Emergency Cheese Cave! Cheese Updates

Hello Friends!

How are you all doing today? I think that summer is officially over this year, sigh. Usually we get an especially hot and humid September. For the last x number of years, I've been swimming in the lake all the way to the beginning of October! But this year, it's already close to zero at night. Oh well.

I wanted to give you an update on a few things. Firstly, I've made two new Fontina cheeses using two different types of culture for comparison. They are air drying and will be ready for ripening boxes in a few days. I'll post about that in the next few weeks! I have a goat milk cheese going too, which I'll also post about soon.

Also...I got too big for my britches lol...I ran out of room in my cheese cave! It's a small fridge and I have four wheels in there already, plus the Parmesan in a ripening box and the brine...For the next three cheeses, they need to be in ripening boxes for 2-3 months too and I have no more shelves!

So the "emergency cheese cave" has been born. I took an old Styrofoam cooler we had in the basement.

I added two blue cooler thingies (dollar store) and did a 12-hour test to see if it would hold my temperature between 10-12C. It passed the test! It varied from 9.6C to 11.3C - perfect!

My emergency cheese cave will now sit on the counter in the kitchen - safely away from the pets. I'll have to replace the blue cooler thingies every twelve hours to keep the temperature right, so I'll have to hit the dollar store in the next few days to get a few more.

Necessity and lack of funds are the mother of all invention!

Jarlsberg Update: My Jarlsberg is aging at room temperature in the kitchen. If you look close, you can see that the cheese wheel is becoming a little spongy, it's also really expanding in the vacuum seal. This is normal as the "eyes" or holes are developing on the inside of the cheese! I have to watch to make sure it doesn't burst out of the seal. If it does, I have to simply reseal it. This will be ready in about 3 weeks!

And here is a video update of my Parmesan. It's doing what it's supposed to do!

Update after I filmed this video: After doing some more research today, I learned that it's a good idea to have your ripening box slightly open for air circulation. This is how I accomplish that:

A binder clip on the edge of the box with the top on. This leaves a slight crack in the opening for air flow.

Also, I read that you need to wipe the lid on the inside daily to make sure no moisture drips on your cheese, which causes it to mould faster! Forever learning!!! :)

Cheese Brine (Recipe and Instructions)

Hello Friends :)

Let's make some cheese brine! (Click here for the printable recipe)

In cheese making, all cheeses are salted for various reasons. You can either mix your curds with the salt, rub your wheel with salt or brine your wheel. It's important to salt your cheese because:

1. It slows down or stops the bacteria from converting lactose to lactic acid. Too much lactose in cheese prevents it from ripening.

2. It helps to inhibit certain moulds that are attracted to your cheese.

3. It pulls moisture out of the wheel to help it develop a good rind.

4. It adds to the flavour!

It's a very simple recipe and the brine will last you up to two years. I made 3 liters of brine, which was a little overkill! I think 2 liters would be fine for most wheels of cheese. You just want to have enough in your container so that your wheel floats. In the first photo at the beginning of this post, you can see my Parmesan floating.

Cheese Brine
(Recipe courtesy of Gavin Webber)

Ingredients for 2 liters of brine:

2 liters water

450 grams (or 1 pound) of cheese salt or non-iodized salt

(Iodine will kill your bacteria cultures!)

1 tsp Calcium Chloride

2 tbsp white vinegar

Directions:

1. Bring your water to 25C or 77F.

2. Stir in your salt.

Note: If you look at recipes for brine, a lot of the time you'll see that you need to reach a PH level of anywhere between 4.9 to 5.3. Most of us don't have a PH meter (or in my case a functioning one!!); so I borrowed a tip from Gavin Webber on how to reach an 18% brine solution:

Toss in an uncooked egg. If it floats, you've hit 18% - which is a good solution for brining cheese!

3. Let sit about half an hour then add your Calcium Chloride and vinegar. Mix well and you're ready to use it.

This is my Jarlsberg floating in brine. To get an even brine, you should always flip your wheel over halfway through the brining time. I've read that it's good to sprinkle a layer of cheese salt over the top of your wheel too. I top the wheel with a piece of plastic mesh, just so it doesn't stick to the top of my container. It's recommended that you put your brining cheese in the cheese cave during the brining time, keeping it around 10C or 50F.

A New Cheese Cave and Mould On The Cheddar

Hi Friends and Cheese Lovers! :)

How do you like the new look of the blog? I took a lot of old posts down that I found were a bit confusing. You see, when I started out cheese making in 2017, it was very challenging for me to find good information. I think that my old blog was all over the place! If a new cheese maker visits my blog, I want he or she to find clear and sound information! 

So...Murphy's Law anyone? 

Murphy's Law: "Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong."

Not only did a Traditional Mozzarella fail on me the other day due to my BROKEN PH meter (not worth blogging about!!)... the old fridge, a.k.a. the cheese cave, DIED ON ME. I was so upset! I was afraid I'd lose all of my cheeses! It was only 12 years old, but as we all know, nothing is made like it used to be anymore...everything is made to be disposable so it seems!

Luckily one of the stores in Canada (Canadian Tire) had a similar fridge on sale $80 off so Alex and I drove the day after to pick it up. I think I saved my cheeses.

It's a decent size and at the lowest setting, it hits 9.9 Celcius. The ideal cheese aging temperature is between 10-12 Celcius, so I'm happy with 9.9! May the new Rainy Day Cheese Cave have a long and healthy life!!!

When I was putting the cheeses back into the new cave, I noticed some mould on my 3-Month Cheddar. Here is a video I took showing how to remove the mould off your cheese using homemade cheese brine. I'll post a recipe for cheese brine soon!