Ongoing projects - "Caves, blues and established stars"

[lafux]

Hey, I would like to share my ongoing projects and experiences. Few of them actually, but they are all somewhat intertwined. I would title this set of actions and reactions as „Caves, blues and established stars“. I was cleaning up a part of the pantry, organising stuff, throwing out old glass jars etc. with ultimate goal to establish a „cave“. It surely looks like one. What do you think? Could it work? A spray of disinfectant and disinsectant was applied, space was cleaned and emptied. There will be problems with insects and mice, as they were present before. Also I can’t control humidity nor the temperature. But still this space revealed itself as an excellent opportunity. I also cleaned and put a small wooden bench that could store a few cheeses, you can see it on the pictures. This is actually an empty, hollow space under the stairs that lead to the attic. Therefore the weird shape. Mostly unused as it is hard to reach, lateral part of an oldfashioned pantry in an old house. It’s about 2 square meters. You can see other „stars“ of the show on the table. I will give short descriptions in a following post here or in the section about aging to see if there are some ideas about what could be done to improve their aging experience. And also the „blue“ part of the story, that one probably in section ADJUNCT- Blue Mold Ripened. Here you can also see part of my industrial salt stash, the only noniodised salt that i could find. And even for that I had to be persistent with local distributing company. And then when I finally managed to convince them to sell it to me they tricked me. On purpose or not, consequences are the same. They advertise and sell it as an edible, kitchen salt, but when i got home I realised that it is an industrial salt having read the packaging in detail. There are no smaller packages available (50 kg) and officially they sell their products only to other companies, so I was furious. Left without receipt and no other choice I have been using it since, but health concern remains. What is your opinion on this? In my understanding this is pure NaCl, 97-99%, but not as clean and strict in production process as the one declared as kitchen salt. I have been using it quite hard.     

[Lancer99]

Not being able to control the temperature is a problem.  And I would worry that mice might gnaw through the plastic.

I wouldn't use salt that isn't food grade, other than when my sidewalk gets icy Seems like you can probably get non-iodised salt from Amazon: https://www.howitravel.co/amazon-serbia/   Certainly cheaper than 50 kg!

-L

[lafux]

Thanks for the response. I will have to find a way to utilise this space having in mind stuff you mentioned. It seems so perfect, yet so flawed. For now it will have to do, as a cheese rack with cave ambitions, at least until warmer months come. Then I will have to stop making cheese or pick the ones that can be ripened in a fridge. What would you say about temperature range? Naturally, I know it`s not a universal thing for cheese, but for beginner and intermediate ones such as Jack, Colby, Bel Paese, Butterkäse, Port Salut, Edam, Tilsit could this temperature range provide acceptable aging conditions? During early autumn it`s in 18-23 range, in the late autumn and through milder days of the winter the temperature ranges between 10 and 15 degrees C. On the colder days it can go down to 5-8 degrees. Spring here brings most fluctuation, it seems. Now it`s around 15 degrees C, plus 2 or 3 degrees up or down. But it will quickly start to rise. Till end of May it will be up in the 20-25 range.
I am aware of the fact that Jerry surely won`t stop at plastic. That`s the thing, maybe it`s pure luck, but this winter there were no signs of mouse activity. Not around cheeses at least. But I think I would have noticed, I am aware when they are around. There were no droppings and all my walnuts and hazelnuts were intact. I hope it will stay that way. We caught few of them with cup and halved walnut trick in autumn though. I can`t do much except be wary and vigilant. And plug potential holes in the wall. About salt, it was quite cheap for the amount, 15 USD (serbian currency translated) for 50 kg. I thought maybe someone here had similar experience or has some chemistry info about that kind of salt compared to edible one. Company that produces this salt is from a neighbouring state (Bosnia) and actually has in the product palette real edible noniodised salt, but they don`t ship it to markets here and they obviously don`t care about customers and marketing because I got zero response to e-mails I have been sending them. So yeah, in some other regions everything would be much easier, but that`s the way things roll around here. Like a Stilton on a rocky road.

[mikekchar]

I recommend getting a picnic cooler and aging the cheeses in there.  You might need to get a rather large one.  Put the ice packs on one side and the put a jar of water between the icepacks and the cheese to isolate the cheese from the very cold temps.  You should be able to maintain a good aging temp.

[lafux]

Thanks for the response. I will have to figure this one out. Especially with heath just around the corner. For now I can manage with temperatures around 13-18 C, but not for long. Maybe I`ll do just what you suggested. I already have some ice packs. If I manage to find such a thing, maybe I could give it a try with some sort of used small fridge that I could rearrange through thermostat tweaking to be around 15 C? I think I will make one or two more pieces and then get to that so I could make cheese even during summer months. I will continue to write about this last few runs in another section, probably in hard cheddared section as 4 of this 5 cheeses belong there and then in a Blue section having made two of those in the meantime. So yeah, if you like to read additional thoughts and views are welcome. It will be a longer one because it all was happening simultaneously so I decided to post it under this ringy title in three parts, three sections in order to gather some more insight from other members. Cheers!   

[mikekchar]

Yeah, I have a peltier cooler fridge which works fine in the winter, but when summer hits (or even late spring), it doesn't work.  I add freezer packs (or even just frozen plastic bottles of water).  In the summer, when it is 35 C in the house, I have to change the ice twice a day :-)  But I used a cooler for a long time (more than a year).  It works amazingly well.  If you have a space that is already relatively cool (which I don't), it helps enormously.   Last year I did some experiments with aging some cheeses at higher temps to great success.  Bloomy rinds seem to do really well at around 20 C (let them get full coverage and then into the normal fridge at 6 C for the rest of the aging).  I also did a Cotija style cheese where I was doing anywhere from 18 - 24 C (IIRC) and boy did it get a strong flavour quickly.  Looking forward to doing it again this summer.

[lafux]

Aha, so basically you have noticed that higher temps potentially do good in aging department, in terms of speed and intensity? That is what can be read here and there and I have been holding that on my mind because through the year my temps are more in the scale higher than normally recommended. But I haven't really noticed that this helps my cheeses to ripen more quickly and efficiently. Maybe in my case something else is retarding the ripening process? They are lower than acceptable (5-8) only few months a year, and only on some days. As I am not making white bloomy ones I can't say whether higher temps are going to have same positive effects on my experience. But still, observation you shared could potentially solve one of my bigger problems - no or slow ripening with zero profile and aroma development, inert state of curd not transforming into a paste, not softening and becoming springy as it should. It stays rather brittle. Even if the acidity is the main culprit, cheese should show sign of ripening no matter what. Is it possible that for some reason my cheeses are chemically dead, left without lactic bacteria to leave enough enzymes behind to continue  ? For some cheeses that are in my field of interest, such as Butterkäse, I remember that higher temps are actually recommended. For now I can`t controll temperature. I should really try again and put one out and just leave it bare in this new cave to see if it is possible to develop lower acidity while maintaining medium moisture so it doesn't crack, but also doesn't attract molds, keep the rind fairly clean, maybe with B. Linens as a potential shield for both moisture loss and unwanted molds and then wash it of completely so it doesn't get too smelly. Sounds like Tilsit, Port Salut or Butterkäse, all of which I failed at, Butterkase being the worst (sour, fatty, crumbly), Port Salut being slightly less of a failure because it did get somewhat soft and springy with some aroma profile. But still too sour. Tilsit did start to "change" but just recently, not before I cracked it after initial three months too see brittle,white insides, than vacuum-packed a piece for additional 3 months and then opened it and left it wrapped in baking paper to dry for a few more weeks on the open space in pantry. Now I cling to that piece of cheese like it's the last one on Earth. It smells so complex, like roasted hazelnuts, with sidenotes of B. linens and slightly fruity even, with full, rounded taste and bold but considerate character, aromatic and profiled. I noticed that particular brown-green-black mold attacks when I cover a cheese that is yet to form a rind, but more often the ones that are in the process of forming it or has almost completely formed a clean, nonpopulated rind. By that I mean without B. linens or P. roqueforti to protect it, but with still enough moisture to attract that pesky mold. Even with perforated container and occasional uncovering that stuff finds it's way. So yeah, I will be a little bit less afraid of higher temps from now on as long as they are in reasonable range, let's say up to 25 C. Did you have success with ripening some other nonbloomy cheeses at higher temps, maybe some semi-hard, cheddared or washed rind types (those kinds I aim for)?

[mikekchar]

I've heard that some Italian hard cheeses are traditionally aged at warmer temps (say around 21).  I would not intentionally age as high as 25 -- the fat starts to break down very near that temp (27 I think).  I think it's unlikely to lead to anything good.  Different enzymes prefer different temps, so when you change the aging temperature, you change the flavour profile of the resulting cheese.  It might be good.  It might be bad.  If you are trying to replicate a specific style of cheese, you should age it at the temperature that the style is aged at.

I think my biggest piece of advice is not to experiment until you feel *very* comfortable aging cheeses.  Affinage is actually quite difficult.  It's dramatically easier if you are vacuum packing, but there is still a lot to think about.  You mention problems with acidity.  Just like temperature, different acidity levels will cause different enzymatic action.  This is why a Gouda and a Cheddar taste *completely* different despite the fact that they are made of exactly the same ingredients.  Getting your make right is 90% of cheese making.  Affinage is the other 90% ;-).  What I mean by that is that Affinage is just as hard as the make, but if you get the make wrong, you can't fix it with affinage.

IMHO you should try to remove as many variables as possible until you are producing cheeses that you are happy with.  Then you can start playing with changing stuff.  So I would start with setting up a cave where you can get stable temps.  Like I mentioned before, it doesn't have to be costly.  Even a styrofoam box will help a lot.