Author Topic: Aging in an actual cave.  (Read 1462 times)

JimSteel

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Aging in an actual cave.
« on: April 09, 2013, 07:59:37 PM »
Well, not totally.  I bought my new house and there is a small cold room in the basement, about closet sized.  The walls are all concrete and it's sealed up nicely, no excessive moisture or anything. 

Currently I'm using a mini fridge with a piece of styrofoam in it to keep my cheeses at about 11 degrees celsius.  The temp can fluctuate anywhere from 9-12 celsius

My plan for the foreseeable future is this:
Only making cheeses that will be waxed or vaccuum packed (no humidity concerns, right?)
Only making cheeses that need to be in the 10-12 celsius ripening range. (According to the recipes in 200 easy cheeses at least) Colby, Cheddar, Gouda, Edam etc.

I've been temping my cold room lately and while it was quite a bit colder in the winter, it's been holding a consistent 11 degrees. 
I have 6, 1 pounders ripening right now and am running out of fridge space.  I'm not looking at making an exact science out of cheesemaking and am not concerned with perfect recipes or extremely precise temperatures.  Hence not wanting to deal with humidity regulated cheeses at the time being.  Are temp fluctuations of 3 degrees either way going to impact my cheeses significantly?

Thanks
« Last Edit: April 09, 2013, 08:23:49 PM by JimSteel »

Tomer1

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Re: Aging in an actual cave.
« Reply #1 on: April 09, 2013, 09:45:51 PM »
No, your plan sound about right.
Just be sure that the cheese are properly air dried (of fridge dried) before waxing\bagging so you dont get yeast\bloating\souring during maturation.