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Am I going to have trouble if I vac seal a cheese that is supposed to expand with eyes?
What will happen to the seal?

Steff, I would expect some problems if you seal before the swelling phase. I let my swiss types swell first, then rest in the cave for a few days, and only then do I vac-seal (to prevent excess loss of moisture and control mold).

The key issue, of course, is that during the swelling phase, it LOVES to develop mold - a warmer, high-humidity environment - perfect! I try to combat that by getting a b. Linens smear set up to keep mold at bay.

thanks

Quote from: steffb503 on March 20, 2019, 01:29:03 PM
Am I going to have trouble if I vac seal a cheese that is supposed to expand with eyes?
What will happen to the seal?

I could swear I saw Gavin Webber do this but I can't find the video. He was expecting big round holes but got small irregular ones instead and some fracturing. Otherwise the cheese was very good. Of course you wait for the eye forming, swelling stage to pass before vac sealing or waxing.

I vac-pack my Jarlsberg before the eye-development stage and it turns out fine. I have done it three times so far and each time the vac-pack has eventually given out and let some air in (no major rupture though), so it does need checking regularly once it starts swelling. Usually when this happens I just re-vac-pack it until it happens again. They swell up quite a bit in the vac-pack bag.
I get plenty of eyes and some fracturing too. There is a picture of it here: https://cheeseforum.org/forum/index.php/topic,17289.0.html

Interesting! I just assumed it would not work - guess I'll have to try it.

Quote from: Jules on March 22, 2019, 02:40:13 AM
I vac-pack my Jarlsberg before the eye-development stage and it turns out fine. I have done it three times so far and each time the vac-pack has eventually given out and let some air in (no major rupture though), so it does need checking regularly once it starts swelling. Usually when this happens I just re-vac-pack it until it happens again. They swell up quite a bit in the vac-pack bag.
I get plenty of eyes and some fracturing too. There is a picture of it here: https://cheeseforum.org/forum/index.php/topic,17289.0.html

Wondering if I sealed it without vacuuming the air out. i can go back and do that after. I am making Leerdammer, which gets air dried then 2 weeks @ 40 and then 4 weeks @ 65. I do not like to put it in my cool fridge without sealing in some fashion. So I have been vac sealing then removing it, but that stuff is expensive.

My vacuum packing bags do tend to come unsealed relatively easily (I have had a few other cheeses where the seal was lost while in the cheese cave) so maybe that is why it works for me. The pressure from the vac-pack might cause the fracturing of the eyes as I have yet to make one without it, but it turns out a very tasty cheese.

I usually just remove any moisture from the bag and reseal when they do come unsealed. That being said there has been the odd time when I haven't noticed that a cheese has become unsealed for a few days (or even a week) and I have not had any problems with mould growth, so having it sealed in plastic but not vac-sealed might work.

It works fine. 
The eyes grow normally and the cheese swells within the bag, I have 3 doing this happily in the wardrobe at the moment. 
I usually unbag and cut up the cheeses into 8 for cool ageing after a month or so, and if I rebag the cut sections they tend to crush a little.
This is a bit unsightly, but they age well in the bag taste wise.

Your thoughts on just sealing the bag but not vacuuming out the air until the warm phase is over?

Might help - only way to know is to try it. On most vac-baggers, you can stop the vacuum short of the full amount, so you can withdraw most of the air but not put much if any pressure on the cheese. On my basic FoodSaver model, you do this by pressing the Seal button before the vacuum finishes drawing, and it switches over to sealing.