Every cheese that I have opened, up until today, has had a specific flavor to it that I don’t like. I was wondering if this flavor was due to the milk I use, or the rennet. I have used the same milk and the same rennet for all of the cheese, so I figure that it could be that.

Today I opened the stirred curd cheddar that I waxed, and two pepper jacks that I vacuum sealed. One pepper jack should have been ready 3 weeks ago, but it wasn’t, so I keep resealing it and putting it back in the cave. The other pepper jack was supposed to be ready a week ago, and it is not ready today so it goes back in as well.

The stirred curd cheddar that I waxed was supposed to be ready yesterday, and while it can stand some aging, it is good. It doesn’t have that specific flavor that every other cheese I have opened had. It has a better texture, and it tastes pretty good. It is pretty mild, so I assume that it has to go back in and age some more.

All of the cheese that I vacuum seal, eventually get moisture inside of the bag in the cheese cave. I’m wondering if the flavor could be from that.

Do other people who vacuum seal the cheese, seal it as soon as it has finished air drying, or do you put it in the cave for a week or so without sealing it, so that it can breath?

All of my books say to air dry the cheese for 2 to 5 days and then wax it, for the varieties that I am discussing today anyway. I have been air drying it and then vacuum sealing it, because it’s easy.

Since the bags get liquid in them, I am wondering if I am sealing it too soon. I think it’s not aging as fast as it should because of the lack of breathing. If this is the problem, how do other people do this?

May also want to check temperature in the cave, if its too cool then aging will be very slow or not at all. When using the commercial milk its best to test them all to see what works best. If your vacume packing is loosening up then u are probably getting some kind of fermentation in the cheese like Swiss.

The cave 53 or 54 degrees every time I check it.

The vacuum seal is holding, but is the moisture in the bag a normal thing? Should the cheese have liquid all around it?

The cheddars don’t have as much liquid as the pepper jack’s, but the pepper jack’s are visibly sitting in liquid.

I think that the flavor that I taste in all of the vacuum sealed ones is slight sour flavor.

could very well be that the liquid you are seeing is whey that was not completely expelled at pressing.  I once had a monterey jack that I called Jack the Dripper, because it dripped while air drying - for 3 days.  Let’s look at how you’re pressing for starters. Is your mold solid or does it have drain holes on the sides?  What pressures are you using, what is the diameter of your mold? Also, the taste you are experiencing, is it a slightly bitter aftertaste?  If so, look again at your sanitizing techniques.  Are you positive that you are sanitizing absolutely everything that comes into contact with your milk?  I was having a similar problem, and finally discovered that I needed to sanitize the outside of my milk containers prior to pouring into the pot.  There may be other factors involved; but these are what come to mind at the moment.

My pepper jack drips while air drying as well. I thought that it was the type of cheese it is. My mold has holes in the sides and the bottom and I refigured the pressing weights for the size of my mold. Pepper Jack doesn’t press as hard as cheddar.

I do use sanitizer on everything, but I have not done the outside of the milk containers. I have a spray bottle of sanitizer that I use in the spoon between stirrings as well.

I think that it is souring in the whey that comes out in the vacuum sealed bag. The taste is not bitter, it is sour. I’m pretty sure about that. I might have to taste it again to see for sure.

I read on a different forum where a lady had said “This is just a random comment on bagging.  Commercially many hard yellows (and even semi-softs) are bagged right out of the press (or brine tank depending).  When I had a farmstead operation doing this lead to all sorts of problems.  I had to wait a week or two to even attempt bagging without getting oozing liquid or funk inside the bag.  The major difference I have discovered is that commercial yellows are run through a pre-press before final pressing.  The force exerted on these cheeses is immense.  I wasn’t coming anywhere near these pressures using a small cantilever press and buckets of water.  As such my final cheeses back then still had residual whey and moisture that needed to escape, whereas commercial blocks have virtually none.  In summary, I would wait a few weeks before bagging if I were you.”

I think I have oozing funk, like she says.

Do you vacuum seal right after air drying or do you let it sit in the cheese cave for a couple of weeks before vacuum sealing it.?

I air dry until I get a dry surface all round, then I seal it.  I do not dry in the cave.

Hi, I just recently discovered this forum, so that’s the reason for the late response.
When I look at webshops in England and the US, I only find wax. You don’t use “plastic” coating at all?
Here in Holland, wax is only used (commercially) for the traditional Edam cheeses, the rest of the hard cheeses are coated with a special coating, which is also available in webshops (about 6 euro for a kilo). For a Gouda-like cheese I use 2 layers yellow coating, when the last yellow layer is still wet, I put a paper label on it (goat or cow) with name of the cheese and the date, and I finish with a transparent coating. Cheeses that are coated this way are easy to clean, the coating allows a little bit of sweating and the cheese ripens well. I attached a picture of a Gouda with the first layer of coating.

Welcome Herman van der Hoek !!

Your cheese looks great !

That’s not just great, that is a terrific looking wheel of cheese.

Thanks for the compliments folks, unfortunately it was only one kilo…
I started today for the first time on white stilton with blueberries, tomorrow it will go into the molds. If I don’t forget I’ll take some pictures.

But what about the coating? Do you use that in the US?

I have not heard of the plastic coating, only wax or oiling. I would like to try it though. Can you send a link to the website if you buy it online? Or maybe the exact name on the package so I could hunt for it. Welcome to the site, the cheese wheel is lovely.

That will be Van der Kooij and look for “kaascoating 1kg geel”.
The way to apply it: Use a small soft and new paint brush, paitn the sides and top with a thin layer of coating, when it’s dry, turn the cheese and pant the rest.
You can clean the brush very easily with warm water, directly after painting one side.

Please mail them first to be sure that they ship to the US. If not, let me know, because I have a few alternatives (allthough Van der Kooij is the cheapest) or I can contact one of the suppliers to see what can be arranged…

Tammy, try here:

http://www.google.co.il/#hl=en&source=hp&q=cheese+coating+cream+wax&oq=cheese+coating+&aq=5v&aqi=g-v8g-j1g-b1&aql;=&gs_sm=c&gs_upl=546l4734l0l15l13l0l2l2l0l516l2439l2-3.1.2.1&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.&fp=2d0018750af55f79&biw=1072&bih=763

I looked last night and found some information. Since non of my books mention it, I had never heard of it. I might try that. I am not going to vacuum seal the new cheeses for awhile. I am going to wax them or use that stuff. The cheese needs to breath, and vacuum sealing it prohibits that.

If breathing were the issue, the plastic coating would also prohibit breathing would it not???

here is an interesting article. it wouldn’t let me post it so I attached a txt file.

Platic, Wax not the same thing.