Started making cheeses that need aging in Oct 2022 (a Gruyère, and recently a Stilton Blue). So needed to control and monitor temperature and humidity in my cheese boxes in cheese fridge. Although humidity in my Malaysian kitchen is ideal at 85% for ripening, the temperature is NOT ideal - 31 oC - except for the curd formation step
I bought an Inkbird IBS-TH2 Temperature and Humidity sensor for one of the cheese boxes, and am very happy with it. I calibrated the temperature against my very accurate Thermapen, and calibrated humidity at 75.3% RH using a sodium chloride/water slush mixture. The Inkbird is tiny enough to fit inside the cheese box, and the Bluetooth signal transmits to its app on my iPhone through the fridge door and to the next room, where I can monitor readings. I can also download data as CSV file to my iPhone. I was considering a similar sensor by SensorPush, but that was more expensive and also needed a button battery type that is difficult to buy here in Malaysia. The Inkbird uses common AAA batteries. Both sensors seem to use the Swiss made Sensirion humidity sensors, with reasonable specs, and good when calibrated against a reference.
To control the temperature in the converted fridge, I use an Inkbird ITC-308 Temperature controller which maintains the fridge temperature at 13 oC +/– 1 oC. To control the humidity, I use the low-tech trial-and-error method of holes drilled in the lids of the plastic cheese boxes.
My cheese trier is even lower tech - an apple corer! The Stilton sample yesterday (8 weeks from the start) probably needs another 2 or 3 weeks - the blue veins only about 2/3 out from the centre. The Gruyère is looking good so far, but only 5 months old. I want to taste test it against some 18 mo. old Gruyère brought back from Switzerland last year, portioned and vacuum sealed in the freezer.
I can buy genuine Swiss Gruyère Surchoix and Alpinage here in Sarawak, Borneo - but it costs 4 times the price of Gruyère bought in Switzerland! And Stilton is completely unobtainable here. Hence my need to satisfy my cheese addiction!)
Mike in Borneo
