[Cheese] Hmm......No mold yet

[JOHN MURREN]

dean crabtree <dean_crabtree_1958 at yahoo.com> wrote:    JOHN MURREN  wrote:  ". . . I also got a rather rank smell which was strong at first, and eventually subsided to just an "unpleasant" smell.  I have discourged mold growth on the rind with a few salt rubs, and I'm still aging it (now about 8/9 weeks). . ."
   
  John,
   
  Yeah, you can get some aroma's off a young blue that are not what you would have had in mind.  Most of the literature and postings ignore this issue, but you might look at (Jim?) Wallace's page at http://users.crocker.com/~jwallace/Cheese/Stilton/Stilton.html, which is also now mirrored on Ricki's site.  He talks briefly about the aroma coming off.
   
  Oooow, nice site, Dean - Much thanks.
   
  Give it some time for the smell to settle down.  You might try lowering the humidity a bit to help the rind to dry somewhat. ! Perhaps your curd still had a fair amount of whey and was a bit on the moist side before milling and salting.  I have found that Jack's step of pressing the bag of curd lightly between boards and before milling and salting to be a big help, especially with these small cheeses we make.
   
  Yes, this was my really first cheese using an innoculant, and as I remember, it was a bit on the wet side, even out of the light pressing I gave it.
   
  Do your salt rubs cause the surface to moisten substantially, or just a bit?  Just curious.
   
  Oh yeah.  Within a few days, I had lots of green/blue mold on the outside - thinking this was related to the foul smell that was developing, I used a salt rub (course Kosher) and yes, it increased the amount of moisture, but the cheeses were wrapped at that time, and of course these were my first trys, so I assumed that was OK.  Most recently, they have developed a brownish wet surface, which again I associated with the smell, and I've been giving them "washes" in a weak salt brine to try and remove that.
   
  Humidity may be a contributing factor, because I'm using my garage as an aging area (avg day/night temps are low 50s/low 40s) but the humidity is way higher than ideal.  We've experienced a month or more of almost constant rain and humidity well over 80%, in fact my little cheap humidity measuring thinger ALWAYS says 100%, but I discount that.  However, I keep the cheeses in a plastic shoebox with a seal, so I assume they are not getting the full brunt of the humidity.
   
  I would continue to flip the cheese daily, no matter what the "timetable" has you doing with it right now.
   
  Hope this helps,
   
  Dean C.
   
  Thanks Dean for your advice and the sites.  I appreciate it.
  jm
    
---------------------------------
  Yahoo! Autos. Looking for a sweet ride? Get pricing, reviews, & more on new and used cars._______________________________________________
Cheese mailing list
Cheese at hbd.org
http://hbd.org/mailman/listinfo/cheese


-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://hbd.org/pipermail/cheese/attachments/20060124/c5502f9b/attachment-0002.html