Local humidity (in the UK) where I live is very high at the moment and has been for weeks. My Min Max hygrometer literally went off the scale today, it went from 99% to HH which is effectively <tilt> I suspect Local meteorolgical station is listing ambient humidity at 96% in our area as my hygrometer agrees with.

Cheeses are definitely suffering. I have 5 X 500g gouda and 1 X 1kg gouda that are not drying and are tacky to the touch.

Any suggestions on how to lower/control humidity on the cheap?

Currently trying a non electric dehumidifier (some form of inert moisture absorbing salt) which has at least stabilised my cool box to 83% RH at around 13 deg C

Sal

Put the cheese in a closed container containing a quantity of talc (body powder) its supposed to absorb water. Clear plastic if possible and with a meter inside to see the affect. Buy a container and leave it in the box with the lid off from the body powder.
Will be interesting to see the results.

Other thing I thought of was the silica gel saches that you get in the bottom of a shoe box and other things sometimes.

The silica gel in talc would be doing the same thing. Not sure how easy its going to be to control though, but good luck!

OK some progress over night. Cheeses visibly drier which is good cos ambient humidity today is 98% acc to BBC…..

Using this (which is a salt based dehumidifier from B&Q;) in the bottom of a cool box, humidity rose from 83% to 90% over night and I’ve had to wipe the box out this morning. It’ll be good to see what I can achieve through the day.

the very first cheese I made suffered from very high humidity.  it was so bad I had to pitch it.

I bought a small inexpensive wine refridgerator to age my cheese in and it has worked wonderfully!

Ah Leslie

The magic word….inexpensive!

Do tell

Currently have got the humidity down to 75-80% during the day where I mop out the fluid every 5 hours or so, it kinda rose to 90-95% overnight.

They are visibly better after 36 hours.

Sal

Much the reverse of my early problems - I had too little moisture.  I ended up putting a bucket of water in the bottom of the fridge, with a towel draped through it for a wick.  I now have puddles in the bottom of my aging fridge and still the humidity is just in the mid 80 range.

Guys

I’m trying to paint the spare room…I cant even get the masking tape to stay on…

Currently 92% ambient down from 98% this am and its due to start dropping to the mid 60’s tomorrow….phew.

This solution appears to drop humidity approx 25% in a cool box with 6 X 0.5kg cheeses in it.

Sal

I got the inexpensive wine fridge of the internet - holds 36 bottles I think.  I think I payed about $150 for it 2 years ago.  I do have to keep water in a pan in the bottom to keep the humidity up, but I find a little to dry has worked out much better for me than way to wet!

Thats why I like to wax my cheeses, keeps the moisture in, less hassell (non bloomed cheeses).