Now that I'm getting some cheese built up, some have problems.
I have a farmhouse cheddar that leaked whey after being waxed and when I tasted it, it was sour. Will it age out of this stage or is it a loss?
Also I have a Camembert that has a black mold growing on it with the white geo. At the time of the aging I had trouble with temps and allowed the humidity to get too high. Should this one get tossed?
Also I see some mold forming under the wax of another cheese. I assume I open that one and cut the mold off.
I do have a bid in on a food saver on ebay.
I've had cheeses that didn't taste very good at all when young, but developed quite well after aging. My experiences with wax were about what your's are - you will really prefer the vacuum sealing when you get one.
When I had trouble with mold under the wax, I usually removed the wax, then scraped and buffed with salt until the mold was gone. I went to bandaging cheeses for awhile, too, which I liked better than wax, as there wasn't a problem with leaking. I just waited until it was time to eat the cheese before trying to remove all of the mold - I'd just occasionally brush it off of the bandaging.
I can't help with the Cam, but I don't think that black mold is a good thing.
Hi
I toss a cheese when i know its no good!!!
I think it's hard to tell when it's no good. Some cheeses develop and there are some blues that a person takes on faith to be OK. And then there are the stinky cheeses. So how do you decide what gets tossed.... What are your criteria?
I think that batch of camms had to many temperature issues to ever be any good so I'll see if the chickens will eat it.
What about sourness? Will aging ever cure that or is an early sour taste a sure toss out?
At the rate I'm making failures I'm going to have to get a pig to feed or get better at this! Since I don't really like pigs I guess I'll just have to get better at making the cheeses.
I'd relax on the moldy waxed cheeses. Just leave them alone as long as you can stand and then try them. I had some not so great cheeses last year (dry, crumbly, slightly bitter). But we didn't have a lot made and ate them too soon. This year I've made a LOT more. Most are 3-6 months old when we eat them. And we LOVE them. Personally, I'd just cut what mold is there off just before you eat them. And yes, some of mine have had mold under the wax.
And I'm not up on the mold ripened cheeses. I've attempted blues a few times and just don't have the right conditions or the time to check them often enough. I always till try them! If they are bad tasting, they go to pigs or chickens.
It seems someone (Alex, Francios??) made a comment about nearly all molds on cheese being safe (not necessarily tasty, mind you). So I don't worry so much.
With 5 young kids and a cheese fridge in another building, I don't have time to watch cheeses as closely as I would like. I still get what I would consider very good, very edible cheeses. My advice: relax, let them age, and keep making more!
Kristin
p.s. Cut into that cam & see what you've got! It may taste good!
Kristin
You do have your hands full! I don't know when you have time to make cheese! OK, it won't hurt to keep them around. I need another fridge is what it boils down to. I have the thermostat control but we have the regular fridge in the house which is regular temp, the milk fridge (which is extra cold) and now we need a cave fridge.
I did cut into the camm - it hasn't really aged long so the texture and some of the taste is off a little (bitter), but I could tell it was going to start to taste as it should.
OK, on to parrano tonight!