Author Topic: hello from south texas pre wax gouda and general mold control  (Read 2076 times)

stxcheese

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hello from south texas pre wax gouda and general mold control
« on: January 04, 2017, 04:00:37 PM »
hi first time post ,7 or 8 cheeses made.   Some better than others I have not had to throw any out, but I have had to eat some earlier than I wanted.  I live in south texas and it is hot and humid.
    today I am worried about a hot pepper gouda.   I am 2 weeks into a 3 week dry out before I wax .    So far everything looks good.   it is aging pretty nicely in a wine fridge with some provolone.   it has a tiny bit of white mold? or could it be a bit of salt.    I have been turning every few days and dry salt wiping 2 times now, the wine cooler has to be mopped out every other day of collected moisture.   
    my first gouda was last year, and I don't remember aging it for 3 weeks before I waxed it, and I ate it at just 2 months, so it was clean , but not all that flavorful.   
    I want to age this pepper gouda for at least 10 months,

and I am concerned about mold getting to it in the next few days before I wax it.

    any suggestions on pre waxing prep for long aging

thanks

my first swiss was sort of a bust because of the mold,   in the first part of the recipe it calls for warm aging,  I tried salt rubs, and vinegar rubs and salt and vinegar rubs, but in the end I had to keep carving it down every 3 or 4 days to keep the mold off,   it was tasty,  but the swiss only made it out of the cooler for I think 2 weeks .    now it is in a 38f fridge and all is well it is almost eaten, it has ok flavor, but I think it did not get to age long enough

Offline awakephd

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Re: hello from south texas pre wax gouda and general mold control
« Reply #1 on: January 04, 2017, 06:50:11 PM »
Welcome to the forum!

A couple of typical ways to deal with keeping the mold at bay: 1) Wipe down with vinegar, possibly mixed with salt. (The salt can help scrub any stubborn mold.) 2) Wipe down with white wine.

There is a third option: encourage the mold/bacteria you want, and let it out-compete the others. For example, you could introduce some B. linens to the rind, encourage it for a couple of weeks by "washing" the rind, and then dry the rind off to keep it from going further. Alternately, you could let mold develop, just brushing it down to keep it from getting out of hand; after a while it will have depleted the surface of food and will stabilize. If you then wax (or vac-bag, which is my preference) the cheese, it will starve the B. linens or molds from oxygen, preventing further development -- but you will still get some additional flavor from the rind development.
-- Andy

stxcheese

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Re: hello from south texas pre wax gouda and general mold control
« Reply #2 on: January 04, 2017, 11:21:20 PM »
thanks for the reply ,   just now the wine fridge is at 75% humidity and 48F.   
   so if I understand a little correctly,   the white powdery mold is not so bad, and if I close it up in wax or vac bag it will not have any more food for growth?    So I would guess the chees needs to be crack free.   
    So far I have had pretty much 0 success with salt and or vinegar rubs.  at least on the black and blue molds.    but those were other cheeses.   
    Does UV light or any other surface sterilizer treatments have any effect on black mold?   
   I guess I would like some thing that I could apply just before waxing.   
   is there going to be a stick or wiki on waxing versus vacuum bagging ?    I kind of like the idea of the vacuum bag as well, because I could see what is going on at least a little.
   I will try and study up on vacuum bagging.   I still have about a week to go.


Also on a slightly different cheese.   my provolone does not always come out of the hot whey the same,  it almost seems that the first batch I put in the hot whey, gets a shinier stretch,  then the middle ones look a little under done and lumpy.    I am not really doing stretch tests with small bits.   I am just letting the curd mass sit at 110 to 105 is for about 3 hours until  the ph meter gets good and below 5.2,   then I put the whole size of the finished cheese in the hot whey.   
   If I go to a multi piece method  I have not figured out how to get the pieces to stick together or for that matter how to close the top of the jug so to speak.   I sort of stretch the curd over and in on itself, and it sort of makes a dish, then I try and draw up the sides into a jug shape, and it sort of stays open at the top,
   did that make any sense at all.,    it still tastes like provolone,    but it also seems prone to cracking.   
   
   I think if I run my wine fridge at 85% humidity there will be puddles of water in the bottom.   do others have that moisture collection problem?

thanks

Offline Gregore

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Re: hello from south texas pre wax gouda and general mold control
« Reply #3 on: January 05, 2017, 05:13:25 AM »
When you wax it , the heat will kill everything on the surface , assuming you are running at the max wax temp .

stxcheese

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Re: hello from south texas pre wax gouda and general mold control
« Reply #4 on: January 05, 2017, 07:23:54 AM »
well ok then that makes  lot of sense.  thanks

can you make a natural rind gouda or does a gouda by definition have to be waxed?

so far I am using I guess riki carrols recipes,   I did buy the natural cheesmaking book recommended here, but I have not tried any of his recipes.

do you all run different humidity's in your ageing rooms depending on the style of cheese or just one aging room and one humidity?

Offline Gregore

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Re: hello from south texas pre wax gouda and general mold control
« Reply #5 on: January 06, 2017, 04:39:22 AM »
I think alp or some other member from that area said that Gouda usually does not come waxed over there.


But my memory could be wrong  :o

Offline Al Lewis

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Re: hello from south texas pre wax gouda and general mold control
« Reply #6 on: January 06, 2017, 03:27:59 PM »
Check with Danbo.
Making the World a Safer Place, One Cheese at a Time! My Food Blog and Videos

Offline awakephd

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Re: hello from south texas pre wax gouda and general mold control
« Reply #7 on: January 06, 2017, 07:09:34 PM »
I do understand your question - would it still be considered a gouda-type cheese if you did it this way rather than that way - but the nice thing about making your own cheese is that you can make it any way you want! :)

Keep in mind that many of the names we use for cheese are actually regionally protected designations, meaning that, for example, a cheese can only REALLY be a Parmigiano-Reggiano if it is made in a certain region, using a certain type of milk from that region, following a certain type of process. You can make something in the style of a P-R or any other cheese, but technically it will always be your own interpretation of that style of cheese, affected by the terroir of the milk you use and the procedures you follow.

I don't recall whether Gouda is a regionally protected designation, and in any case the USA does not always observe these designations, but bottom line is, make it the way you want, and if anyone objects that it is not correct, tell them that it is, in fact, better -- because you made it the way you wanted it to be! :)
-- Andy

Offline Danbo

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Re: hello from south texas pre wax gouda and general mold control
« Reply #8 on: January 06, 2017, 09:57:21 PM »
You can call your cheese a Gouda. "Boerenkaas", "Noord-Hollandse Gouda", and "Gouda Holland" are protected names.

A gouda can be made with a natural rind, but is almost always waxed...

Below is a picture of my last waxed gouda. :-)
« Last Edit: January 06, 2017, 10:04:08 PM by Danbo »