Question about aging cut cheese

[borisb2]

Hi there,

Whats the standard process if one wants to continue to age a washed rind cheese in the cave after it has been cut? Sometimes I read about vacuum sealing, sometimes I read about just to wrap the wheel in alu foil. How do I know which is the best method for a given cheese? I guess if it was/is developing a natural or washed rind (and may still produce ammonia or CO2) vaccuum sealing is out of the question? Would coating the cut be a better option in that case?

Aging Gruyere, Gorgonzola and another Alpine style cheese at the moment (all first time) and I have the feeling I'm not patient enough to wait out the recommended aging times :)

[Aris]

With washed rind surface ripened cheese like a Gruyere, I shave off the rind using a cheese planer before vacuum packing it. If I don't remove the rind before vacuum packing, the rind tends to becomes nasty and wet inside the vacuum bag which negatively affects the cheese. Delicatessen here typically vacuum pack Raclette, Tomme de Savoie and Saint Nectaire and they become a nasty mess. Natural rind cheese like Asiago and Parmesan are ok to vacuum pack since they don't have mold and B. linens on them. With blue cheese, I scrape off the surface mold before wrapping it in heavy duty aluminum foil and store it in the coldest part of the fridge to age slowly. If you are not comfortable with aluminum foil, wrap it first in parchment paper.