OK AMATEUR cheesy woman here.....learning how to get beyond only making chevre and trying other things I thought belper knolle was the cheese that beginners like me couldn't mess up. I was looking forward to seeing the end result and by week two instead of finding hardened balls of black pepper covered gems I find myself picking up fur covered cheese balls. I am having a hard time regulating temp though. I don't have a cheese cave and the closest thing I have is an enclosed metal cart. I thought even though I could not keep it exactly at 55-65 degrees I thought for sure it wouldn't matter. I know mold does grow on chevre if left to age and it is kind of a greyish mold if naturally doing it without penicillin or other white molds. So I guess my question is....is it doomed. Or do I let it continue. Is the mold a bad thing in this case? I know cheeses tend to mold I am still getting used to the ideas of mold. For me mold meant deal done but as I am exploring cheesing I am finding mold is good....kinda. Anyway....help. Thanks
Normally toxic molds do not grow on cheese , as per our guru here Linux boy in a very old thread.
but with pepper on the outside I would have no clue . How ever the inside will be good .
I should add that it is possible to age cheese in less than ideal temp conditions , and it will certainly give better results the larger the cheese .
You got some white furry mold on your Belper Nolle. It's a product of the pepper and harmless. Just brush it off with a tooth brush.
Welcome to the forum!
It sounds to me as though the humidity in your metal box might be a bit high, especially for the start of aging when the cheese balls are needing to dry out a bit. When my belper knolles get fluffy I mist them with vodka. That keeps the mould under control for a week or two.
I like this idea of misting with vodka and will try it
Thanks and have a cheese
I've made belper Knolle several times, and love it, but I always get a bit of furry mold on it. Supposedly the pepper is supposed to elminate the mold. HA! Not that I've seen! But I have a soft surgical brush that I use to brush it off and the cheese always turns out wonderful.
I may have to try the vodka fix myself. It would be great not to have fuzz.
My Belper Knolle experience indicates that it is the pepper that supports the growth of the fuzzy blue-gray mold, not the cheese itself. The drying cheese supplies moisture to the pepper making it a perfect substrate for the growth of this mold. It seems that holding the humidity level down in the 75-80% range inhibits the growth of the mold. I've also vacuum bagged BK that was formerly moldy and the lack of oxygen inhibits the mold growth. So you might try initially aging the peppered cheese at 75% RH and then bag it when the cheese is dry enough.
I just came across a couple of small belper knolle cheeses that I made a while ago, gray, but not overly fuzzy. I brushed them off, and omigoodness, they were divine! A friend was over at the time and I sliced off a thin wafer for her to try. She fell in love, and was surprised that the taste was just pepper and garlic. Wonderful stuff. I feel another batch coming on.
Looking good! Have a cheese on me. ;D
I love the rustic look! AC4U also.
A beautiful cheese! AC4U.