Cheeses, Natural Rind - Recommendations To Track Which is What?

[rosawoodsii]

I seem to run into this problem all the time, even with my best intentions and semi-organization.  I forget which cheeses are which.  It's easy to tell if I've waxed them, but how do I mark them without wax?  I don't (yet) have a real cheese "cave", so my cheeses are scattered willy-nilly throughout the two refrigerators, styrofoam aging containers, and out on the top of the chest freezer when I'm drying them in a cool place.  I always think  I'm going to remember which is which, I even make detailed notes of how I prepared them, but when I'm making cheese twice a week, and other people can be moving things around as well, I have no idea what I'm looking at any more.  Thank goodness for Cotswald and Camembert, because as least I can tell each one of those by sight.

How do other people without a specific place to keep and age cheeses keep track?

[bbracken677]

I have a "map" of my cave, with notes for where certain cheeses are. Otherwise I just mark them if vacuum bagged.

[rosawoodsii]

I don't have a cheese cave, though.  My cheeses are scattered around.  Most of the cheeses are developing a rind and haven't gotten to the point where I can either wax them or vacuum seal, and some I don't want to do either, if I can afford it.  I'm going to have to figure out something soon, though, because I have another cheese in the press and two in the freezer room that I can't identify.  Well... one's a Colby, but I don't know which one. 

[bbracken677]

do you put them in containers to control the humidity?  Such as a container with the top ajar, for instance.. If you do that you could mark the containers with tape and write on the tape. I have some of mine in some kind of "mini-cave" container to increase humidity.

[rosawoodsii]

The biggest challenge, actually, is temperature.  I live in Maine, and it's always pretty humid here, particularly with all the rain we've been getting.  When I've used containers, the humidity goes much too high. Even my large Styrofoam containers with holes in the top create too much humidity, and if I take them off, I get unwanted mold. Those are in the basement of the old farmhouse I live in, and there are varieties of mold I never knew about until they ate through the wax on my cheeses.

Refrigerator temperatures are a bit too low for most cheeses, but occasionally I but cheese in them, in containers, to age.  I always wonder, though, if it's going to inhibit the aging process.

[Boofer]

You may wish to try something like food-safe marker pens:

• Suggestion 1
• Suggestion 2
• Suggestion 3

Good luck.

-Boofer-

[hoeklijn]

 ;D

[rosawoodsii]

You may wish to try something like food-safe marker pens:

• Suggestion 1
• Suggestion 2
• Suggestion 3

Good luck.

-Boofer-

I didn't know there was any such thing!  Thank you for the suggestion.

[Mighty Mouse]

I have done two things before:
1) I would write down the type of cheese, date of make and date of waxing/aging on a piece of paper and then "glue" it on to the waxed cheese (IE drip enough wax to the edges to hold it in place). This works but sometimes the paper falls off since the wax is being applied over already hardened wax.
2) I usually keep notes about all of my makes. I assign numbers to specific cheeses and then write those numbers on the wax (or sometimes on a piece of tape which I then tape to the wax- easy to remove). This is nice because it is simple. I also write down scheduled tasks such as aging target dates, flips days, etc... on the fridge itself so I can see them.

Of course, some times I say to hell with it and just throw the cheese in there and try to keep track, that usually does not work very well but generally the cheese turns out fine ;)

[rosawoodsii]

Yes, waxing usually takes care of the problem, but when that doesn't work when I'm trying to create a natural rind.

I have finally figured out a solution, at least for now.  I just got some cheese draining mats, and now I write the name and date of the cheese onto some masking tape and tape it to the mat in front of the cheese.  So simple, I don't know why it took so long for me to figure that out.

[Boofer]

But the cheese doesn't remain on the mat forever. What happens when it moves?

-Boofer-

[bbracken677]

If it moves....shoot it!

haha sorry, couldnt resist!

[george]

If it moves....shoot it!

True, but if it doesn't, you get to eat it.  Mmmmmmmmm ... cheeeeeeeeeeeeese.

haha sorry, couldnt resist!

Ditto.

[rosawoodsii]

But the cheese doesn't remain on the mat forever. What happens when it moves?

-Boofer-

It won't move until I'm ready to either wax it (in which case it's easy to label), vacuum seal it (easy to label) or eat it.