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GENERAL CHEESE MAKING BOARDS (Specific Cheese Making in Boards above) => STANDARD METHODS - Aging Cheese => Topic started by: garhell on September 16, 2012, 05:59:15 AM
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i know cheddar can be aged but what about these
gouda, Monterey jack, colby jack, kashkaval, edam, danish blue and Roquefort ?
do i wax them and store them into a cold place ?
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First of all, define "a cold place". A fridge will normally be too cold to age cheeses, at least they will mature very slowly. I used an old fridge with an external thermostat. Power of the fridge is plugged into the thermostat and the sensor of the thermostat is in the fridge. At the moment I have only Gouda's in the fridge (a.k.a. my cave) and the thermostat switches on at 14C and stops at 13C.
Gouda, Montery Jack, Colby and Edam are pressed cheeses. I coat my pressed chesses with a special "plastic" coating that is used in Europe for almost all Gouda's, as well by the big "cheese factories" as well by the artisan cheese makers.
How long you can aged presses cheeses also depends on the size of the wheels. The Gouda's that are sold here as "over aged" are at least one year old and weight about 20 kilo. Smaller cheeses will mature faster, but all is a balance between quality of the milk, recipe, size of the cheese and aging conditions. Blue mold cheeses have different conditions and different maturing times, but you will find tons of info on this forum.
According to wiki Kashkaval is also a semi-hard cheese, so I guess it can be handled as a Gouda...
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Welcome to the Forum, Garhell!
In answer to your question, yes. The cheeses can be aged, and as Hoeklijn stated best aged at a temp a bit warmer than your household fridge.
I am using a small fridge and found that by turning the temp all the way warm and then tinkering with the calibration adjustment I was able to get temps up to 60F on the bottom, and 50ish at the top of the fridge.
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All but the blue cheeses can be waxed (when dry enough). Blues can be wraped in foil for longer storage (once they have achived enough blue veining).