Pressed Cheese Surface Cracks - How Reduce & Fight Mold In Cracks?

[CWREBEL]

I started making cheese a couple months ago, and my first couple of pressed cheeses didn't come out so good. My biggest problem has been getting the curds to knit together well. My most recent attempt didn't produce a perfectly formed wheel, but thanks to all the information available on this site, I was able to correct my technique and produce a pressed cheese that knitted much better, albeit still not perfect. After about a week and a half, I noticed a few moldy spots - no big deal, I was prepared to deal with that at some point. Mold that appears on the smoother areas wipes off easily, and seems controllable. Now some mold has made it's way into some of the cracks on the surface. I've been wiping with a paper towel and some distilled vinegar once a day for several days now, but I can tell that the mold in these little cracks is going to be tough to eliminate. So, my question is should I continue to to treat it the way I am with vinegar (or something else?) and try to win the battle? Attempt to build a rind? Or do I give up and cut into the cheese and eat it before it's ruined. I was hoping to age it for at least 1 month, currently the cheese is 19 days old. Here's a look at the trouble:

[CWREBEL]

Meant to attach this too:

(Sorry about the quality of the pics)

[morfeo]

Hi cwrebel-

I think your problem with pressing the curds is that they are to cold or your not applying enough pressure. if your mold is repairing once a day check the humidity in your cave it might be to high and probably that is way is repairing to soon, I usually clean my cheese once every 15 days or some time even a month.
If you want to get rid of the mold on the cracks you can try to use a soft toot brush soak in brine or vinegar and brush your cheese gently until the mold is removed, and if you don't want to be fighting with the mold any more you can wax your cheese o vacuum sealed depending on what you want.

[Boofer]

Hello CWRebel,

I might recommend using a toothpick dipped in salted vinegar to root out the mold in the cracks. I get that every so often. Just stay on it until you've cleaned it out. Wipe the mold that you extract onto a clean paper towel. You may also wish to sprinkle a little flaked salt on the area you've cleaned. Don't just wax it or vacuum seal it or you'll have sealed mold happily munching away on your cheese. The cheese is no doubt too young to eat and have much flavor at this point.

As far as knitting the curds.... Do you press under whey? Once you have the curds in the mold, surrounding the mold with warm whey or a warm environment (the pictures) will permit them to soften and adhere to each other. You can search and find other examples of cheese being pressed under whey. I know DJDebi has several photos of that technique.

-Boofer-

[CWREBEL]

Thanks for the help guys. I like the toothpick idea followed by salting.

This cheese was pressed under whey and it made a real difference. Although I can't say for cetain what the teperature was. The first few cheeses I made didn't want to knit at all, they just looked like matted curds stuck together. I paid more attention to details like PH drop and curd size, so seeing such an improvement in the shape is very encouraging. Feels like I'm on the right track and hopefully with practice I can perfect the technique.

Thanks again guys!