Hi! I'm new here and new to cheese making! I have a question that I hope someone can help me with. I have made a few cheeses (a Stilton, a Gouda and a farmhouse cheddar) and they are all maturing in my wine cooler cheese cave. The problem I have is this: I keep finding conflicting advice about whether or not to seal the cheese in a Tupperware box with the lid on tight or to leave them uncovered, but I don't understand how I can maintain the required humidity if they are in a sealed box. I have a humidifier in the cooler which works perfectly, but surely if if I seal a box then the humidity of the cooler no longer has any bearing on what's in the box? What is it I'm not understanding or missing please?
Thank you kindly in advance!
Mark J.
Hi and welcome Mark. If the humidity in the unit is at expectable levels then you don't need a ripening container but a note of caution if you are ripening blue with other cheeses in the same unit use containers as the blue mold is very aggressive and will infect all other cheeses in the unit. When handling the cheeses I always wash hands first, process all cheeses i.e. wash rind, turn or what ever you have to do then handle blue last then wash hand.
The box is good if you don't want to worry about the humidity in the cave. For example, I don't naturally age mine long before vacuum bagging. Anywhere from 3 days to 30 days is my usual range. So a box works really well to keep that one cheese I'm naturally aging at the right humidity. You really only need the right size box and the cheese itself keeps its humidity up.
My fridge also tends to drip water from the frost area, so open aging isn't really an option for me.
Hi! Thank you kindly for your replies - it all makes a lot more sense to me now!