Hello all! I have been making cheeses for several years now, but am having problems with my PC/GC molded cheeses. Make and initial aging seems to go quite well, however around the 3 week mark in the 'cheese cave' (refrigerator with temperature control and humidifier to maintain ~80% humidity) the rind and cheese begins to dry out. I'm hoping to get that nice gooey texture with a slight chalky interior. I'm using my own raw goats milk. Cheese recipes are from 'Artisan Cheese Making at Home' using the valençay as well as the colummiers recipes.
I'm not sure if I should be wrapping the cheeses earlier when they are still soft to touch and leave them aging in the wrapping? I thought they were supposed to age about 6 weeks before wrapping. Any thoughts or suggestions would be greatly appreciated!
Cheers!
Welcome to the forum! This is definitely the place to get answers ... or guesses, such as I will offer: With cows-milk mold-ripened cheese (e.g., Camembert), I wrap them as soon as they get well covered with PC and move them to the cold refrigerator to make them ripen more slowly and evenly. I would think the same technique would be appropriate for goats-milk versions - ??
An alternative is to keep them in a ripening box, again with the option of moving to the cold fridge after they get well-covered. Actually, mine go into a ripening box as soon as they come out of the molds, then I wrap them when I move them to the cold fridge.
Andy,
Thank you for the welcome as well as the reply and advice. I have a few in the 'cave' now that haven't yet dried out so I'll try wrapping them and leave a few in the cave and a few in the cold storage then test the results.
Thanks again!
I would say that 80% humidity is a bit low for bloomy rind cheeses. 90%-95% would be better. I make bloomies all the time and never wrap. I age them in a ripening box until ready to eat ^-^. I also age from beginning to end about 46 degrees F. That seems to work best for me.
Susan
Hi RdeM! Welcome to the forms and first post :)
I make a batch of cams every month, 4-5 small and 2 larger ones with my 4-4.5 gallon raw milk batch. I come from the "wrap in dual layer cam paper when fully covered in PC" school. Pat down the soft fuzzy PC before wrapping...Put back in sealed clean maturing box into cold fridge. I put a small strip of "sham-wow" (super absorbent cleaning mop material) to keep up the humidity. Open daily to flip and air out any ammonia buildup and add moisture. Wiping inside container any excess moisture. Never had a dry or bad cam day :)
Interesting take on your cams Susan .... That open PC would have my bamboo mats for lunch! Lol
RdeM, just to be sure -- when you wrap, make sure you are using paper specifically for wrapping cheese; this will "breathe" but still retain the moisture.
Susan, I've ripened cams in a ripening box, moving to the cold fridge after they are covered with PC; never tried leaving them in the "cave" throughout. Like Fritz, I'd be worried that they would over-ripen or develop slip skin.
Fritz, I've ripened in a ripening box (in the cold fridge), and I've wrapped them when moving to the cold fridge, but I've never done both! I find that the cheese wrap maintains the humidity for the cheese without having to have a ripening box -- in fact, that is one of the major reasons I started using the wrap, to avoid the bulky ripening boxes in the fridge.
Thanks everyone for the input! Re: humidity, yes 80% is my minimum, but it ranges between 80-90% humidity. Part of my problem I think is that in using the refrigerator without ripening boxes the refrigerator is running frequently and drying out the cheeses. I say this because over the past two years I have had better success early in the year (March - April) than now (June-July). The fridge is in our garage, and as such is cool in the spring time, but we're having 100+ degree days now. I have wrapped two batches (sulpherized two layer paper) and put half in cold storage and half back in the cheese cave. I'll report back on the conditions in a couple weeks.
Thanks again for all the input!
Awakephd : ya' I find that they either dry out slightly in the cold fridge without a sealed box (even with proper cam cheese paper from glengarry) and/or the 6-7 cams simply get involved with other in-fridge object/ items ... They are slippery lil buggers with that paper on ! -- the box also keeps any off smells at bay... So the sealed ripening box in the cold fridge is smaller than the one they came from in the warmer 55* cheese fridge as they're building that PC. Going from 90* RH to a dry RH cold fridge is quite a change for those delicate cams.... More than even the best cheese paper can handle, I feel
I like my cams Gooy ... And my beers cold :)
Gotcha. The paper I use (from ArtisanGeek) doesn't seem particularly slippery ... I've seen pictures of a couple of different styles of paper that were clearly quite different; I wonder how many different styles there are, and what goes into the differences!
Quote from: SOSEATTLE on July 19, 2016, 01:14:41 AM
I would say that 80% humidity is a bit low for bloomy rind cheeses. 90%-95% would be better. I make bloomies all the time and never wrap. I age them in a ripening box until ready to eat ^-^. I also age from beginning to end about 46 degrees F. That seems to work best for me.
Susan
Thats an interesting approach Susan, I'll give it a try: how long from start to finish (and are you aiming for gooey?). Do you use both PC and Geo?
Wattlebloke: I do make camembert style on occasion, but usually use goat's milk for valencay and crottin style cheeses. Coat with ash sometimes, sometimes not. I generally age about 4 weeks. I have noticed that cow's milk when I use it tends to get more to the gooey texture. I age about 4 weeks, sometimes a little longer. I seem to prefer gooey on the outside and more of a fudgy texture in the middle. The mold cultures I use depends on the type of cheese I am making. For crottin I use only Geo. For valencay and camembert I use both PC and Geo. When I first started making these I aged around 50 F, but they got too rapid of ripening and slip skin. Cutting down to 46F took care of that. If you don't wrap, then you do need to be diligent about flipping and patting the mold growth down daily, especially when it really takes off.
There are many ways to make these cheeses successfully and it may take some experimentation to find what works best for you. That is part of the fun ;).
Susan