Hi Friends :)
This is a follow up to My Post About Making A 3-Month Cheddar.
After allowing it to air-dry for 3 days, I was able to seal my Cheddar. I was waiting on a new and wider vacuum sealer, and it arrived the day before I was to seal my cheese. As you can see, the recipe I made (see link above) turned out nearly a 1 kilogram wheel of cheese! My overall cost to make this cheese was about $18. The equivalent of cheese we buy (not Kraft!) is about $30, so it's not only cost-effective, it's homemade!
I'm not promoting any products at all; but wanted to share a quick video of the sealing process. By the way, a wide vacuum sealer is SUCH a good frugal investment. You can seal so many things and it preserves them longer. I even seal my coffee to keep it fresh because I buy it in bulk!
Some people wax their cheese, others will use an old-fashioned method of covering the wheel with lard then cheesecloth - and some lucky folks who have a bonafide cheese cave, may not have to seal anything! Since I don't have a cheese cave, I choose to seal my cheeses this way. It helps to keep the cheese from developing mold and so far, it's been a good option while aging.
Some people wax their cheese, others will use an old-fashioned method of covering the wheel with lard then cheesecloth - and some lucky folks who have a bonafide cheese cave, may not have to seal anything! Since I don't have a cheese cave, I choose to seal my cheeses this way. It helps to keep the cheese from developing mold and so far, it's been a good option while aging.
The only cheeses I don't seal are the "bloomy whites" like Camembert. That needs 90% humidity and sealing it would crush it. But I'll talk about that when I make my annual autumn Cams! :)
This is MY cheese cave! We have a bar fridge and we have converted it to the cheese cave. Most cheeses need to age between 10 and 12 Celcius, so we adjust the temperature to accommodate the cheese aging process.
I used to worry so much about humidity but once the hard cheeses are sealed, I don't have to worry about humidity levels. I do keep a hygrometer in the cheese cave to make sure I have the right temperature though.
I have a handy schedule to remind me to flip the cheese weekly to ensure proper distribution of fats and flavour!
This weekend I'll be making another Cheddar and some Sour Cream too, so stay tuned for more cheesy posts! :)
If ever I see mold on the cheese, I'll simply open it up and wipe it down with a cloth soaked in salt water, let it dry and re-seal it. But honestly, it's not a big deal.
