The question of aging times for Parms has been in my mind for a while. The temp/humidity requirements are pretty well established and what I go by. But the question remains how does the size of the wheel affect the aging time. Obviously most of us do not make a typical(from a commercial standpoint) size wheel. So if those wheels are typically aged 9 mos- 2 yrs, how long will a wheel of say 4-10 lbs take to age? It seems obvious to me that it will be a much shorter time. I was wondering if anyone has any data to suggest wheel weight vs aging time as long as the aging is done according to accepted practices for this cheese type?The depth of the wheel obviously will affect it also. I know that we all have different practices as far as how it is aged(natural rind/vacuum bagged) that will affect the time, so this may be too big a topic for just one thread.
As far as I know, aging time is the only thing that really doesn't change with the size of the recipe/final wheel of cheese. How we manage small cheeses vs the huge commercial cheeses is different because we obviously don't want to lose a good percentage of a 4-lb wheel (for instance) to rind.
I'm interested to hear what the more experienced members have to say, though.
I would agree with that especially being a problem.
It takes just as long to age a smaller cheese.
The only time size of wheel makes a difference is when you have a cheese that ripens from the outside in with a mold, like for camembert and brie. Then a thin wheel will mature faster.