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GENERAL CHEESE MAKING BOARDS (Specific Cheese Making in Boards above) => STANDARD METHODS - Aging Cheese => Topic started by: lynns on January 21, 2012, 05:17:31 PM
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hi - i am new to cheesemaking. i have been making farmhouse cheddar, pressed, air dried, waxed, and aging in my root cellar. yesterday i cut into 1 month old farmhouse cheddar. good smell and taste, just starting to obtain the cheddar taste. i removed all the wax to slice it and found mold on the inside of the wax and the cheese. please help - what went wrong? thanks.
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Hi Lynns- it is very difficult to not wind up with some pinholes in your wax. Pinhole=route for contamination. When you wax your wheels do you apply more than 1 coat?If I where going that route I would use two coats in the minimum. I would say that is the route of your problem. Waxing can be done successfully with care. You can cut off the offending area/wipe your wheel down with brine or white vinegar, air dry at RT and re-wax to continue aging if you wish.
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thanks keith. i guess i need to check all the wheels just to make sure. i brushed 2 coats of wax to each. maybe i should dip several times in lieu of brushing?
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sometimes works better, but really is a matter of personal choice. When I waxed in the past I dipped the wheel in the wax-usually two coats.
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Hi lynns,
I use a yellow/orange wax, which is relatively transparent. If mould starts to form under the wax, I can see it. This allows me to perform "key hole surgery", and cut a small hole in the wax, scrape the mould off, and rewax to seal the hole. Often, if a small hole forms in the first layer even your second coat will seem to flow around the hole. So, after the wax hardens a bit, scan the surface looking for holes. If you see one, blob some wax in and make sure you plug it. I've come to expect that I'll miss a few, and just keyhole until the mould stops showing up underneath. I don't mind doing it. I have a vac sealer, but still use wax as well.
- Jeff
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Two ideas:
- Use wax with some natamycin in it to help with mold control if you want
- Dip. Brushing is not so effective because you never really achieve a solid coat. If you dip with 2 coats or so, that usually does the job.
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And if you dip it in hot wax that kill rind "visitors".
When you brush, wax is maybe not hot enough when it goes to cheese.
Hande
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thanks to everyone who responded - great info and very helpful. lynns
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Hi lynns and welcome to the forum.
In your profile your location is "usa". That's a pretty broad location.
Any chance you'd care to narrow it down a bit? Just curious where you hail from. :)
-Boofer-