Author Topic: Which aged, hard cheese would best be suited to aging in household refridgerator?  (Read 2654 times)

shoelessone

  • Guest
Hi all!

It doesn't seem like this forum is exactly filled with shortcut takers, but I'm hoping somebody could answer my question anyway.

This summer I have a few close friends who are getting married and I thought it would be cool to give a present of homemade "stuff" - I though it would be awesome to give a 2-3 pond cheese wheel that was partially aged but would still require weekly flips for a few months. The idea being the couple that got the cheese would be able to participate in the cheese making in a way, and might feel like they had a hand in the final product (they would!). This might seem weird to some but I know my friends would think this a special and unique wedding gift. Anyway the issue of course is that I wouldn't expect that the couple would have a perfect 55 degree 85% humidity cheese cave, I would assume they'll have a refridgerator. So that's what I would assume they'd use to age their cheese.

So the question is already asked, but again, what cheese would be best suited to a few months (or less) of aging in a fridge? I have about a month and a half before the first cheese would need to be ready to give so I'd need to be able to make, brine (if required), wax (if required), etc, before that point.

Thanks for the help all!!!

Rich

  • Guest
Hey now that's a great idea for a gift.  I don't know how experienced you are in cheese making; but the Swiss type cheeses require a cooler aging temp, like 40 - 45 F.  They are more difficult to make however.  But if you  can be happy with a Swiss taste and perhaps very small eye formation you could try one of them.  Or, on the other hand, lots of people age their cheese in the crisper of their fridge.  The temp may not be ideal, and the aging process does slow down; but it could work for whatever your favorite cheese might be.

Cornelius

  • Guest
Hi,

I agree that it is a great idea! As their relationship matures, so does the cheese ...

Unless you really set on hard cheese and want them to flip the cheese continuously, I would suggest looking at some Brie (had to edit this because I initially mentioned Camembert and didn't mean to). I think I read a number of topics on this forum about giving Brie its initial aging in a very controlled environment (10-14 days) and then transferring to a regular fridge for a very long aging period.

Good luck with your project.


« Last Edit: April 19, 2009, 09:54:48 AM by Cornelius »

shoelessone

  • Guest
Thank you for the replies :) - and especially for the encouragement!

Ideally I'd like to give a hard cheese, just because I think for the average person there are more applications for most hard cheeses (i.e. using a hard cheese for grating on pasta, or putting on a sandwich, etc) and I know a lot more people who don't like Brie then Cheddar, Colby, or Parisian for instance.

That said, thanks for the heads up - maybe I'll consider a Brie!




Offline DeejayDebi

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If you want to rush the cheeses I'd like to suggest you age them normally for the first few months and maybe the last week or so set them open in the fridge in the crisper to speed dry. It works pretty good for grating cheeses like parmesian, asiago, romano and okay for cheddars for a day of so.