12-gallon Parmesan plan

[mjr522]

And is this going to be on the Final Exam? :-\

If we get a guest lecturer who is an expert to confirm, yes.

[JeffHamm]

And, of course, the saturation of the brine would come into these calculations as well.  Isn't cheese fun!  Tell your sleeping student just put 42 for everything and see how it goes.

- Jeff

[mjr522]

I noticed a few very small cracks in the rind last night.  The cheese was in the cave, and the hummidity, according to the meter stayed between 78% and 93%.  From when I've looked in, it generally has been hovering around 88%.  I put a container over the cheese for the night, and found a few more small cracks this morning.  I put a wet cloth in the container to raise the hummidity even more, but I'm wondering if something other than too rapid drying is causing the little cracks.  Any thoughts?  What would you do about the little cracks?  I seem to remember something about putting butter in small cracks...

I'll try to get a picture tonight.

[Tiarella]

I put coconut oil all over it when that happens.  OR....you could wash with a water/salt mix to rehumidify.  Olive oil has worked for me as well. 

[mjr522]

The cracks aren't so bad after keeping the humidity around 90%, but I still put butter over them.  The pictures don't really show the cracks very clearly, but here they are anyway:

[mjr522]

About 3 1/2 weeks old.  I filled the cracks with some butter.  It seems to have been absorbed into the cheese.  I think I'll coat it in oil tomorrow and see about taking it out of its container...

[High Altitude]

Whoa!  That is one scary impressive wheel of parm!  You will have lots of friends after your gift-giving next year :-).

I made 3 little parms early this year, and the first one with sharp lipase.  I loved the taste, so don't think you'll need to worry about your lesser amount of lipase (just hope it will be enough).  Keep in mind that my husband thinks my tastebuds are non-existent the way I adore hot/spicy things.

I let my parms age out for 3 months before coating with olive oil.  You may want to reconsider oiling your beast too soon, despite the minor cracks.  My first one had a bunch of cracks very early on (during initial drying phase), but they never got worse while aging (before oiling).

Now, please consider making a 12 pound brie...and then send me half  ;D!!

Great job...a cheese to your efforts!