Hey! ;)
I have a little modified refrigerator for cheese cave and first cheese that I've done it's a camembert.
You know that it must be aged about 10 days at 13-15C and then 3-4 weeks at 3C.
I don't wana make one sort of cheese per month. But I can't use refrigirator for different chesses.
How you do it? For example, in 1 week I will setup temperature at 3C for 3-4 weeks inside. And
that's mean I can't use it for other cheeses this time, because it need other temperature rate.
wtf ... ;D
I have 4 different fridges for aging.
One is a full size fridge with no freezer that I adapted to stay at 50-55F, two wine coolers and a mini fridge. Those I do cams in, each one for a different stage of the cheese. I can do 9 cams at a time and rotate every 10 days or so.
Well, that's mean ... that when I have my 3 camemberts at day 6 now inside,
I can't do nothing and just need to wait 3-4 weeks more to beggin something new inside? :-\
I had the same problem, so threw up my hands and started aging my cams in their own minicaves in the regular cave (roughly 52/53F) - especially since I know there's at least one other person here that does the same thing, and several other recipes I have also call for around 50F. I have to be much more careful on airflow and petting them every day, but on the good side, they age quicker! Usually done around 4-5 weeks, depending on yield.
"own minicaves" - how does it look like?
The minicaves are just plastic boxes with lids - here's a pic of everything in the cave from a while back so you can get an idea. I can fit 8 cams in one of those big plastic containers that you see in this pic, but I also have several other smaller sizes that I can use. The next smaller size fits 4 cams quite comfortably. I generally only use the mini-caves for cams and Stiltons, most everything else gets vacuum-sealed, as you can see. I also have enough temp/humidity monitors that I can put one in each minicave and keep track of them all that way.
Ok, I see thank you. And vacuum-sealed it's not for aging like I understand.
This is for storage ready cheeses yes? ;)
But for example if I need 7°C for aging camemberts. I can put them in the lower
shelf and put hard cheeses on the top shelf inside of a container where temperature
will be about 13°C. inside. It works like this? :)
Some kind of plastic box to hold humidity in your normal home fridge should be fine.
Put it in the veg compartment or on the door where the temp is highest.
Ok, I will try it also. Thanks. ;)
Quote from: george (MaryJ) on July 23, 2011, 11:45:07 AM
The minicaves are just plastic boxes with lids - here's a pic of everything in the cave from a while back so you can get an idea. I can fit 8 cams in one of those big plastic containers that you see in this pic, but I also have several other smaller sizes that I can use. The next smaller size fits 4 cams quite comfortably. I generally only use the mini-caves for cams and Stiltons, most everything else gets vacuum-sealed, as you can see. I also have enough temp/humidity monitors that I can put one in each minicave and keep track of them all that way.
Excellent description of the solution. That's what I do as well. My Tommes, Beauforts, and other cheeses get to spend some time in the minicaves as well so that their washed rinds develop. The close-in enclosure of the minicave allows the temp and humidity to stay fairly constant.
Quote from: Fix on July 23, 2011, 12:13:51 PM
And vacuum-sealed it's not for aging like I understand.
Vacuum-sealing does not stop the aging process.
Sweet cave, george.
-Boofer-
Well in my cave I have temperature from 10-13°C and about 95% Humidity controled by
humidifier like for terrariums. As I have understand you all, I just need to get more
containers with libs. And don't change any temperature inside cave. Just put cheeses
inside of boxes with closed libs and ages them at constant temperature of 10-13°C outside
of the boxes. Right? :-[