I am a total newbie and just made my first cheddar cheese. Within a week of putting it in my basement to dry, it already has green mold spots. Is this an issue? How do I proceed. I am wondering if it was just too warm down there - about 63 degrees. Any help appreciated.
Yes, that green mold will cause offtastes in the cheese. It's most likely a variant of the Penicillium family, and does not taste good. To remove it, take a brush and make up a solution of vinegar and coarse salt and scrub the surface with it to remove the mold.
Natural molds are not always easy to colonize on cheese, so you may want to consider waxing, treating the rind to kill mold, or vacuum packing.
50-55F is a much more desirable temp range.
Thanks for the help. The mold appeared to come off fairly easily with a paper towel soaked in vinegar. I will wax the cheese now and see if it turns out ok.
Now here's the next question - since my basement is not cool enough with the summer temps, I guess I will have to keep the cheese down there in the beer fridge which is at 42*. Do you see a problem with that?
42F is much much better than 63F. Although 50 is better than 42. The cheese will age at 42 F but will take a bit longer to develop flavor.
You can get a used fridge or minifridge if you plan to be making more cheeses. And then control the temp with a Johnson thermostat.
I age my cheeses in the basement, too, but they have to spend about six months of the year in my spare fridge, which is set at about 38 degrees because it also holds raw milk from my cow and eggs from my chickens.
It slows down the ageing time, but the cheeses go back in the cabinet as soon as the temps drop and it stays about 50-55 degrees. Overall, not the best for the cheese, but the solution I have to live with for now. With two spare fridges and two big freezers, I really don't know where I'd put another fridge.
I'm not sure that I agree that 42F is better than 63F. I have aged many of my cheeses for at least a while at 60-63F (60F is better) in my garage in rippening containers and have been very pleased with the results. I often start my cheeses at 60F for a week or 2 and then move into my cave at 55F. Depends on the cheese. Stiltons for example are traditionally aged in a "warm room" environment and 42F would just completely stall any blue mold development. On the other hand, I would never use the higher temp for fresh cheeses. 42F really slows down any bacterial and enzyme activity and you will have to age MUCH longer. Normally, a cheese right out of the press is quite acidic (less than pH of 5.0). During aging, the pH naturally goes up as all the lactose is used up, the bacteria start to die, and enzymes kick in during proteolysis. When you age at too low of a temp, you disrupt that natural pH curve and the cheeses usually turn out sour and acidic. On the other hand, aging too quickly can cause bitterness and off flavors.
Thanks for all the idea. I think a mini fridge would be doable for a long term solution. If you have so many months to wait for the hard cheeses, I would like to know they are going to come out right. I am as much or more interested in hard cheese as the softer varieties.
When it comes down to it, cheese making is really a form of controlled dehydration.
The "pH curve" is a natural progression during the steps of cheese making and we have control of every step along the way. To make a cheese with good flavor and texture the curve needs to follow the appropriate pH markers and timing. There is only so much lactose available and technically the bacteria are going to "eat" that, convert it to lactic acid, and hit equilibrium during pressing. Not all cheeses hit equilibrium at the same time or in the same way. Washed curd cheeses like Gouda remove a lot of lactose early on, so there is simply not as much food available and those cheeses will be less acidic. Other cheeses like Cheddar are salted before pressing, so lactic acid production is slowed way down. That's why with Cheddar, the pH marker at salting is critical. THAT pH determines the final outcome of the cheese.
So the grand question is: If the cheese is going to reach equilibrium during pressing anyway, then what's the point of following timing and pH markers? Why not just dump a bunch of starter bacteria in at the beginning to make things go faster? Well... the chemistry is complex and there are tons of academic books written on the subject. The layman's answer is that there are lots of other things happening besides just lactic acid production.
But, the really interesting stuff happens after pressing and during aging. All the lactose is gone, the bacteria die and release enzymes into the cheese. These enzymes, along with natural milk enzymes, added lipase, etc are involved in proteolysis - the actual breakdown of milk proteins into peptides and amino acids. During this time, the pH goes back up and the acidity mellows out. That takes time. And that's why a GREAT Parmesan needs to age for at least a year.
Bottom line, all of this needs to happen in a controlled environment – not too slow and not too fast – to produce a great cheese. If your aging conditions are too cold or too hot, then these complex chemical interactions will not develop naturally.
Hope that helps.
Excellent explanation, Sailor.
If a cheese is vacuum-bagged, does the ripening process stop?
-Boofer-
No it doesn't. However the available O2 is greatly reduced. The environment becomes anoxic (low oxygen) NOT anaerobic (no oxygen). That's why I like to let a cheese age naturally during the first 2 or 3 critical weeks. Some purists will say that any cheese needs to be kept natural rind or waxed so the cheese can breath during aging. You be the judge. :o
I heard that Tillamook vacuum seals their cheese. Of course these "purists" you speak of would probably disregard Tillamook, but I would be pretty darn happy to make an extra sharp cheddar that was as good as theirs.
During the tour It sure looked like they were vacuum bagging to me.
I'm obviously not a purist because I vac bag after a couple of weeks. Lots of commercial guys bag early and produce wonderful cheeses.
When you age a cheddar at 63F you are asking for off flavors to develop such as bitter and sour. At 42F the flavors will, yes, develop more slowly but the flavor will be better balanced. Some companies will cool the curd mass initially then rotate between 55 F and 42 F to develop the desired flavor.