'pimples' on Farmhouse cheddar?

[Vina]

Couple a weeks ago I made my 1st farmhouse cheddar, recipe from R.Carroll's book.
Now its aging in my cool room ~51-55F.

A week ago I notced some kind of little elevations on surface, let's say like 'pimples', so that  rind is no more smooth but looks like crocodile skin. A few days ago there started some undesired mold but because of that uneven rind its very difficult to clean it. SHould i worry about it? Is there any cure?



Any comments and suggestions will be appreciated. Thanks!

[Tomer1]

You caught it a bit late, its looks like blue mold and eventually it will penetrate the rind and can cause some unwanted flavors.
You need to use a cheese brush and get agressive ,perhaps with some vinegar-saturated brine solution.

[Cheese Head]

Agree with Tomer, give it a scrub with vinegar and salt.

Or if like blue cheeses like me then don't!

Natural rinds are almost impossible to keep clear of molds.

[Tomer1]

Natural rinds are almost impossible to keep clear of molds

Its possible but it needs almost daily attention. 
I believe some french affinouirs use salt on hard cooked style cheeses after the rind has hardened (so the cheese wont absorb it and become too salty) to further harden it and create a "moisture gardient" as LB calls it
and brush\flip\rub alot.   Im not sure of the correct technique to do this though.

I've found with some of my first mistreated cheeses attacked by blue that they develop aroma and flavor defects from the penetrating mold. It doesnt turn into a creamy stilton out of the blue.

[george]

Vina, for what it's worth, those "pimples" look like what I get on my cheeses when they're getting too dry.  You might want to up the humidity in your cave to take care of that (after you deal with the moldies, of course). 

[Vina]

Vina, for what it's worth, those "pimples" look like what I get on my cheeses when they're getting too dry.  You might want to up the humidity in your cave to take care of that (after you deal with the moldies, of course).

whats interesting - there was about 85-90% RH in my cave when those pimples showed up. Molds came later.

[Tomer1]

You might think about oiling or larding. natural rind cheddars seems difficult to grow.

[Vina]

thanks! I'm really thinking of oiling / larding. It's too late for this batch I guess.

[Tomer1]

Yeah. You want to do it right after\end of pressing.

[Caseus]

Hello Tomer1,

The forum Wiki article Wiki: Oiling Rinds says otherwise.   

Application Frequency

After pressing and air drying, cheeses should initially be aged for 7-10 days with a natural rind to enable the cheese to dry and mature and for the rind to toughen before oiling to seal the rind. Oiling too early with cheese still moist can result in yeast injections.

Is there a reason why a farmhouse cheddar should not follow these guidelines?

[Tomer1]

I meant cloth bandaging not oiling.    Cheddar is a tricky beast because of the variablity in pressure people use at press  , some press lightly and still have alot of moisture which wants to ozz out in which case air drying (like the WIKI says) is a good idea.

[Vina]

this is my experiment - as that wild growth was getting worse, even after salt / vinegar treatment, I decided to brush everything I could and covered both wheels with.... beeswax. (April 17th)

[DeejayDebi]

That should hold it back considerably as long as you got it all and no air gets in. The light color will help to keep an eye on it.