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Day 37. Ammonia odor was a bit less this morning. Humidity was at 87%. Left the box open to air the cheese out for about an hour and then brushed it again. Beautiful mushroom aroma after brushing. Opened the box up even a little more. The cheese is still very moist under the mold

Larry

Nice! :-)

After several days of dealing with ammoniation, brushing the cheese daily, lowering humidity and reducing temperature, I decided to start a mold eradication program today.

Right or wrong, I did a fairly harsh salt scrub. I guess time will tell if it was the right course of action. A good learning experience at any rate. I still hope to age this out to 3 or 4 months, but if I can't get ammonia under control I'll cut it up and use it for fish bait.

Larry

No no no..... No fish bait - it's looking good! :-)

I'm not an expert on rinds - that's a big chapter that I haven't really explored yet.

Don't loose faith - I'm sure that it will turn out great.

:-) Danbo

Do you think airing it at room temperature would help Larry?  Works on my blues to get rid of the ammonia smell.  Set then out for an hour a day.

I tried that Al, for I think 3 or 4 days before I went crazy with the salt scrub. Before brushing, there was a really strong ammonia odor. After brushing, it was just a nice mushroom aroma. I'd air it out for at least an hour each time, but had the same strong ammonia smell the next day each time.

I tried reducing temperature and humidity, but still the same issue each day. Now that I've sanded it down, the ammonia smell is gone. Hard telling what the final result will be. It does look good now, with a nice mottled brown crust. I'll post a pic or 2 soon.

Another thing I could have tried, and it might have been a better option would have been wine washes. Maybe next time I'm in this predicament.

Larry

I tend to use a wine wash on all of my harder cheeses.  Another tip I picked up from H-K-J.

Well, here it is, day 46. The ammonia smell is gone, and I think the rind looks kind of cool. Photo is from a couple days ago, but the look hasn't changed much.

I've taken humidity back up to around 85%. Time will tell...

Larry

Looks great Larry!!

Very cool rind. :-)

Definitely looks cool.

It's developing a bit of fur again, so I brushed it again this morning. There's a bit of orange developing, and the aroma is very intense mushroom.

I'll get some new pics soon.

Larry

This cheese is now a little over 2 months old. My only maintenance is to air it out a bit daily, rub it with my hands, and flip it over. I'm currently thinking I'll cut it around the first of April, or at 3 months. Still has a beautiful mushroom aroma after rubbing it down. Humidity is back into high 80s to low 90s.

Larry

That really looks delectable.   Looking forward to seeing it cut.

Über cool! ;-)