a bad camera, and is not mold fyi.

bbracken677

  • Guest
Re: Mold bloom not appearing
« Reply #2 on: December 06, 2012, 04:19:25 PM »
Ah...same issue I tend to have here in Texas, but I bet yours are more extreme.  How old is your make?

I found that I need to dry cheeses no more than 24 hours at the most after removing from the mold and then they go into a container into the cave. The humidity requirements then are dictated by the individual cheese (mold ripened, I leave the top loosely engaged but fully covering the container)..

Someone more knowledgeable will hopefully chime in here, but I think you should make a 3% (by weight) saline solution and then wash your cheese to develop a thin pasty rind on the outside. Hopefully then your mold will begin to sprout.

Here is a link that might help: http://cheeseforum.org/forum/index.php/topic,10330.0.html   

kshathra

  • Guest
Re: Mold bloom not appearing
« Reply #3 on: December 06, 2012, 04:32:26 PM »
Interesting. I'm not sure if a saline solution would inhibit mold growth but maybe I could spray some sterile water on the outside with a little CaCl2 added to avoid Ca leaching. I would be interested to hear several opinions on the subject.

I formed the curd and drained it for about 36 hours, then de-molded and put it on a rack in my beer fermentation fridge (sans fermenting beer) four days ago. The cheeses are not in any sort of secondary container, and for moving air I used a little five inch "air purifier", which is just a cheap fan attached to a filter. The fan was faced toward the wall of the fridge to avoid directly blowing onto the cheese. There is a bit of uncovered water in the fridge, which is where my thermostat temperature probe is housed, but other than that there is no additional source of moisture.

bbracken677

  • Guest
Re: Mold bloom not appearing
« Reply #4 on: December 06, 2012, 04:45:52 PM »
Interesting. I'm not sure if a saline solution would inhibit mold growth

That is why only a 3% solution...that is quite within the mold tolerance.

linuxboy

  • Guest
Re: Mold bloom not appearing
« Reply #5 on: December 06, 2012, 04:51:51 PM »
Quote
dry at 60 degrees with moving air
Usual spec is 12-24 hrs 65F at 75-80% RH. Seems like your humidity is a tad low, and you might need to use more geo or spray with it.

kshathra

  • Guest
Re: Mold bloom not appearing
« Reply #6 on: December 06, 2012, 04:55:52 PM »
Could there be a problem with excessive mold application? I'll probably throw together a solution to spray on the cheese today. I have already removed the fan and will be placing a pan of water in there as well.