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Dave I would say that the cheese was not dry enough if the wax is not sticking.  Weeping is a problem of the whey not either being cooked out enough, or the press not heavy enough.  Wayne maybe able to help you more with that.

Has anyone tried tallow as opposed to lard?

Wayne - two options:  you can melt the lard/shortening and brush it on or dip it; or you can just smear on the solid form.

Dave - If your wax does not adhere then your cheese is likely wet.  It shouldn't be after 2 to 3 weeks unwaxed.  Are you getting a good rind during that time?  BTW Manchego is a fantastic cheese.  I recommend you add 1 tsp of liquid smoke (hickory is my favorite) for each gal. of milk.  Or some diced jalepenos.

I gotta say,  I kinda liked shmearing it on by hand...  The best part is chasing the women-folk around afterward with arms outstreatched.

I've read as much as I could find about bandaging and decided to try it. While I enjoy working with wax, I am ready to try another method for longer aging of some cheeses. Since my cheeses tend to be small and I want more than a thick rind (and I dont have a vacuum sealer), I bandage wrapped 2 small parms, and a Jack with dill and onion. It did take a lot of time to do, but the third took much less time than the first. 

The first photo is of the two parms, made a week apart from 4 gallons of milk each. They are about 3 inches tall and 6 inches across. The wrap is unbleached muslin, and the fat on one is ghee, and the other is half ghee and half olive oil (not extra virgin). I would have used all ghee because it has such a nice scent and flavor, but when your hands are slick, accidents happen and I spilled some in the process. 

The second cheese, whiter in color, is the dilly-Jack, and it is wrapped in a much finer curtain material. It is about 4 inches tall and 6 inches across. You can see the bits of dill through the material. Also a ghee/olive oil mix. I like that mix because it is essentially liquid at room temp, but solidifies when cooler. It still tastes like ghee but is more cost effective.

So now to wait till these cheeses are older to see if this works.

Looking good there, Gina!

Will you allow them to mold over?

While I love everything about a muslin bandage and lard,  I've never been able to keep the mold off the wheels.

I have ended up re-wrapping my cheddars in vacuum sealed plastic....

Bump Wayne's question. I was wondering the same thing.

QuoteWill you allow them to mold over?

Yes, that is the current plan, but I am no authority. My new cave tends to have lower humidity so molds might not grow as rampantly. In my readings here, I did see a photo of a bandaged cheese that simply was over-run with 3-D mold, and if that happens to mine, I intend to bush/wipe them down - hopefully before they get too bad. I do expect them to have lots of mold and be multi-colored, but kept under some control.

One thing I've noticed is that some cheeses are single wrapped with material, and others double wrapped. Mine are double-wrapped. And from just using two different types of material, I would guess some materials would be more sturdy and stand up better to brushing.

I'm looking for an aging treatment intermediate between natural rind and waxed/vacuum sealed and am hoping this is it. Time will tell.

Quote from: Wayne Harris on August 19, 2010, 06:47:58 PM
While I love everything about a muslin bandage and lard,  I've never been able to keep the mold off the wheels.

Every cloth cheddar I've seen has natural mold. They're dry brushed for maintenance, and the mold populations in the caves tend to be of ones that contribute positive flavor, but you just leave them and brush every so often.

 [/quote]They're dry brushed for maintenance, and the mold populations in the caves tend to be of ones that contribute positive flavor, but you just leave them and brush every so often.
[/quote]


How does one insure that the molds in a cave are friendly? does Mother Nature have a control? 

This is one of my big concerns as I get finishing on my cave

The control is you. Unless the cave is natural, it will be fairly sterile at the onset. Then as microbial communities establish, you have to watch and control them manually, by brushing, chemically, by salting/brining, or through environmental conditions by adjusting temp and humidity. After a while, the resident colonies will stay and the cave will support them.

At the onset, you have to fight the bad molds and encourage the good, or try to inoculate the cave by introducing commercial molds and yeasts and bacteria to get things going.

Even in established caves, rind management is necessary. Sometimes I have to use ethanol for stubborn molds.

I wonder how Star San would work for controlling unwanted mold in the cave.  Not on the cheeses of course. 

I have used lard bandages on cheddars on the open shelf in the basement over the winter and it worked well. The interesting thing is that I can turn the moldy cheeses wearing gloves for the first few months. After about 4 months the mold dries out and makes like a brown crusty second skin - at that point I no longer get a rash, only when the mold is green. After the mold turns brown the bandage and the mold can be peeled off really easy before eatting.


BTW real Lard works better than Crisco

Quote from: DeejayDebi on August 25, 2010, 02:56:41 AM
...

BTW real Lard works better than Crisco

When you say "real" do you mean the tasty and fragrant lard one gets by rendering pork fat?  Mmmmm.

Quote from: DeejayDebi on August 25, 2010, 02:56:41 AMAfter about 4 months the mold dries out and makes like a brown crusty second skin

So you don't try to control, or stop the mold in any way?