I started my foray into the art of cheesemaking in December 2008. Since then I have been trying to learn how not to screw up perfectly good milk. I found leeners.com and ordered their cheesemaking kit, which has helped a lot. I researched early on and found Ricki Carroll's book, which has been my guidebook in the cheesemaking wilderness.
My first try at cheese was a farmhouse cheddar. I made quite a few noob mistakes with that, including letting the temperature get out of control.
In my first effort at waxing I tried to "paint" the wax on the cold cheese. Not really a good deal.
I later learned it is much easier and cleaner to melt the wax in a foil cake pan heated on water in a medium-sized skillet. The wax melts, you dip the cheese wheel in to coat the rim, hold the wheel and let the wax cool and set, and then do each face. Finally, dip your premade label into the wax and stick it to one face. Let that set, and then redip the face to seal the label in.
After the cheddar (I still have a quarter left.), I tried swiss, gouda, emmental, manchego, baby swiss, and last month: edam. I have tried vacuum sealing with some success. Reynolds company came out with a true innovation when they introduced the $10 handheld vacuum sealer, with quart-sized and gallon-sized bags. Wonderful.
Thanks to the great tips on this forum, I bought a thermometer/hygrometer at Wal-Mart for $7. It was kismet. I was standing there in Wal-Mart looking at the wall of kitchen items trying to find the hygrometer. As I stood there, a woman appeared next to me. She seemed to also be looking for something.
As I glanced at her, I determined she was a store employee. Then my eyes were drawn to what she was holding. I exclaimed "That's just what I'm looking for! See! It's on my list!" It was, in fact, the thermometer/hygrometer. I reached in my pocket, dished out my list and unfolded it to show her. She had come to restock it on the shelf at that very moment that I was looking for it. She must have thought me crazy. The timing was absolutely phenomenal. When I got it home, plugged the batteries in and tried it, the display was very wonky. It would fade in and be partially there. It did this when I gently torqued the plastic case. Not good.
I removed all the small screws and opened up the hygrometer. For what it does, an amazing piece of electronics. I thought all the device needed was not to flex, so I swabbed the case innards with alcohol and "J-B Weld"ed some spare allan wrenches inside as stiffeners. That did the job. No more flexing.
Sorry this is so long for my first post. A lot on my fingertips, I guess. Let me wrap it up with some pics.
-Boofer-
