Washed Rind - Dusty Grey-Blue Mold, Source & Remediation

Started by vertlook, June 03, 2011, 03:43:32 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

vertlook

My cheese started developing some grayish-bluish mold. It is like  dust, if you tap cheese lightly, it can see a little cloud of a dust.
It also has a "dusty" smell. First off, I am not sure if it is safe to eat this cheese or not. Second and more important is how to get rid of the mold. It was going on for a while now, I washed the cave with a vinegar, soap solution but it still appearing on my cheeses.
Any help is appreciated, thanks!

Alex

It's sign of contamination. Wash/Scrub the cheese with a vinegar + salt mixture.

iratherfly

The contasmination may be alive in your cheese already. What else did you have in this cave before? Bread or other yeast/flour products?  What are your shelving made of?

zenith1

good points by all- what type of cheese is the problem occurring on?

Gustav

I agree. Wash the cheese with a salt/vinegar solution & wash the cave & its shelving with hot/boiling water maybe to make sure.

vertlook

I washed the cave with vinegar, I washed all the boxes, sensors, everything.
It only occurs on washed rind cheeses. I have some semi-lactic cheeses in the same cave - no problem whatsoever.
The washed rind - it usually starts on a second week. I tried to scrub it with salt/vinegar but it either does not help or even make it worse, by the third week the cheeses completelly covered in this mold. I tried 4 times now and had to throw away the cheese every single time :-(

zenith1

sounds like the source may be in the wash you are using. Are you using the same wash in each instance where it occurs?

vertlook

Nope, making a fresh brine every time by combining 100ml of water (tried distilled/boiled) with 4-gm of kosher salt.
The interesting thing is that I successfully made several washed ring cheese before with the same cultures, cave, recipe, etc.
Nothing changed as far I as can tell. Go figure...

mtncheesemaker