Author Topic: Mats & Grates For Draining Cheese On - What and Where Get?  (Read 11394 times)

Cheese Head

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Have experimented with 4 different mats for aging cheese on so far, description, pros and cons below:

BAMBOO SUSHI MAT - STANDARD
  • Description: Standard rollable bamboo sushi mat available in my local grocery store for USD1.50 each here in Texas. They are about 9 in x 9 in / 23 cm x cm square and have small round bamboo rods.
  • Pros: Cheap and can be used for making sushi!
  • Cons: Leaves an imprint of the thread line on the cheese's bottom even young/soft. Tough to highly clean of bacteria/mold as made of woven thread and porous wood.

BAMBOO SUSHI MAT - HALF MOON
  • Description: Rollable bamboo sushi mat available in my local grocery store for USD2.50 each here in Texas. They are about 9.5 in x 9.25 in / 24 cm x 23.5 cm square and have large hafl circle bamboo rods, that are flat on one side and half circle on the other.
  • Pros: Cheap and can be used for making sushi! Different imprint on cheeses than standard bamboo sushi mat.
  • Cons: Leaves an imprint of the thread line on the cheese's bottom even young/soft. Tough to highly clean of bacteria/mold as made of woven thread and porous wood.

FOAM GRIPY MAT
  • Description: Foamed soft plastic gridded mat available in squares or rolls in many convenience stores, often in houshold draw liner departments or in automotive departments as this mat is used on dashborads as flexible/floppy in shape and somewhat gripy for holding items in place.
  • Pros: Cheap and can be cut to size required.
  • Cons: Porous albeit plastic based material is hard to clean of all bacteria/mold. Can roll in one direction to get size needed to fit, not in other.

PLASTIC SINK MAT
  • Description: Flexible plastic mat with large holes and small bumps at +'s on one side for increased stand off. I found this in household sink mat's area of local convenience store, mine is from Walmart for $3.50.
  • Pros: Cheap and good stand off. Excellent as cleaning of bacteria/mold as (relatively) non-porous.
  • Cons: Slightly move expensive and cannot cut to fit size required.
« Last Edit: January 16, 2009, 05:47:11 PM by Cheese Head »

Cheese Head

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Mats & Grates For Draining Cheese On - What and Where Get?
« Reply #1 on: June 07, 2008, 02:27:16 AM »
4 pictures . . .
« Last Edit: January 16, 2009, 05:47:21 PM by Cheese Head »

DaggerDoggie

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Re: Mats For Ripening/Maturing/Aging Cheese On
« Reply #2 on: June 30, 2008, 08:24:51 PM »

PLASTIC SINK MAT
  • Description: Flexible plastic mat with large holes and small bumps at +'s on one side for increased stand off. I found this in household sink mat's area of local convenience store, mine is from Walmart for $3.50.
  • Pros: Cheap and good stand off. Excellent as cleaning of bacteria/mold as (relatively) non-porous.
  • Cons: Slightly move expensive and cannot cut to fit size required.


I bought three of these a Wal Mart a few weeks ago.  I cut them to size easily with a pair of scissors.



They seem to work well.  My blue has been sitting on it for weeks.


Cheese Head

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Mats & Grates For Draining Cheese On - What and Where Get?
« Reply #3 on: July 02, 2008, 12:11:12 AM »
Found these cheap and nasty 6 pack for USD3 in US Wal-Mart crafts section while picking up some cheese cloth. Thin and flexible and poorly built from second picture showing imperfect molding, but cheap and will give another texture to bottom of cheese . . .
« Last Edit: January 16, 2009, 05:47:31 PM by Cheese Head »

Cheese Head

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Re: Mats & Grates For Draining Cheese On - What and Where Get?
« Reply #4 on: January 16, 2009, 05:49:39 PM »
Anyone but especially chillipepper as you have the best mats and grates for lifting your mats and cheeses above any puddled whey in this thread, what an where did you find them?


chilipepper

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Re: Mats & Grates For Draining Cheese On - What and Where Get?
« Reply #5 on: January 16, 2009, 06:31:52 PM »
CH - that is a closely guarded secret and requires the secret handshake. :) :0

Ok kidding aside - that very cool grate material is from Ace Hardware in the lighting section.  They come if 2 foot by 4 foot sheets and are used for diffusing fluorescent lights.  Cut very easily with a sidecutter but you have some shooting little white sprigs to control when you have to cut the second one out of there.   The one sheet was about $12 and can make a ton of little mats. I've cut some that will fit my round pie tins that go under my press.  Similar to these and not the reflective ones but the standard white egg crate type.

The really nice thing about these is that they withstand the pressure and yet are about 1/2 tall so they allow for a considerable amount of whey to collect down there without contacting the cheese.  I do use some of the cross stitch (found in the craft section of the big box stores - See CH post 2 up) material on top of these to keep the holes a little smaller and more manageable.  That is what is shown in the Camembert boxes CH linked to above.

Hope that helps!

Offline Cartierusm

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Re: Mats & Grates For Draining Cheese On - What and Where Get?
« Reply #6 on: January 20, 2009, 01:20:32 AM »
John, all i do is cut the inner most thread from the sushi mats and just use the outer thread, no imprints. I rinse mine off and then dunk them for 5 minutes in a bucket of star san and they are completely sterile.

chilipepper

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Re: Mats & Grates For Draining Cheese On - What and Where Get?
« Reply #7 on: January 29, 2009, 05:58:04 PM »
Finally found the source for the mat material in bulk that I used on my Camembert.  Have to buy a large roll but I'm guessing there are quite a few uses one could come up with for the stuff. 

San Jamar Poly-Liner

I'm still looking for a good source to purchase it through however.  The only one I found so far is 4 roll case pricing which might be a little much!

Offline Cartierusm

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Re: Mats & Grates For Draining Cheese On - What and Where Get?
« Reply #8 on: January 30, 2009, 03:41:32 AM »
Ryan, try a group buy here or go to a local restaurant supply store and they'll have it, plus it's be food safe. Fly your chopper over and they'll load it for you. ;D

Baby Chee

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Re: Mats & Grates For Draining Cheese On - What and Where Get?
« Reply #9 on: September 29, 2009, 02:02:32 PM »
I just purchased a titanic roll of the foamy matting.  It's about $4 for a large, large roll of the stuff at Menards.  Used for lining shelves, it seems like something I can use that will be disposable, so my blues or whites can sit on them in the cave for weeks, and when done: tossed.

Anyone else tried the foamy matting?

I figured I would cut a nice bit and dunk in StarSan for a while before using.  Just in case.

Offline DeejayDebi

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Re: Mats & Grates For Draining Cheese On - What and Where Get?
« Reply #10 on: October 01, 2009, 11:47:36 PM »
Found these cheap and nasty 6 pack for USD3 in US Wal-Mart crafts section while picking up some cheese cloth. Thin and flexible and poorly built from second picture showing imperfect molding, but cheap and will give another texture to bottom of cheese . . .

I've been using these to line my containers. You do have to make sure you cut a sections that have holes punched but several layers make a fair draining mat in any shape you need to cut. At $3 for 6 they are pretty much disposalbe. I also use them to line the shelves in the cave. The marks in the cheese go away on hard cheeses with aging.