I made a cheddar on March 2 which has been fine aging up until this point, but today when I went to flip my cheeses, I could see black or brown mold underneath the wax on this cheese. I just pitched it. What causes this? My other cheeses appear to be fine. My cheese cave is a wine fridge. Do I need to somehow sanitize it? If the mold was all under the wax, is it possible that it oculd have spread to my other cheeses? Yuck! I feel so dirty. LOL What did I do wrong?
My fridge is set at 54 degrees and humidity is about 80-85 per cent. Once i noticed it was 95% and I'm not sure how that happened!
Missy:
Next time, don't be so quick to pitch the cheese. When I discover mold, I can usually just cut away the offending areas, hit it hard with a salt/vinegar solution, and rewax. If you have a hard pressed cheese, it's a good bet that the mold is just sitting on the surface of the cheese, just underneath the wax.
Also, this is another reason why I prefer to let my cheeses form a natural rind, rather than using wax. Any air and moisture that gets trapped under the wax will invariably meet up with some mold looking for a new home.
Greg
Missy, great response from Greg, my only 2 cents to add is let cheese dry a little more next time before waxing.
Agrees with Greg. You would be surprised what a little TLC from a brine or vinegar solution will do for you.