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Ok here are the Jack's cleaned up and rebrined.  Hopefully this time it will work.

Looks good. I just flipped my large cheddar and it has some blue mold spots, I cleaned them with brine water from my parm. I've got so much blue going on in the house it's probably everywhere. I sprayed all my surfaces down with Star San.

Which has made me hesitant to make a blue, as I only have the one cave, either everything else needs to be out, or I'm in trouble.

Tea, only having one cave is a tough one when it comes to blues.....
I would think that you could use something along the lines of a tupperware container for your blues, but the cheese does have to "breathe".
You might be able to keep the blues in an enclosed container and then set them out of the cave for a few minutes each day with the container open.
The good news is that even if your other cheeses do become contaminated, you can simply wipe the blue off with salt or vinegar.
I had my blue mold for nearly two years before I was brave enough to give it a try. One I made my first blue, I was hooked.
Give it a try. There are ways around every obstacle.

Dave

Well the mold spores are on order, and everything that is in the cave is either in oil, or waxed, so now might be as good a time as ever to give this a go.
Will let you know what I decide.

What cultures are you going to use and what is your objective of this batch? Rubbery Monterey Jack or a different consistency?

My objective with this batch was to age each cheese using a different method and see what, it any, difference there was to the final cheese texture and taste.  I am trying to work out just what the aging process does, and why the different methods are used, and it they do, in the end,  create such a difference in the final product.

Good experiment.

Cultures are just what ever the recipe called for.  I am yet to play around with cultures as most of the different ones are found overseas.

I am hoping that I will be able to learn something from it, and am a bit disappointed that three were compomised by the mould.

Ok update on a couple of these.  The air dried cheeses were quite hard and mature in flavour and grated well.  These had a good rind on them

Opened the wax dried cheese and the cheese was much softer, whiter in colour, not yellow, and the texture was creamier and flakier and flavour was much milder than the air dried cheese.  This had no rind to speak of.

I am yet to try the oil aged cheese, but will do that probably in a month.

So far how this cheese is aged, really does play a major roll in what flavours you end with.

Lovely cheese Tea! I am enjoying the read!

Not to raise this from the dead (though it is a very interesting experiment!), but I found it searching for information on using smoked salt. I have a great spice shop near me, and they carry a variety of smoked salts. On a whim, I used half smoked salt on a farmhouse cheddar, and was wondering what to expect. Did you have any noticeable effects from the smoked salt? I'm thinking of smoking these too, but don't know if it will be smoky overkill. I'll have to sample a little after the rind forms and see from there.

-MattK

It's very easy to smoke salt - just put it in the top of your smoker so nothing drips on t and stir every now and then. I go by color. Roasted garlic is wonderful in the smoker too as it papricka and chili spice.