Creating a Natural Rind

[Moetman]

Hi,
was wondering if anyone knows how to create a natural rind on your chese, what steps should you take and what should you do in regards to maintenance..

[cheesehead94]

Essentially you allow whatever molds happen to be floating by to form on your cheese. Then every so often (I do once a week but some people do more or less, there is no right answer) you simply brush the cheese using a back and forth (not circular) motion, flattening the mold and spreading it around a little. That's it! Very easy really, and eventually it forms an inert leathery crust on the cheese that looks and feels really cool

[Moetman]

What about a Colby or a Cheddar? Does the same rule apply?

[Gürkan Yeniçeri]

I assume you are talking about hard cheeses.

You need:

1 - Humidity and temperature controlled cheese fridge
2 - A morge mixture of bacteria, yeast mold from a healthy cheese

In  most cases these two will be enough to develop a flora on the surface. If anything else grows, you may need alcohol or vinegar based washes to clear. Morge should outcompete the bad guys.

Of course prior to all these, you need to have good amount of salt in the cheese homogenically distributed on the surface. A saturated brine and regular flipping the cheese would help.

[Moetman]

Thank you,