Gouda #2, the Great Wax Disaster, and some vacuum seal questions

[cheesehead94]

Several weeks ago I attempted my 2nd Gouda. It had been over 9 months since my first Gouda, a make that was fraught with difficulties and a resulting cheese that wasn't that great. This time around, I felt very good about how the make went at the end of the day. One contributing factor was that I switched out my Aroma B, which has been an incredibly slow acidifier for me, with Flora Danica, which has worked better with my milk. Here are the details.

3.5 gallons raw cow milk
Starting milk ph=6.66
Raised temperature to 81 degrees, added 1/2 tsp Flora Danica, let sit for 3 min and then whisked for 5 min
Raised temp to 88-90 over 20 min
Held at 88-90 for 15 min (temp peaked at 92 briefly)...ph at end of this step=6.56
Added just under 1/2 tsp rennet
Floc@13 min, multiplied by floc factor of 3.5=total coagulation time of 45.5 min (goal coagulation time listed in recipe was 45 min)
Cut into 1/2 inch cubes, let rest 5 min...curd ph=6.38
Held at 91 degrees for 20 min, let settle for 5 min
Drained 15 cups whey, added 15 cups of 150 degree water over the course of 10 min...resulting temperature at end of this step=103 degrees
Stirred for 30 min@102 degrees
Drained whey to curd level, pressed in mold under whey
Pressed @2 lbs for 15 min, flip, 4 lbs for 30 min, flip, 8 lbs for 1 hr, flip, 15 lbs for 1 hr, flip, 25 lbs for 4 hours.
Ph at end of pressing=5.35


My plan was to wax this cheese and age it for a year. After drying the wheel out in the cave for 10 days, I prepared to wax it and disaster struck! I had my wax heated up to 210 degrees, and was slowly dipping the wheel into the pot of wax when my hand slipped and the entire wheel dropped into the pot, splattering hot wax everywhere! The wax cleanup required in the kitchen took well over an hour The worst part is, I panicked and was unable to get the cheese out of the wax quickly with my hands, so I took two knives and stabbed them into the wheel in order to lift it out. Dumb idea obviously, but it was a desperation move

The other bad thing is that I did all of this right before leaving for a week long vacation! Unsure what to do, I took the partially wax splattered cheese and tightly wrapped it in two layers of plastic wrap and placed it in the cave. There it sat, unflipped and unattended to for a week.

When I came back home, some mold had developed on the cheese and also under some of the waxed portions. The I took a knife and sliced about an inch and a half off of the height of the wheel, where the knife puncture wounds were present. I then peeled off any remaining wax, and took a vegetable peeler to the entire exterior of the cheese, hoping to remove any mold and unseen spores. Finally, I wiped the exterior of the cheese with a vinegar soaked paper towel.

In a happy coincidence, during my travels I was gifted a used foodsaver vacuum sealer from my grandparents. I brought this home, and vacuum sealed the cheese. This is my first time doing this, so I am very uncertain as to whether I did it correctly or not. My cheese, with the top sliced off and the entire outer layer thoroughly vegetable-peeled, seems so vulnerable with its mechanical openings exposed. I am worried that even after vacuum packing it the mold intrusions are going to be significant and inevitable.

Is there any hope for this cheese? Also, for those of you that vacuum seal cheese, is the vacuum supposed to get 100% of the air out, or just most of it? Mine took most of the air out but there is definitely still a small amount in there.

[Susan38]

Well, yikes, I cringed when reading your episode.  I'm a bit of a newbie to dipping cheese but have the fears each time of having your experience.  I'm thinking of wearing food grade gloves in the future to maybe keep a better grip on the cheese when dipping, but I don't know if it will help.

Firstly, your recipe seemed to go very well so I think the cheese will age nicely.

I'm thinking with the knife wounds and such maybe you could cut the cheese (no pun intended) into pieces with no intrusions and then either wax or vac seal?  Certainly if you have cuts going into the interior I would think would introduce the unwanted bacteria/molds to flourish.

I have cut into a gouda and decided to keep aging, then doing the hot dip in wax for the newly exposed portion of the cheese and it has done nicely to keep the cheese going.

As for vac sealing, we have a lot of experience with doing meats and such but not cheeses....there is a learning curve for getting all of the air out and I would think that the desired finished product is with it totally vacuum sealed with out any air in there...whether you are dealing with meat or cheese.  Sometimes our vac seal machine "acts out" or you have to get the plastic in a very specific position in order for the process to work properly.

Good luck and let us know how it all progresses....

[5ittingduck]

I tried wax, and it's messy and gets into everything. 
I went down the Vac Pac route, and I have made hundreds of kilos of cheese (mainly Gouda) using bags to age.
As long as you don't want a natural rind, and you are making hard cheeses, I find it is a good option. 
You can see if anything bad is developing, you don't need humidity control, and it's really easy to unpack, cut and repack cheeses.
As to "all the air", most is fine, but all is better.  Blue mould in particular requires O2 to grow, and it will exploit any opening!

[awakephd]

Yep, what Susan and Duck said.

I have about 10 lbs of cheese wax in a crock pot. It was a great way to do the waxing, but once I tentatively tried vacuum packing, I never ever went back, so the wax has been sitting unused for several years. Free to anybody who wants to pay shipping, by the way - including the crock pot!