Hey everyone, I am new to this forum and glad to find such a bunch of fellow cheese enthusiasts!
I was wondering if anyone can help:
Just made my first farmhouse style cheddar of 2 gal. non-homogenized pasteurized milk on Sunday. After the draining, cheddaring and salting I ended up with fairly dry curd. (could be related to raising the temp. too quickly after cutting the curd). I pressed it at 10 lbs x 15 minutes, turned and pressed at 20 Lbs x 12 hours, turned again for another 20 Lbs x 12 hours.
I was quite surprised to peel off the cheesecloth Monday evening to find a rather dry, matured cheese. It has been out of the press for 6 hours and developed yellow rinding which I wouldn't expect so early on. It is dry to the touch and the drying board shows no signs of humidity accumulated underneath the cheese in the hours it spent on it.
Do you suppose I should wax it so soon? It is now Tuesday evening and I am afraid of losing this cheese as it dries out so fast.
I was thinking of putting it in a closed container with damp paper towel (towel not touching it) overnight to slightly reconstitute it first? Any thoughts? Advice?