Author Topic: Colby Drying in Winter  (Read 464 times)

itsmatt

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Colby Drying in Winter
« on: February 14, 2021, 03:13:54 PM »
Hi folks,

Third cheese I've tried - it's a Colby cheese and I had it out on the counter on a rack for a couple of days and it was getting very hard on the edges.
I was concerned that it was too dry in the house - it is winter here and our home tends to have low-moisture air in the winters - and it was drying too quickly on the outside.
Someone suggested putting it into a more moist environment to soften it up  a bit - don't know if this is good or bad but I tried it using a cast dutch oven and a couple of plates and some water in the bottom below the cheese level.  It "helped" by rehydrating some of the surface but I'm not sure the way forward with this.

I can put it back on the mat exposed to the air and it'll start drying again but I've been warned about cracking happening.  Again, I'm very new to this.

My goal was to wax this - never waxed a cheese before - but we also have a vacuum sealer too.  I've only wrapped a couple of cheddar attempts in cloth at this point so advice is certainly solicited here. :-)

Thoughts?

Thanks much,
Matt