It is hard to wrap one's mind around waiting 12 months, or 24 months, or
for one of these cheeses. For me, the "secret" is to keep some shorter-aging cheeses in the pipeline, making an occasional long-aging cheese in between. The shorter-aging cheeses provide the more immediate gratification and feedback, and keep me from even thinking about that long-aging cheese in the back of the cave -- though I do check on them once in a while.
Currently my favorite short-aging cheeses are Lancashire, Caerphilly, and "Malembert" (my version of Mal's version of camembert
).
My longest aging to date has been a parma style that I opened at 12 months; because I use it slowly, the last quarter may reach 24 months before I finish it -- it currently is at 17 months, and I still have nearly 3/4. I've got a Romano style in the cave, currently only at 5 months, a long way to go yet; if I can make a couple more sometime soon, then I should be able to leave at least one for 24-36 months before opening it. A long, long way off, so better not even to think about it -- just make the cheese, put it in the cave, and forget about it ... until suddenly, one day, I will realize, "hey! that cheese has been in there for two [three] years!"
Meanwhile, I have a couple of traditional cheddars and a couple of Cantals that are only two or three months old; based on my last cheddar, I probably won't open these before at least 9 months, but since I have two of each, it will be easier to leave at least one for maybe 18 months to see what happens.
Have patience, a
Jedi cheese-maker must!
