One of the early cheeses I made was a Monterrey Jack with dry dill and onions. I sampled it when very young, maybe a month old, and found it to be extremely good even then. And it got eaten very fast so it never had a chance to age. That one was made with freshly dried dill.
So I made another - a 4 gal.- on June 30. I was intending to age it longer, but when I sampled it early, it was crumbly and bitter and I was very disappointed and thought it was a goner.
But in the interests of experience, I cut it into quarters, waxed each, and tossed them in the door of the cheese cave. They were on their own.
Well this morning when turning some cheeses, I noticed one of these orphan quarters had a bit of mold in one corner under the wax, so I decided to open it up to see what has happened. (It would be just over 2 mos old). To my pleasant surprise, it was rather good. Not great, but no longer bitter, and barely if at all crumbly - they might have a future! I grated some for a breakfast omlette and that was very good. I'm going to age the rest longer and am assuming it will get even better, but it's amazing the 180* opinion change I've had about this cheese.
I made another dilly-Jack a month ago that I bandage-wrapped, so that is in no danger of being sampled early. That wrap has turned into an effective cheese chastity belt.
Another thing I learned is to only use freshly dried dill - the store-bought dry is nowhere near as flavorful. I'm planning on planting some.
Aging ....who knew?
