Removing Wax on Cheese and keep it aging

[cheddarchick]

I recently made a pepper jack cheese using "the art of cheesemaking" recipe. In that recipe (as well as Gavin Webber and cheesemaking.com's recipes) all say after removing the cheese from the press, let it dry for 2-3 days and then wax. In Merryl Winstein's book, "Successful Cheesemaking", she says to wait 2-4 months as if you wax it too early it will prevent gas exchange and will not let the moisture evaporate causing our cheese.

I'm wanting to remove the wax coating that I put on the cheese and leave it for 2 months.  Anyone know if removing wax will damage the cheese in any way?

[Aris]

It depends if the wax stuck to the cheese or not. Just be gentle when removing the wax. Aging a cheese with a natural rind is challenging because molds, B. linens and mildew will grow if the humidity is too high and if the humidity is too low, the cheese will lose a lot of moisture and will eventually crack. Humidity has to be 75-85% and molds can still grow at that humidity range but not as aggressive so you have to brush them off or wash the cheese with brine. I don't wax but I vacuum pack which is similar. I age the cheese for 2-3 weeks inside a cooler with a temperature of 50-55 f and humidity of 60-70% and it must lose 15-25% of its original weight before I vacuum pack it. I don't have to age it for 2-4 months with a natural rind to get the right moisture content.

[mikekchar]

I would not remove the wax at this point.  Cheese goes through stages.  When you first start it has a relatively low pH on the outside, it has a high salt content, it has a fair amount of lactate.  In this environment, only certain molds will grow.  As the cheese ages, enzymes will break down proteins and fats.  This will produce water.  Salt will migrate through the cheese.  The pH will rise.  The yeasts and molds will grow very differently.  This is the same reason that you can't age a cheese for a while with a natural rind, cut it and age it as a natural rind some more.  The inside and outside of a natural rind cheese is very different.

Your downside for waxing early is that you might have to open it sooner as it might not age for as long.  However, by "sooner", I'm thinking less than a year :-)  You've got to be careful about your cheeses if you want to age them for a really long time, but you have a lot more leeway earlier.

I say this a lot: Just make more cheese instead of trying to "fix" this one.  Don't jump through hoops trying to get it "just right".  Unless you are phenomenally lucky, it's not going to be "just right" anyway.  Cheese making is a subtle and difficult thing to do extremely well.  When you are starting out, you'll get some hits and misses.  Just make more cheese.  Eat early.  Eat often.  Learn from your mistakes. Learn that what other people think is a mistake might not be a mistake.  This is kind of unfair, but 90% of what I see written about cheese making is utter nonsense.

I don't know Mary Winstein, but I just watched a quick video of her on youtube and she seems to know what she's talking about.  However, in this case, I'm kind of on the fence.  I'm not sure I would wax after 2 months.  IMHO, there is no point at that stage.  You've already established the rind.  You've done the hard part.  At 2 months, there is literally nothing to do other than to flip occasionally and brush it to make sure the mold isn't too thick.  The only reason I would wax is if I'm going to go for a *really* long time and I don't want the cheese to dry out.  But, again, if you are going to eat this in less than a year, I think there is no point at all.

The other thing to think about (which Aris touched on) is that natural rinds are kind of tricky.  I do all my cheeses with natural rinds, but it's not for everyone.  It also alters the flavor of the cheese.  Waxing early will give you a cleaner cheddar flavor without the funk of the natural rind.  I *prefer* natural rind cheeses, but especially for a cheddar, it might not be what you are expecting (unless you eat a lot of cloth bound cheddars, or other natural rind cheddared cheeses like artisanal Caerphilly).

When you are first starting, waxing is a fine place to start, I think.  I wouldn't change anything at this point.  Just make more cheese and see how it goes.

[cheddarchick]

Thanks everyone! I think the best advice is to move along and leave the cheese alone, sometimes trying to correct a mistake makes is worse! One important thing I've learned with cheesemaking is to document everything, so when I eat this cheese, I'll know what to do next time. Thank you again for the responses, it's definitely helped!

[broombank]

there is a third option which is curiously neglected - painting the cheese with food grade PVA.( in UK sold by Cheese and yogurt making)  I have been experimenting with this over the last six months. It's much easier to do than cloth binding ( and less messy). It protects the cheese from mould. It is transparent so you can see what is happening unlike with wax where all manner of nasty things can grow under the wax. The downside( or upside !)  is that unlike wax and vacuum packing the PVA breathes much more like a cloth bound cheese. This means that you can't afford to neglect  humidity. My first ones were in a wine fridge at around 13C but as low as 60% humidity. This is much too dry and they have lost a lot of weight and have dried out. The more recent ones are in a humid compartment on wooden shelving at around 90% humidity. This appears to be ideal. They are not drying out . A certain amount of mould grows one the surface but can easily be wiped off. I'm looking forward to opening them in due course. One is a cheddar infused with seaweed and the other is a gouda infused with Croatian truffles. I'm wondering if other people have experience with PVA and would like to share it here?

[Aris]

Yeah, it is indeed curiously neglected. In other cheesemaking groups, most people vacuum pack and some use wax. I actually plan to purchase that for gouda, grana cheese and blue cheese. I like the fact it has a mold inhibitor so no need to worry about nasty molds growing when aging cheese at over 90% humidity.

[mikekchar]

Yeah, if I wanted to do a non-natural rind, I would almost certainly go the PVA route.  It's also massively popular with the pros in Europe (to the point where virtually everything labelled as "Manchego" is covered with PVA... though none of those are traditional Manchego cheeses).

[DrChile]

Just make more cheese instead of trying to "fix" this one.

great advice!
Trent