What not to do . . .
Last weekend I made
my first semi-hard Havarti, 6" diameter, 1.87 kg/4.11 pounds, natural rind.
After 1 week aging I checked and no mold but to ensure, I gave it a 4 min saturated brine bath.
My brine tank is a Tupperware container just slightly bigger than this cheese, and I had to lift and lower the cheese vertically into the brine by one hand holding the cheese at top as the cheese and my hand barely fit. To remove it I had to do the same, and I noticed several shear stress type fractures in the cheese where my thumb was pinching it. I think where my fingers were, the load was distributed, but where my thumb was on other side, the load was more concentrated resulting in the shear cracks
.
The solution, I think, is to have a larger brine tank and lift the cheese in and out of the brine from it's bottom.
Anyone have any comments, thoughts on this subject and any system, or just lift by hand from bottom?