Natural rind

[wharris]

Has anyone made a cheese with a natural rind?

That is,  no bandaging,  no waxing,  no lard,  no oil.

Just a naturally developed rind that may be occaissionally wiped with a brine to keep the mold off?

I'm trying to do that now with my Gouda and have questions.

1> I am storing it in 85% RH, and the wheels do not seem to be drying out.  2 weeks later and still very damp to the touch. Should  I let the wheel dry in the open first?  (35% RH)
2> Mold spots are developing on one of my wheels.  I wipe with brine and turn almost daily.  I may need to get a brush and scrub that one a bit.  Is that a good idea?

[wharris]

Well,  18 hours in a 30%RH formed and instant rind and about 3 min with a mildly stiff brush and some heavy brine water took care of the mold.

So now the question is what to do with the cheese,  put it back in the 85% RH box?

[Likesspace]

Wayne....
I was gettting ready to post a reply earlier but we had company that just now left.
I've taken to forming my rinds in the household fridge since the humidity is very low. This seems to form an almost instant rind on the cheese and I am usually able to wax within two days at the most.
As for long term care of a natural rind, I'm not going to be any help to you.
I have a parmesan and a romano going right now but they are my first attempt at a natural rind, other than my Stiltons.
I have them in my cave at 47 degrees and 68 - 70% RH. I'm checking them daily for cracks or excessive drying.
I've decided that if they seem to be getting too dry I'll try covering them with a tupperware container (turned upside down over the cheese) and see if that helps.
If it doesn't, I will then try using the tupperware with the lid partially closed.....then will try an olive oil rub and will finally resort to waxing these cheeses, only if absolutely necessary.
I can tell you that too much humidity will cause some serious mold problems that are hard to overcome. I used to have a really tough time with my swiss cheeses until I found out I was giving them way too much moisture.
The mold would almost seem to form beneath the surface of the cheese and no amount of rubbing with salt or vinegar would get rid of it.
Once I stopped allowing the cheese to get excessive amounts of moisture, the mold problems completely stopped. I'm sure that it would be pretty much the same with a Gouda or any other pressed cheese.
I haven't checked the humidity of my current swiss but I would guess it to be in the 70% range. This is based on the last swiss that was aged in the same conditions as the current one.
As I said, I have not had a single mold problem and this one has been on the kitchen counter (at 70 degrees) for nearly three weeks.
You might try reducing the humidity to see if that helps. If the wheel begins to suffer, you can always raise the RH back up to solve the problem.
As I said, I'm out of my element here, but it might be something to try.

Dave

[wharris]

Well,  After some serious scrubbing last night,  i woke up this morning, i found some cracks developing.

DAMN!


i just don't understand what i am doing here.  i need a natural rind,  not too dry or it will crack, and not too damp, or it will mold.


this is hard.

[Cheese Head]

Wayne, sad to hear about your stress cracks.

Last spring I also tried natural rind aging and found that if too dry when cheese is too young and moist then you will get rapid dehydration of the cheese. The problem is that this process occurs from outside in resulting in dry shrinking outside and moist inside and thus stress cracking like I had way back with this sad 1 US gallon small pressed cheese.

So I believe the trick to natural rinds is to 1) lower the humidity slowly so that you get even dehydration of the cheese and no stress cracking and 2) not too lower it too far like in a dehumidified household fridge, otherwise you will have a rock hard lump, unless you want that like with very hard grating type cheeses.

Good luck!

[Cartierusm]

My observations are kind of like Dave and John. I start out, out of the mold I dry it off with a paper towel and let it sit at room temp for a few hours. Then put it in my cave 55F 85% for 3-8 days depedning on the size of the wheel and how much moisture is coming out. What happens then is a supple find is formed and you can tell it's drying slowly but still get some moisture. So when I determine that it's ready I put it in the regular frig for a day or so and this will dry it out and make a nice firm rind in a day. Then I wax or go on to the next stage.

I kind of agree with Dave, if you stick it in the frig, it's like flash freezing somthing. You dry out the rind quickly before it has time to crack. The problem is if there's still moisture inside that needs to get out it will be trapped.

[Tea]

Have you tried an oil rub, and see whether that heals the cracks?  Did for my provolone, and formed a hard rind, with a beautiful interior.  Just a thought.

[wharris]

I ended up waxing them.

My plan next time is to brine them for 24 hours
Dry in open air for a bit. (will experinment with 12h-24h-36h intervals.
Move to 85%RH enclosure.
Turn Daily
wipe with brine-damp sponge every other day.
Scrub with brush when mold appears.
Keep in 85%RH enclosure.

See what they look like in 60days.  Thoughts?

[Cartierusm]

Sounds like a plan Wayne. I've learned lately you have to air dry first in 85% to help equalize then put in the frig for a day or so to "flash freeze" the rind quickly so it can't crack.

[wharris]

So, you never let the dry in the open air for a bit?

[Cheese Head]

My 2 cents . . . shocking the pressed cheese by putting it in a very low humidity (& low temp) air blown fridge is what causes the  cracks due to the combination of low tensile strength of the cheese and high internal stresses caused by the rapid drying and shrinking of the rind and not the pate.

[wharris]

Just some pics of the cracks in the rinds:

[Cheese Head]

Wayne, gorgeous job of waxing . . . I can only see 1 1/2 crack, nothing serious .

[Cartierusm]

I'm not sure if you were directing that question at me Wayne, but no I don't leave them in the open are anymore, in the beginning for a few hours.

John, I only put them in the regular frig once they have been in the cave for at least 5 days.

[Likesspace]

Wayne...
Your wax job is beyond impressive.
I really really really need to find a way to start dipping my cheeses.
Great work!

Dave