Saturday, September 21, 2019

Cheese Updates


Hi Everyone :)

I took out my cheeses the other day to inspect them all. Wow...I have never had so much cheese on the go before! They are all doing quite well, except...


...the Parmesan. After I cleaned it up the other day and got rid of all of the mould, it came back. So I cleaned it again and spread olive oil all over it. The large surfaces remained mould-free, but blue mould still started to form in the little cracks on the side of the wheel.


Grudgingly, I vacuum packed it. It was really supposed to stay in the ripening box until November, but I had to seal it early to try and save it. Hopefully it'll still have a good taste when I open it in February. AND hopefully the mould will stay away now! I'll have to keep checking it often. 


My 6-month Cheddar started to develop some blue mould in the creases of the vacuum pack. I just removed it, cleaned it up, let it dry a bit then re-sealed it. It's important to check your cheeses often!


My Monterey Jack and my 9-month Cheddar both have this residue on the inside of the vacuum packs. I read that it could be one of two things: white mould forming or calcium lactate that is secreting from the cheese. Neither one is dangerous or will affect the cheese. I just have to wipe it off. If I see signs of blue mould forming though, I'll do the same as I did with my 6-month Cheddar. If it's really just lactic acid releasing from the cheese as it ages, I can leave it as is.


This is glorious! It's my Raclette cheese. I've been washing this cheese every other day for about 2 weeks now and it's already starting to develop its orange rind. This means the bacteria I used in the cheese (Brevibacterium Linens) is working! This bacterial culture will give the cheese the desired aroma and flavour - as well as a nice orange rind!

9 comments:

Leigh said...

Rain, you're a good cheese mom LOL.

Rain said...

Ha ha ha...thank you Leigh. I can't wait for them to "leave the nest" so to speak lol! ;)

Leanna said...

Is it normal for blue mold to form on these cheeses that now have it? If not you might want to wash the cheese box with a bit of bleach to get rid of it and then wipe it down with alcohol. The mold could have been from errant blue cheese bacteria when you were making it. I was thinking this because I remembered from my days of working in a lab. A co-worker was plating a specimen and the next day we found out the specimen had been infected with mold. Everything in the lab had to be scrubbed down with bleach and then alcohol to eradicate the mold outbreak. It was all because of a little patient's specimen.

Rain said...

Hi Leanna :) I think it's cool you worked in a lab! I have thoughts of mould spreading to my other cheeses, though most of them are sealed. The ones that are in ripening boxes, I wipe down with vinegar each time I wash them. I think the mould reappears more from the humidity in the ripening box. Recently I stopped putting the little wet piece of paper towel in the ripening boxes and the blue mould went away. The cheese itself is wet when I put it back in and that seems to give it the right amount of moisture to create humidity that will keep the cheese ripening, but not create more mould.

For the Parm, it's susceptible because of those little nooks and crannies. The problem with that cheese is that I halved the recipe and the wheel was way too small - during the pressing it developed cracks and that's where the mould loves to hang out. It's really difficult to take all that mould out and I'm hoping now that the wheel is sealed, it won't develop any more mould, but that's to be seen.

Linda said...

You are amazing!!!!

Rain said...

Thanks Linda! :) xx

Magic Love Crow said...

Wow Rain! Cheese heaven!! So amazing you are! Big Hugs!

Rain said...

Thanks Stacy :) Cheese heaven is right!!!

Fundy Blue said...

It's fascinating to watch you make and tend your cheeses, Rain. Something I know I will never have the patience to do. When one of my store-bought cheeses develops mold, I just cut it off. I'm still alive, so that must be okay. I understand that it's different when your ripening your cheeses. You're amazing!