Too Moist...what to do?

[girlsrockmovie]

So, just took my first Farmhouse Cheddar out, a cheese that had problems all along (it was, after all my learning cheese) but that somehow got into a wheel and into the cheese cave. I opened it up today after a month, and it's still quite moist and has some pockets which I kinda expected as the press situation hadn't really come together yet. It tastes a little on the sour side too (though not too bad, more like an extra sharp supermarket cheddar), which fits the diagnosis.

My question is, anything to do at this point to dry it out a bit and salvage the cheese? I waxed originally, but I was contemplating bandaging over just  the opened sides of the cheese (I cut the waxed wheel in half down the middle) to see if that would dry it out a bit. Any thoughts or other solutions?

Thanks!

Arne

[wharris]

Arne,
I feel your pain.

It sounds like there may have been a couple of issues here.  How do I  know?  I have about 3 wheels in the same condition as this in my cave.

It sounds like you may not have sufficiently salted the milled curd. Or your milled curds may have been too big. Salt, absorbed into the curd retards the production of acid (the sour/sharp taste) and it helps the with the syneresis of the curd. 

You also may not have cooked it enough as this also helps expel whey and stop acidification.  I don't think that this is necessarily a pressing problem.  That's all I can think of right now.  If I think of anyting more I will add it later.
I'm not sure that there is any "saving" these wheels other than to just eat them and learn from them.
Sorry.

[girlsrockmovie]

Thanks Wayne! I believe it could definitely have been any of the problems you mentioned, I really stumbled through that first batch.

I guess I'll eat, call it something else...wet cheddar or sumtin.

[Rich]

Sumtin sounds like a great name!  BTW, ALL my previous Farmhouse Cheddars have had that sour/bitter taste to them.  I'm working on a solution which has merit, and I'll let everyone know what I did if it works out.  RE: wetness, Wayne is probably right on target.  In addition to not cooking long enough, you may want to go with a couple more degrees of temp at that stage.  Oh, and how long did you let the wheel air dry before waxing?  Was the rind completely dry?

[girlsrockmovie]

You know, I probably didn't let it dry long enough...I made it before I had my cheese cave set up and so I had some real struggles with mold (just doing it in my pantry), so I think I waxed it a little early. That first wheel was all such a blur...

[wharris]

I don't think that mattered.  If the taste was sour, then you had runaway acidification. Acid production causes that sour taste and is the byproduct of the cultures chowing down on Lactos and creating lactic acid as a by product

This will stop on its own when the acid it creates won't support life.  That happens on its own at about pH 3.8-4.4.  This is heavily dependent on your cultures you are using.

But if you let yout pH get this low,  the damage is from a taste perspective.