Cave, Sauna - Using To Make Or Ripen Cheese > Swiss Cheese Making History

[Saidwyn]

This will not be your typical question: I'm doing a little research for a story I'm writing for a class, involving a sauna being turned into a "cheese incubator". As I've been reading about cheese-making, I found that for instance blue cheese is generally aged at a lower temperature... Are there any cheeses that favor a 90-110F environment (I know this works for yoghurt)? If someone turned a sauna into a "cheese incubator", are there any potential issues, like cheese contaminating each other or high humidity, that you would foresee?

I've never made cheese myself (I'm still a student and haven't found the time... or space), although I've made yoghurt and beer. Anyways, I thought this would be fun to write a short story on, so if anyone can give me some feedback or pointers, it's much appreciated!

[MrsKK]

I've never heard of any cheeses that would tolerate that high of a temperature, outside of the initial make.  Sorry!

[Tomer1]

Labane balls in olive oil (or any oil which doesnt go rancid quickly) can be kept in the heat without spoilage because their acidity is high , their moisture content is faily low (like thick cream cheese because of long draining),they are salted and the oil helps prevents oxidation and mold\yeast spoilage.

Anything alse will simply rot, there is a grana type rotten cheese in one of the italian islands infested with fly larva which is considered a delicacy.  Its aged in the heat of summer which may be as high as 35-40c.

[Boofer]

I would also be concerned with the other "flora" naturally present in a sauna.   

Nope, all around bad idea.

-Boofer-

[iratherfly]

I think in cheesemaking there is more concern about keeping the cheese cool and moist rather than hot and moist.  The wrong temperature will propegate the wrong bacterium which will then outcompete the good stuff we actually try to get to grow in the cheese.

There is one exception that I know of though; When making Emmental, a few weeks through the aging process it is taken out of the cellar/cave to a hot room. The hot room encourages the growth of proprionic bacteria that develops CO2. The CO2 blows bubbles in the cheese which are the cause for those trademark famous big holes in Emmental ("Swiss" cheese).  The cheese is then return to its cool cave for the remainder of the aging process.  This discovery dates back to the days where this cheese was made in isolated chalets on the Swiss alps. During winter months some cheesemakers would bring the cheese indoors to prevent it from freezing in the cave. The hearth or fireplace warmed the room and those big nutty holes were discovered months later when the cheese was ready. When the frost was over, the cheese was returned to its cave.  The temperature of such hot room however is still not Sauna temperature. I believe it is about 70°F or so.

[fied]

I've recently been experimenting with hard, cheddared cheeses ripened at ambient temps. As humidity is relatively high here, the cheese ripened in an outside cupboard over c. 3 months. It didn't have the same depth of flavour as a year old cheddar, but was sharp and nutty - quite a thick rind, though. Quick-aging hards such as Lancashire or Caerphilly might be OK, too.

Fresh and runny cheeses do need cool conditions - always. Long aging grana cheeses like parmesan will also need cool conditions, otherwise all you'll have is rind and/or cracking. Blues, blooms and soft rind-washed cheeses will need the same.

So, on the whole, unless you're experimenting, cool caves where you can control temp./humidity are necessary. A sauna is definitely out; who knows what bugs are in the walls.

[silverjam]

I guess if your using the benches/shelves/seats in the sauna-converted-to-a-cheesecave to stack cheeses on like traditional wooden cheese shelves you might have some 'icky' thoughts about the history of human bodies (and certain parts of bodies) that have frequented those shelves over the years. I have converted my chrome wine fridge shelves to wood but I don't recall  having too many sweaty bodies having sat on the shelves over the years.

[Boofer]

I think in cheesemaking there is more concern about keeping the cheese cool and moist rather than hot and moist.  The wrong temperature will propegate the wrong bacterium which will then outcompete the good stuff we actually try to get to grow in the cheese.

There is one exception that I know of though; When making Emmental, a few weeks through the aging process it is taken out of the cellar/cave to a hot room. The hot room encourages the growth of proprionic bacteria that develops CO2. The CO2 blows bubbles in the cheese which are the cause for those trademark famous big holes in Emmental ("Swiss" cheese).  The cheese is then return to its cool cave for the remainder of the aging process.  This discovery dates back to the days where this cheese was made in isolated chalets on the Swiss alps. During winter months some cheesemakers would bring the cheese indoors to prevent it from freezing in the cave. The hearth or fireplace warmed the room and those big nutty holes were discovered months later when the cheese was ready. When the frost was over, the cheese was returned to its cave.  The temperature of such hot room however is still not Sauna temperature. I believe it is about 70°F or so.

That's a great bit of history. It certainly sounds plausible. Thanks for filling in that small piece of missing information.

Rather than think about how I actually warm-cured my Goutaler cheeses in my upstairs bedroom (around 68-72F at the time), I can visualize bringing in those cheeses to be warmed by that blazing fire in the chilly, rustic chalet on that Swiss (or, more properly, Norwegian) hillside. 

-Boofer-

[iratherfly]

Haha... yes. Those rustic chalet didn't exactly have state of the art insulation so it wasn't like the heat was very even or effective...

Swiss cheese history is very interesting. They were the first to come up with co-ops because their grazing and cheesemaking was on mountains and it was a complete waste of time for them to travel constantly up and down the mountains for a few cows and small cheeses, so they joined forces and built cheesemaking chalets on the mountains. They had dedicated people milking and herding, other people making the cheese and other people transporting them to the markets. This way the cheesemakers could get to work right away while other cows were still grazing, and no one had to take days off to take trips with the cheese. The first functional co-op -and that's probably about 1,000 years ago.  This abundant production meant efficient time management and huge numbers of cows -which is the reason for Swiss cheese always being so large. This is also the reason it's a very un-acidic cheese: their milk was super fresh when they made cheese and they never had to wait overnight to have enough.  The mountain location was also very difficult to deliver salt to, which is the reason that cheese is so low on salt.

This combination of heating/cooling, low salt and fresh/unacidic elastic large wheel was the perfect invitation for proprionic bacteria so there it is, a mild, un-acidic cheese with big eyes. It is also said that the elastic texture was developed over time in order to assure that the huge heavy wheels don't break or crack during the harsh transportation from the rugged mountainous terrain to the markets on the plains down below. I love that story