;D
Well we made up some Brie today, and so we have to drain the curds, obviously. When I was setting up for cheese making, I found some plastic mesh for cross stitch to use for mats... Here's the ??, I've seen the cheese mats being bamboo mats or something like that, but for fresh curds for brie or camembert, you have to flip them while they are still soft and wet, so those wouldn't really WORK for flipping... the pastic mesh canvas does work. I'm wondering if they are food quality (they probably aren't), but they are very cheap and the right size.
Here are the mats: http://www.123stitch.com/Plastic_Canvas.html (http://www.123stitch.com/Plastic_Canvas.html)
I'm not sure the sink liner on the cheese mat page are food quality either, and the "foam gripy mat" doesn't say it's food quality either, and since brie gets a rind, is there any reason to worry about the kind of plastic it is?
Will post pics of my brie process later... they are looking good so far! We were able to keep the temperature at a consistent 88 degrees for 1 1/2 hours!
Lady,
I use 9" circular plastic embroidery mats for draining hard cheeses every day. They work great.
:D
Sounds great, ok, i'm on a usable trek.
Hi LL, updated Wiki: Mats & Boards (https://cheeseforum.org/articles/wiki-cheese-drying-mats-boards/) here.
I purchased my plastic mats here:
https://www.dairyconnection.com/commerce/catalog.jsp?catId=8 (https://www.dairyconnection.com/commerce/catalog.jsp?catId=8)
It is sold by the linear foot of a one yard roll. I purchased two feet of both the coarse and fine and have more mats than I know what to do with.
I used the cross stitch mats, too - I read about them on this forum and also learned here that the bamboo mats and that no slide shelf liner stuff (I found it as placemats) tend to harbor bacteria even after boiling. I opted not to use them.
I use and like Dairy Connection for almost all of my stuff, but pretty tough to compare $6.50/l.f. to $0.59-$1.29 plastic canvas from Hobby Lobby. I think I spent something like $3-4 on several 9" discs, several mats something like 16"-24."
The hole spacing on the plastic canvas is closer together than I would like. So they will wick moisture and clog the holes. I rotate mine with a fresh mat every time I flip my cheese.
The ones I have seem pretty coarse, but then I haven't seen the dedicated mats. Good to know, Sailor - thanks.
Arnaud - do you have a picture?