Swelling - How Know When Stop Swelling Stage

[tnbquilt]

I made my first Swiss cheese about a month ago. The instructions said to put it in the cave for a week, then take it out and sit it out in a warm humid room like the kitchen until you could see evidence of it making the little holes. Well, the cheese swelled nicely, and I turned it over and wiped it like I was supposed to. I never saw any evidence that it was producing the little holes so I left it out for 2-1/2 weeks. It had a hard thick crust on the outside. I cut it open to see if it was right or not, discovered that it was delicious and we ate it.
The question is, how do you know when it is time to put it back in the cave for the final aging? It never had any little holes appear on the outside, I could only tell that it was swelling.
I will definitely make another one, it was really good. I took it to the restaurant where we hang out on Thursday night and shared it with the regular customers. We ate all 4lbs.
Next time I want to age it properly.

[zenith1]

Sounds like you were successful in your make. You probably won't have huge holes formed in a wheel that size as it usually requires a little more mass(around 10lbs) to contain the gasses produced by the proprionic bacteria. That said, you can certainly be successful in terms of texture and flavor as you have already demonstrated.               Congratulations!

[steffb503]

I believe the swelling is the evidence of it forming holes.

[tnbquilt]

Well I noticed the swelling, so I could have put it up at around 2 weeks on the table. Thanks