Thursday, February 4, 2010

Cheese aging lessons

Now that the cheeses have been around for at least a few weeks, I've learned a few things:

1. Bamboo mats are great for initial draining and drying, but not good for aging - they can harbor unwanted molds and such. I have to get some plastic mats for sure... in the meantime, small tupperware lids work.

2. Aging cheeses is smelly... or at least while the mold is forming. I'm hoping that after I wrap them, the smell won't be so strong - particuarly since they're in the wine room. This process is probably better off in the garage.

3. 9 is colder than 1 on the garage fridge. Ooops. The previous time I checked the bleu, I thought I would warm the fridge up a little - it was close to 40. Instead, I cooled it down closer to 30. I hope I didn't freeze the bleu and kill it. It sort of seemed fine, but I guess we'll see. Meanwhile, I warmed the fridge up - in the correct direction this time. Maybe I should bring it up into the wine room to check and make sure it's still happy.

That's all for now. Definitely fun mold management last night! Hopefully I haven't screwed up all the cheeses.

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