Aging/Tasting

[bansidhe]

I was wondering if it's ok to taste a cheese as it's aging.  That is, if I want to see how things are progressing can I take a tiny sliver from a cheese to taste it and set it back to the aging cave?

[mikekchar]

No you can't, unfortunately.  The rind of the cheese is very important to the way it ages.  If you cut the rind, you invite lots of baddies inside for a party.  For people who vacuum pack, you can take it out of the plastic bag and then reseal it.  However, for a natural rind, you need that rind.

[bansidhe]

Sad.  :-(.  One more newbie question, why doesn't a new rind form on the cut surface?

[rsterne]

I only have 6 months experience, and with all of our cheeses we divide the ultimate aging goal into 4 equal parts, eating a quarter each time.... eg. for a cheese we will age 1 year, we would sample it at 3, 6, and 9 months.... This is because, like most newcomers, we don't know enough about how a cheese ages, and when it will best suit our palate and needs.... I would not attempt this with a natural rind, but we wax most of our cheeses, and vacuum bag the rest.... We have rewaxed after sampling, but now we vacuum bag everything after sampling for the remainder of the aging process.... I'm sure that we get a different result by this process, but there is no doubt that the cheese continues to age successfully using this method.... If you want to sample at intermediate stages, I would recommend vacuum bagging for continued aging....

Bob

[bansidhe]

That's great!  I have not made anything require more than a few weeks aging.  Though I have heard continued aging will change the cheese.  I guess my next batch I'll make several small cheeses and eat one every two weeks or so so I can see how gaining changes it.

Im intrigued by the vacuum sealing approach.  I'd better start reading up on that

[Chetty]

I take samples with my cheese Trier without much issue.  You take a small piece put the plug back and mush and smear cheese over the plug.  If the wheel is big enough you can cut in half rub salt on the open cut and let a new rind form.. 

[mikekchar]

why doesn't a new rind form on the cut surface?

Well, it does.... but...  When you first make cheese, the pH of the rind is usually quite low (which means the acidity is high).  You have also just salted it, so almost all of the salt is just soaked into the rind.  It hasn't made its way to the center of the cheese.  This means that nothing will grow on the rind.  Usually it sits there all fine for a few days.  After that, because the salt has move its way throughout the cheese, the yeasts from the air can start growing.  They grow on the cheese and make the rind kind of slimy.  If it's dry enough, geotrichum (which is a yeast) will bloom into a nice white mold-like powder.  Blue mold or mildew can grow quite easily on the rind as well.  Normally you try to favour the yeasts because they stop other molds from growing.

Over time, the things growing on the outside of the cheese, alter the surface of the cheese.  It makes it difficult for most molds to grow easily.  The pH also goes up (it gets less acidic) because the yeasts and molds produce ammonia.  The ammonia soaks into the cheese from the outside in.  So the cheese is least sour at the rind and most sour in the center.  The rind very slowly (over a period of about 3-4 weeks) changes into a place where molds can grow on top, but they can't penetrate the cheese.

The time from the beginning to where the cheese is basically safe is the most difficult part of aging a cheese.  There are many, many ways where your treasured cheese will rot and turn into something you don't want to eat.  This basically happens in those first 3-4 weeks when the cheese is not protected.  If you cut the cheese, you are extending that time.  Not only that, but the pH of the cheese has gone up over time and more and more molds can grow on it.  The salt is evenly distributed through the cheese and *everything* can easily tolerate the small amount of salt.  This means that when you cut the cheese and something grows on the cut surface, you can't be sure if it's safe.

Having said that, I often eat my cheese very slowly and, of course, it sits cut in my fridge for several weeks before I eat it all up.  However, I am *very* careful about how I package it.  I also store it in the normal fridge at cold temperature.  And even then, somethings I have to throw away cheese because it has gone bad.

My advice is to make many small cheeses and eat them over time.

[Bantams]

For a soft bloomy rind or washed rind, make small ones to start and unfortunately you just have to cut into the whole thing if you want to sample. I usually keep one camembert per batch as my "tester" so I can cut a slice out to test, rewrap and age another week and resample. But the area around the previous cut is never good (too moldy). You can carve that part away and eat the rest.
Something really gooey will ooze out after cutting, but if it's that soft it is probably ready to eat anyway.

For hard aged cheeses, use a cheese trier. 

[Chetty]

I only have experience with hard cheeses, I use a Trier every couple months to check progression.  I get some molds but I keep a container of sanitizer so I can keep my trier clean in between cheese samples. 

[bansidhe]

Thank You all!  This is great information