Ok, so I think something just clicked in my head and I may have understood something really simple that all of you already know. Just checking if I got this right.
- Drying time is added to aging time, not substracted? Up to today I've thought if I want to make a young gouda aged for 4 weeks, I would calculate that I air dried it for one week and then *continued* to age it in cold after that. But maybe I just *started* aging it after drying?
- Having read quite a few recipes for gouda, it seems many air dry them in room temperature, and then again many air dry them for even up to 25 days. These are not the same ones that mention room temperature - could the cheese really be kept at room temperature for the whole 25 days? To me this sounds like something that would introduce spoilage, but what do I know...
- If I air dry for 25 days in room temperature (assuming it doesn't spoil), do I have a 3-week old gouda, or one that hasn't aged at all (since the following step is aging, after drying)?
I know it probably doesn't have much importance, since I can still choose freely on how long to age. Just checking that I'm talking about the same things as the rest of you...