So, I am new to all this hard cheese making. And I have only goats, so I only use goat milk. But I read that you can make pretty much any cheese you make with cow milk also with goat milk. So one of the earlier cheeses I made was supposed to be a Swiss. It was a small one, under two pounds. It smelled like Swiss during ripening, but it did not seem to swell (what's Swiss cheese without holes.) It seemed to age very easily. It developed a really hard, dry rind, but no cracks. Just wiped it down with brine every 3 days or so, it seemed you could age until the next century, perfect hard cheese. Only one problem: it seemed to turn into a rock. So, after almost 4 month I decided to cut it. Not much like a Swiss cheese. But delicious, If I may say so myself. like Parmesan cheese, very hard you could shave a very thin slice off or grate it. Really tasty, but no Swiss. What went wrong?
It lost a lot of moisture especially it is a small cheese. Even if it is aged in high humidity it will still dry out. If you want to age that long without turning the cheese into a rock, consider vacuum packing. Age normally for a month or two then vacuum pack for long term aging. Wrapping it in plastic bag after the cheese has formed a hard dry rind also works but some molds will grow which you have to remove from time to time. With vacuum packing molds don't grow at all.
Oops, I thought I posted this already. Great idea vacuum packaging. I have one of those machines. Will definitely try that. Thanks
I've read it's hard to get proper hole development without a 4 gallon or larger make.