Author Topic: Cheddar without waxing?  (Read 10291 times)

wharris

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Re: Cheddar without waxing?
« Reply #30 on: August 03, 2009, 12:49:28 PM »
I may be the one that confused you Riha.  If I have, I am sorry. You are right in assuming that different rind methods may in fact produce different cheeses. 

For example, I would not try and wax a stilton, or limburger, nor would I wash the rind of a swiss.

My comments should be confined to those hard cheeses where a natural rind, waxed rind are options that really may not affect the overall outcome of the cheese. In my mind, that is cheddar, parmesan, Swiss, Gouda...  These are types of cheeses I make at this point.

Perhaps it would be useful to try and give a quick backgrounder in what a rind is.

The rind is the outer/exterior portion of a wheel if cheese.  If this is a natural rind, it is the same cheese as the inside of the wheel, except that it is allowed to dry and harden.  The whole point of any rind is form a protective barrier.  A natural rind is simply cheese that is exposed to the air allowing a tough crust to form naturally.  (thus the term Natural Rind).  This tough, hard, dry exterior protects the inner (meat) of the cheese from over-drying and allows the inner cheese to age. A natural rind is not normally considered good eats as much of the cheese flavor is lost over time, when compared to the interior of the wheel. (But I rarely let it go to waste….)

If you do not want your cheese’s exterior to dry out and form this protective barrier, then you can do several things.  You can stop the exterior of your wheel from drying out by waxing, vacuum sealing, shrink wrapping your whole wheel.   These all do much the same thing in that they prevent the exterior of your cheese from drying out and thus forming a natural rind.

Whichever rind methodology you decide to adopt, (natural, or waxed, or sealed, or bandaged), the purpose of the rind will be served, that is, the inner cheese will dry out, and will retain some moisture over the entire aging process.

Hopefully that clears some things up. 
« Last Edit: August 03, 2009, 03:21:55 PM by Wayne Harris »

riha

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Re: Cheddar without waxing?
« Reply #31 on: August 15, 2009, 12:12:49 AM »
Wayne, I don't think I can blame you for my confusion. But thank you for the good answer.

So how do I know what cheeses can/should be waxed and what washed (or alternative X)? The recipes usually just tell you to do one thing. It was not before reading this forum I realised you could have different kinds of rind and still call it with the same name.






Offline DeejayDebi

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Re: Cheddar without waxing?
« Reply #32 on: August 15, 2009, 12:56:06 AM »
Riha -

I think as Wayne mentioned you have many choices with hard and semi hard cheeses. Soft and fresh cheese not so much. I think most recipes that say wax you have a choice on how to age them - wax, seal, bandage etc.

riha

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Re: Cheddar without waxing?
« Reply #33 on: August 27, 2009, 12:10:39 AM »
OK, cool. So how about the sizes? How small wheel is "too small" for some type of rind (wax, vacuum, bandage, natural)? Or is there such a thing?

The problem with cheesemaking is that experimenting takes so very long, so it's nice to have all you good people who have already tried lots of stuff :)

Offline DeejayDebi

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Re: Cheddar without waxing?
« Reply #34 on: August 27, 2009, 12:45:13 AM »
Well ... you could make some nice hard cheeses or soft cheeses that ripen quickly? There are some marvelous cheeses that only take a month or two to get good flavor. I like to mix it up so I don't get bored or go cheeseless!