How often to turn cheese during aging

[Guiseppe]

My cheese cave currently houses 15 cheeses in varying states of aging.

I have a number of farmhouse Cheddars, 'full' Cheddar, Lancashire, Cotswold, Stilton, Camembert whose ages vary between 1 week and 4 months; they are all at different stages of maturation.  Some are ready to be consumed and others have several months longer before they will get eaten.

I have obviously used a number of different recipes and they all give different times for turning during aging.  The most recent ones are having to be turned daily, some every other day, some twice a week, some once a week.

My question, which hopefully somebody will be able to answer is this - Is it possible to turn a cheese too often? 

If I were to follow each recipe exactly I would need some sort of calendar to check when each is in need of turning. 

As far as I am aware, (very new to this game) the sole purpose of turning is to ensure an even distribution of fats and moisture throughout the cheese rather than having it all either sink to the bottom or float to the top. I currently have to attend to the most recent cheeses on a daily basis so since I am already in the cave anyway would there be a problem with turning all the cheeses every day?  They are all vacuum packed so actually turning them is not a problem.  Is it going to be ok for example to turn a Cheddar every day rather than every week.  Will it actually make any difference?

It's actually far easier to turn everything once a day rather than try to remember which ones need turning on what day.

Anybody any experience or opinion here?

 

[Stinky]

I turn all of mine once every day. You can get away with turning them less often when they mature more, after a few months, but like you said it's easier to turn them all.

[Danbo]

I turn mine every day - sometimes every other day if I forget... ;-)

[awakephd]

I agree -- my totally inexpert sense is that the important thing is that they are rotated evenly and sufficiently often; I don't think it hurts to rotate more often.

[Guiseppe]

Thanks for that.  I'll carry on turning every day.  Cheers.

[Al Lewis]

Depends on the age of the cheese.  The older they get the less you have to turn them.  When they are fresh, and still relatively full of whey, they need to be turned often to keep the moisture centralized in the cheese.

[Mermaid]

I honestly didn't know that was the reason for flipping - I thought it was for air flow on cheese and for shape but it makes total sense ! You've answered a question I didn't know I had!

[Al Lewis]

That's how "elephant foot" occurs.  All of the moisture sinks to the bottom and bellows the cheese out because it's not flipped regularly.  Cheeses should be swelled at the center, not either end.