Author Topic: Ripening Containers - High Humidity Cheese Aging Micro Environments  (Read 12010 times)

Cheese Head

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I need ripening containers to create high humidity micro-enrironments in the low humidity fridge cheese cave for my small bloomy P candidum white mold surface ripened cheeses like Camembert.

Visited The Container Store, a large almost Ikea type chain store in US/Canada which had a small food grade container with raised slotted liner that would fit two standard size Camemberts at $10 each, so bought all 4 on shelf. They are made in New Zealand by company called Sistema, Klip It series, model is called Deli Storer Plus, plus means includes the slotted raised removable liner. Nice product but shame they "embossed" the term Klip It in the liner. My first use of these with Camembert records here.

Also made own two large containers for taller cheeses from two large containers from WalMart lined with cut to fit (using wire cutter) hung ceiling 2 ft x 4 ft fluorescent light fixture "Egg Crate" panel from large Home Depot hardware store for USD13 made I think from styrene then lined with cut to fit mat. I had used these previously with just the mat but it needs the lift to store draining whey and provide air circulation to the bottom of cheeses otherwise the cheeses get too wet on bottom and get probably yeast infections and stick to the mats. My records of that make here. I think the Egg Crate is made from styrene? Anyone know if that is food grade?

Anyone else have other/better ripening container type ideas?

Lastly built a Wiki: Ripening Containers article where will compile all info.

zenith1

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Re: Ripening Containers - High Humidity Cheese Aging Micro Environments
« Reply #1 on: February 10, 2012, 02:09:52 PM »
looks like they fit the bill nicely John. Thanks for all your work...

Offline Boofer

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Re: Ripening Containers - High Humidity Cheese Aging Micro Environments
« Reply #2 on: February 10, 2012, 03:00:52 PM »
Nice job, John.

I need to improve my draining in my minicaves. The needlepoint mats are nice but allow too much wicking which counters the draining process. Requires more attention and blotting than should be required.

Whenever I'm out in stores my eye always seems to be sizing up containers for possible cheese ripening. Strange.  8)

-Boofer-
Let's ferment something!
Bread, beer, wine, cheese...it's all good.

Cloversmilker

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Re: Ripening Containers - High Humidity Cheese Aging Micro Environments
« Reply #3 on: February 11, 2012, 03:31:45 AM »
I saw the klip-it container with the draining mat in a Japanese import store a couple weeks ago.  I've been regretting not bringing it home since.  Let us know how it works for you.  Is it deep enough for your bloomies?
I've been using an oval ss turkey roaster with a metal rack for my bloomies.  The lid is deep and has vents, so it works well to drain my bloomies in mold.  The problem is that the rack is corroding, so I cover it with bamboo mats, and then with a plastic draining mat.  The bamboo gives the usual problems.   :(


Wolfy

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Re: Ripening Containers - High Humidity Cheese Aging Micro Environments
« Reply #4 on: August 28, 2012, 01:10:20 PM »
Knowing that I wanted to start to make some cheese, my other half brought these Sistema KlipIT containers home from the supermarket today.
The baskets are 100mm (top) diameter and 85/130mm high, which should (as far as I can tell) make them very useful as cheese molds.
(On special at Coles, AUD$2.29 and AUD$2.49).
« Last Edit: August 28, 2012, 02:45:27 PM by Wolfy »

Offline Boofer

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Re: Ripening Containers - High Humidity Cheese Aging Micro Environments
« Reply #5 on: August 28, 2012, 01:21:13 PM »
Welcome to the forum, Wolfy. I might suggest that you post a thread in the Introductions section to introduce yourself.

Two observations:
  • How did you post your pics? The first is okay, not so much the others. If you look at the bottom of a post that you're doing, you'll see "Attachments and other options". Click on that and that will allow you to look for pics on your PC and attach them.
  • The moulds you show seem a little small (1 liter and smaller) unless you're doing very small batches or you've bought a lot of the moulds.
-Boofer-
Let's ferment something!
Bread, beer, wine, cheese...it's all good.

Wolfy

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Re: Ripening Containers - High Humidity Cheese Aging Micro Environments
« Reply #6 on: August 28, 2012, 02:48:43 PM »
I just used the 'Insert Image' icon/function/thing (under the Bold button) that shows when you make a post and hence the [ img ] tags- to link pictures I uploaded via PhotoBucket - as I do on most every other forum.
It looked fine to me, but I assume that does not work as well here if you were having trouble viewing it, so I have edited the post above and hope it will be better now?

Yes, the larger size is 1L, so I thought that using 4 would be suitable for soft-style cheese made from 8-10L milk (since it's much the same size/shape as the 'Camembert' and 'Small Bûcheron' molds in your spreadsheet) ... but am just starting with all this.  :-[
« Last Edit: August 28, 2012, 03:24:19 PM by Wolfy »

margaretsmall

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Re: Ripening Containers - High Humidity Cheese Aging Micro Environments
« Reply #7 on: August 28, 2012, 10:32:12 PM »
jeffham mentioned using the smaller size for semilactic cheese, worked fine. I guess you need to take the handle off so you can flip them as they drain.
Your photos are fine.
Margaret

bbracken677

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Re: Ripening Containers - High Humidity Cheese Aging Micro Environments
« Reply #8 on: August 28, 2012, 11:02:11 PM »
The pics work fine on my pc...

Kinda neat having the basket part that fits the container...come in handy in many ways.

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Re: Ripening Containers - High Humidity Cheese Aging Micro Environments
« Reply #9 on: August 29, 2012, 02:32:14 AM »
Pics look good, Wolfy. Nicely affordable too.

The only thing I might add about the pics is that if you were just linking them to PhotoBucket, they may not endure in the long run. Some photos from different photo servers show a broken link after time. Uploaded to the forum, John keeps them safe and sound.

-Boofer-
Let's ferment something!
Bread, beer, wine, cheese...it's all good.

JeffHamm

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Re: Ripening Containers - High Humidity Cheese Aging Micro Environments
« Reply #10 on: September 25, 2012, 03:28:54 AM »
Just saw this thread.  Welcome to the machine board.  The pickle one is idea for 2 litre semi-lactic makes.  You can fit all of the curds (after they drain down a bit) into that one, or use 2 of them, and split the curds and you get a really good sized smaller cheese.  Haven't tried the larger size though.  I think the resulting cheese might end up too long and log like, but then, there are some blue logs out there so they may work fine for that.  Hmmmm, wonder when the grocery store closes?

- Jeff

bbracken677

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Re: Ripening Containers - High Humidity Cheese Aging Micro Environments
« Reply #11 on: September 26, 2012, 05:56:53 PM »
I have adapted some containers I purchased at the container store to give me the required flexibility to age cheeses at various RH levels.

I cut a large section out of the lid, and can place matting on it that will allow some (not much) air flow when fully covered, or I can cover just a portion by cutting smaller sections to fit the lid.

With these and 2 or 3 cheeses in the container I can manage 85%-98% humidity levels.

Matthewcraig

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Re: Ripening Containers - High Humidity Cheese Aging Micro Environments
« Reply #12 on: February 01, 2014, 10:28:56 PM »
I had one of these containers and still use it for some of my smaller cheeses what I did was get a pc fan and a USB cable cut of the end of the USB cable that would go into phone/devices and strip the red a black wires, then strip the red and black wires on the pc fan once that was done just pinch the ends of each to corresponding colour so black pc to black USB and red pc to red USB and then twist them to get a good connection plug into into the wall and there you go the fan works. All you have to do then is some how attach the fan in the box (up to you how) and then depending on the fan you could get some nice cool temps. With a £2 fan I managed to get down 6c.