Hi all,
I just finished waxing a swiss that gave me problems with dark spots on the surface of the cheese. These spots appeared during the sweating period of the process.
They started appearing after about a week at 70 degrees and continued to pop up over the next two weeks. I wiped them with both vinegar and brine solution but nothing did the trick at totally elminating them.
Before waxing the cheese I bit the bullet and cut those spots out of the cheese surface. I then filled each little dimple with salt and waxed over them. I feel confident that I won’t be having mold problems under the wax but it still ticked me off to have to mar the surface of the cheese like that.
Do you think this mold was caused by having too high a humidity at too warm a temperature? The sweating conditions of this cheese were: temp. 70 - 74 degrees F with humidity of 85 - 99%.
I have another swiss that will be entering the sweating stage tomorrow so I’d like to avoid this problem if at all possible.
Thanks,
Dave

As the handle implies, I’m green at Swiss - having only made one.  But I had relatively few mold problems.  I only needed to wipe it, with brine, twice during the entire 3 months of aging.  Wish I could be of some help to you, but have no ideas.

Rich…
This was very strange mold (if it even was mold).
They were just these little darkish colored spots scattered over the surface of the cheese. They weren’t black by any means nor did they seem to be strictly on the surface. When I cut them out, I did have to go down just a very tiny bit to get them.
I’m wondering if I didn’t do enough maintenance with this cheese. I never changed or cleaned the mat (other than giving it a cursory wipe with vinegar once) nor did I clean the lid the mat was resting on.
With my next swiss I think I’ll try being extra diligent and see if this clears up some of my problems.
As I’ve posted before, this cheese was nice and moist and very elastic all throughout the process. I’m wondering if the extra moisture in the cheese might have also contributed.
I also might try controlling the humidity a little better this time around. I actually did have it up to 100% a few times while aging.
Anyway, I will let everyone know if I get this under control. Maybe with a little luck I can figure this out and keep it from happening again.
Now I only have to wait about 3-1/2 more weeks and I’m going to give the waxed swiss a little taste test. I really hope the texture is as good as I envision it being.
Thanks for the response, Rich.
Dave

I wonder if there’s a correlation between your dark spots and the yellow ones I had on my Gouda.  They were bright yellow at first, and are now faded to a dull yellow.  They have not spread or increased in size, and cannot be removed with brine wiping.  I have another unwaxed cheese, a Montasio, near it and it is not affected.  I’ll be waxing the Gouda tomorrow, and I think I’ll scrape the spots a bit and see if I can get rid of them.  They may be harmless, but I don’t want to take the chance.  If you have a revelation let us know.

This is were post detailed pics would help to identify and help recognize for others.

You’re right Neil. I wish I would have taken a photo before waxing the cheese. Surely someone would have recognized my problem and would have offered a solution.
If this problem persists with my current swiss (now happily sweating away on the kitchen counter) I will be sure to take a pic and upload it.
Once Christmas gets here I will have a new camera that will hopefully help me in my photography skills. Well, at least I assume my wife will let me borrow it from time to time.
If I do in fact get to borrow it, and it does improve my photography skills, look out. I’ll be documenting every cheese I make (with the exception of the failures….why would I want you all to see those?).
Dave

Yeah, I’m up for a camera too.  I’ve dropped hints.  But if I don’t get one, I’ll just have to buy my own present.

This is what has happened to my RicotaBrie experiment. One thing I did not do is give it a good salting, so thats probably why this has happened. I just cut it off and sprinkled salt on the wound.