Hard Cheese Aging

[Catfishingpokey]

We are about to start using our excess goat milk to make cheeses. I have a question about aging hard cheeses like the recipes say to do.

Is there a "perfect" temperature for aging the cheeses, and is one place preferable over another for aging cheeses? I have heard of people aging cheeses in a cellar, some of the recipes I have seen say to do it in the fridge.

Any suggestions?

Pokey

 

[freemotion]

I have had some success with aging my goat cheddar in my cold cellar in the winter...keep a thermometer with the cheese and keep the temp below 50, 45 is better. Only really good cellars will stay that cool in the summer. I brought all my cheeses up to the fridge once the temps started to climb. Cheese is WAY too much work and way too much wait to risk it!

I did just buy my aging fridge, since cheesemaking and veggie fermenting is kind of getting out of control here. A separate fridge allows me to keep the temp a bit higher than my kitchen fridge needs to be. For cheeses that need humidity, I can enclose them in a big ziplock bag in the fridge.

If you are not as obsessed as I am, you can find a small fridge or a wine fridge for a reasonable price second-hand, especially in May-June when all the college kids are graduating and getting rid of their dorm fridges. Of course, I got a full size fridge, and one that is all fridge and no freezer. Now I can venture into cheeses that are aged for a year or more without keeping the carrots on the counter!

If you have a good cellar, be sure to mouse-proof your storage for your cheese. I lined two milk crates with hardware cloth and made a hardware cloth lid by simply cutting and bending it. I made a shelf in each one with a cake cooling rack and some bits of wood scraps so there would be good air flow, even for the waxed cheeses.

 

[wynedot55]

 

[Catfishingpokey]

thanks for taking the time to answer my post. i am new to this and that cleared up some questions that i had about temps i am going to start with soft cheese but i want to get started with hard cheese as soon as possible.

 

[freemotion]

I've made cheddar and mozzarella so far. Every batch is different. It gets better with age, too, so it becomes yet another exercise in patience! I kind of went backwards, starting with hard cheeses and now I'm working on mold-ripened soft cheeses.

It is hard to get cheese-making questions answered. I hope more people join us so we can all share our experiences.

 

[mully]

I think all you cheese makers might like this site... when I was thinking of making cheese I found a lot of information here: http://cheeseforum.org/