Hi all.
New cheese maker here. I've made a couple cheddars, a gouda, and pepperjack recently as my first few cheeses that need to be aged. What I did was to let the cheeses air dry on a mat, underneath a food net, with a ceiling fan blowing lightly above at around 70F.
They all took about 2 or 3 days until I felt like they were dry to the touch and a sort of rind was present in its young stage on each before proceeding. Then I vacuum sealed them and placed them in my mini-fridge cheese cave, which seems to keep a temp range of 55F plus or minus a couple degrees.
I also have the cave set up with salt and water cups to create humidity of around 70-75%.
Here are my questions if you can help me please:
1.) Is the humidity actually needed if I'm putting the cheeses into vacuum sealed bags? It seems like it wouldn't be able to have any effect but I'm just beginning to learn so I wanted to ask. My hunch is the humidity is only actually important when setting in non-sealed/waxed cheeses in the cave.
2.) Am I bagging up my cheeses too soon? I've been reading older posts on this forum today, and some of them have me wondering if I was supposed to let the cheeses sit naked in the cheese cave and then vacuum seal them after some time like that. Should I take my 6 wheels of cheese out of there bags? The oldest one went into the bag an the cave on 1-19 (white cheddar), 1-25 (yellow garlic jalapeno cheddar), 2-4 (gouda with fenugreek seeds), and the most recent today pepperjack). The gouda, I should mention, I did let sit for 4 days in the cave after the initial air drying, inside of a plastic aging box with a mat beneath it.
Any tips, pointers, and corrections of errors are welcome. Thank you!