How long to air dry before starting wash/smear

[gravity84]

trying to avoid the dreaded slipskin, I've been letting my formed curds dry for a few days now. It's still really tacky feeling, like butter sort of.  what should it feel like/look like/how long should I let it dry before starting the smear/washing process?

Trying to make a lactic coagulated epoisses style cheese.

[Stinky]

First you have to understand the root of the slipskin problem. It's the result of the cheese ripening too quickly. If the temperature is too high and your ripening bacteria too active, it will make the area closest to the rind soft before the middle. This is why for many stinky cheeses you develop a schmier over several weeks and then wrap and put in the refrigerator, where it can ripen at a slower pace.

Edit for clarity: I don't think air-drying will make much of any difference. What recipe are you following?

[gravity84]

Not really following a recipe.  Read a lot of them and am kinda improvising.

[Stinky]

Did you write up make notes?

[gravity84]

Yeah, in another thread.  Thought maybe I shouldn't hijack someone else's thread though.

Trying one right now.  Started yesterday afternoon at around 6.  Not following a specific recipe per se but I've read a lot of various ones, kinda going off the cuff just for funsies.

1 gal cow milk @ 90F
3 oz cultured buttermilk
1/4 tsp CaCl
4 drops rennet

Put in a cooler with a bit of boiling water run on the walls and kept on the bottm (like 4 cups worth, not much at all, just to give the cavity some thermal energy).  Transferred the milk to a cambro and placed in cooler and closed top. 



Air temp was about 90F when I closed it up, about 87F when I went to bed so I topped off with a bit more boiling water.  Was 80F when I woke up this morning.  Topped with a bit more water again and got it to 87Fish and thought that was good enough.

Around lunchtime today it looked pretty good and set with the whey floating up top:



so I cut it and bain marie'd it on low heat and brought it to about 90F again:



Tried to scoop the curds and holy lol they're soft...so I'm ladling them into some doubled butter muslin right now and draining hoping I can salvage it haha

so it's been draining since yesterday.  firm enough now that I can take the molds off so I did that, and salted it.  Might be able to save this one after all.