My First Cheese - a little parmesan

[Sandro]

Hi

Sorry if Iposted in wrong place...

I'm from Brazil and this is my first cheese. I used a parmesan recipe from Gavin Webber (but adapted with 10 L because I didnt have a big pan):

14 L Partially Skimmed Cows Milk 2% Fat
3/8th teaspoon Thermophilic Culture
1/8th teaspoon Lipase in 2 Tbspn water
3.75 ml (3/4 tspn) Calcium Chloride in 1/4 cup water
3.75 ml (3/4 tspn) Liquid Rennet in 1/4 cup water
18% Satured Brie Solutuon


Result: a little parmesan (I hope so) with (after 25 days) 716 gr.

After dry, the cheese was in a domestic refrigerator with 7oC and 88-89 % moisture.

The shell is very hard and a black/grey mold has appeared.  I'm using a brush and the brine solution. Today a small crack appeared on the side.

What do you think I should do?

I attached photos showing the small crack and mold.

Thanks

Sandro

[mikekchar]

Mold grows on cheese.  It's just what happens.  You can't keep it clean.  You goal in aging a cheese is to balance the environment so that the things that you want to grow, do so and the things that you don't want don't.

First, when you wash, use a 3-5% brine solution.  Higher amounts of salt will favour blue molds over better options (white yeasts, primarily).  Second, the crack is due to the humidity being too low.  I pretty much guarantee that the fridge isn't 88-89% humidity because the cheese won't crack at that humidity (although, possibly it cracked while you were drying it).  You can put the cheese in a plastic maturation box to keep the humidity up a bit.  You may have to play with the lid to get the humidity just right.  For a low moisture cheese like Parmesan you can get away with a lower humidity, which means that less mold will grow (it will still grow, though).  Finally, you can probably oil the cheese now.  Parmesan is normally oiled with olive oil (does not have to be extra virgin), but any vegetable oil will work.  When the rind is clean and dry, wipe it will some oil.  Repeat every few weeks (or after you wash it if you need to do so).  The oil will eventually build up a surface that mold can't easily grow on.  After that, it's quite easy to wipe off any mold with a rag.  Good luck!

[Sandro]

Thanks a lot mikekchar

I didnt know about the brine solution. I used the same so I'm going to change. What do you think of sealing the vacuum? Is it a good idea?

Another doubt. For a small parmesan like this, how much do you estimate the maturation time?

Again...Thanks a lot

Have a nice day.