Hello Sam,
The coating that you are referring to is Kaas (Cheese) coating. They might call it plasticoat in the US. The main ingredient is PVA or PolyVinylAcetate. It’s a synthetic polymer. It is widely used in a lot of things like the white wood-glue, chewing gum, wallpaper glue and so on.
PVA mixed with water forms an aqueous emulsion which remains semi permeable after drying. So, it will allow moist to leave (or enter) the cheese. The cheese can still ‘breathe’, but will keep more moist in the cheese than usual with a natural rind. The evaporation process is slowed down.
Some variants will have a small dose of Natamycin included. It’s an antifungal agent, which is produced by a bacterium called ‘Streptomyces Natalensis’ that was discovered in Natal, South Africa. It kills fungi by stopping the carrier proteins by binding ‘Ergosterol’ (Provitamin D2) in the celmembrane. That means the fungi will die from starvation. There is plenty information on internet available if you are interested in the matter.
Natamycin is allowed for use in food, however, the rind and the first few mm under the rind might contain a little bit Natamycin. Therefore, we always cut of the rind with a cheese slicer. Further Natamycin will slow down fungal growth but the cheese can still be attacked. Personally I do not use it.
Cheesecoating is in use for about 50 years in the Netherlands to coat semi hard and hard cheese. As you might know Goudse and Edammer cheese are traditionally made with a natural (clean) rind. For protection on transport and a more appealing appearance at the market, they used different materials to coat cheeses, like linseed oil, sheep fat, lard or paraffin in the older days. Wax was (and is) never used on Goudse and Edammer, and the same has to be mentioned for vacuum bagging.
(The big cheese factories that supply supermarkets will let their cheeses ripen the old way, (coat them with cheese coating) and after cutting they will vacuum bag or use a packaging under protective atmosphere to prevent spoilage in the one or two weeks that are needed to sell the cheeses. One could say that this kind of cheese is considered second grade.)
Before applying cheese coating, after brining, you have to give the cheese a chance to dry. That could take several days. If the cheese feels dry to the hand you can start with the first layer of coating. The best tool for applying is a sponge. A paintbrush will guarantee uneven and thick layers that need days to dry, so better avoid this. The secret of good layers is very simple: coat thin. It is much better to coat several thin layers than one thick layer.
If you are finished with coating you can preserve the sponge from drying out by packing it in a plastic bag.
The first coating should have extra attention. Be sure to cover the whole surface including small needle point holes. The first layer can take a little extra time to dry. Several hours. After the first layer bring on one or two extra layers. Those layers will dry very quickly. It will be a matter of minutes.
After several weeks, the coating can degrade a little, getting less shiny or even matt. It will lose partly the protective characteristics and need to be renewed by a new thin layer.
You can repeat this process for as long as you want.
The first thin layers will allow to get a noticeable amount of moist evaporating out of the cheese. As it grows older the extra layers that you add will thicken the total layer, slowing down the evaporation process. No problem because an older cheese uses to lose less moist. This way you can get an Goudse cheese 2 or 3 years old and still have the possibility to shave thin slices with a cheese slicer.
What more is there to tell. Ah, you can buy the stuff here on every street corner. It is available in yellow, red, black, transparent and several other colors. After the first few layers one can stick a label on the cheese and coat that with the transparent version. Even with the ‘normal’ yellow coating the labels will stay visible, but maybe some colors of the label will change a little. Label sticking is done mostly just before selling the cheese, so that makes just one layer of transparent coating more than enough.
I am quite sure that you can find and buy this coating on internet. Success with the first try and let me know if there are any issues.
Jeroen
