I have two tommes, one made Saturday, one made Tuesday.
The one from Saturday is drying out, but has orange mold, now a few spots of black on it. The bamboo mat I have it on, has mold all down in it.
Questions:
1) Scrub the mold off with vinegar, then what?
2) Continue to try to dry it out with a fan in my 80*F house?
3) Or wipe it with olive oil and put it in my cheese cave?
(My cheese cave makes me nervous as it's 80% humidity, isn't that ideal for mold??)
4) What do I do with the crazy bamboo mat? Boil it? Soak it in something? Can I just sit the cheese on ... something else while I do this?
It seems to me that bamboo mats are one-time-uses. :-\ Am I wrong?
Making cheese is fun ... aging it is another story. *sigh*
Hi GotGoats,
Dump the bamboo mats. They're trouble. If you have a crafts store local to you, you might consider needlepoint matting. It comes in various sizes and is affordable. Also, various vendors have alternatives, such as The Cheese Maker (http://www.thecheesemaker.com/).
You can place your cheese on clean paper towels while you do something. You should be drying the rind on them for a couple days, then placing them in your cave where the coolness will inhibit the molds.
At this point you should be watching them closely, wiping them with 3% brine every day, and hitting them with vinegar (with a toothpick) if you need to gently coax some mold out of a crevice. At this point you probably should not coat them with EVOO...you want to develop some rind flora.
Hey, you may find that aging cheese is fun too...once your mold problems come under control and the good stuff starts to grow on your rind. ;)
If you search the forum, you'll find a lot of information about rind characteristics, washing regimens, bamboo mats, and mold control.
-Boofer-
Thanks, Boofer! I posted this and promptly had computer issues. By the time things were rolling again, I'd half forgotten this thread.
3% brine - that helps me right there! I've been using a stronger brine, but better then nothing (I hope!).
I'll get to a craftstore ASAP - though my husband built me some more wooden shelves for my cave, and most of the cheeses have moved in there at this point.
Living and learning! Thanks for the help! :)
Quote from: GotGoats on June 09, 2011, 03:51:59 PM
I'll get to a craftstore ASAP - though my husband built me some more wooden shelves for my cave, and most of the cheeses have moved in there at this point.
Okay, my mindset is narrowly focused on using small refrigerators as "caves". If you indeed are blessed with a genuine cave or something that permits wooden shelves, forget the needlepoint mats. Rest your cheeses on the shelving and develop your own intrinsic flora. There are threads on the forum about wooden shelves and their maintenance with regard to flora that develop thereon.
Good luck.
-Boofer-