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BAck to the wax or vacuum seal discussion
Posted: 04 June 2011 12:13 AM   [ Ignore ]   [ # 16 ]
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Not to be rude, but the person who wrote the article, doesn’t seem to be experienced in cheese making, quite a lot of rubbish: waxing Parmeggiano & Gruyere? They are rind treated cheeses.

Use food handling gloves on your hands when you wax the cheese. The oils from your hands will affect how the wax adheres to the cheese. With your bare hands it’s also easy to add germs to your cheese.


Why? We have to keep our hands clean for the cheese making process all along and I’m sure the fat/oil on the cheese is more than on our hands.

The color of the wax is really only symbolic to the commercial cheese industry in terms of how long a cheese has aged. However, I prefer to always use the red or the black wax since it will allow less light into the cheese

I agree with the first part, as for the light, doe’s anybody have a transparent natural or converted cave?

If you freeze it and then put hot wax on it, you are forcing an expansion and condensation process. The same happens if you freeze it after waxing it. You don’t want any expansion going on. Let it sit out to get to room temperature prior to waxing it

Not to freeze - I agree, but not even to chill? Keeping the cheese for a couple of hours in the fridge (according to instructions in books and my experience) will help the first coat to adhere more quickly.

As for the Cream Wax, I know the stuff, never used it, only real cheese wax.

Sorry for being sarcastic, couldn’t resist such determined inaccuracy.

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Posted: 04 June 2011 08:31 AM   [ Ignore ]   [ # 17 ]
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The special plastic coating for cheese does allow some breathing: Cheese factories all over the Netherlands and Germany that produce Gouda or a Gouda-like cheese use it. And they store the cheese in conditioned warehouses to let it mature, up to just over one year (so called “over aged” Gouda, very hard to cut but what a taste…). But also the farmers that produce cheese from raw milk (quality is checked by the government on a regular base) use this coating. They apply it about one day after the cheeses come out of the brine. Maybe one of these days I’ll make some pictures in a local cheesefarm to share with you all.
And yes, this kind of coating is only usefull for hard cheeses. Soft cheeses will be too wet.

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- Herman -

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Posted: 04 June 2011 09:54 AM   [ Ignore ]   [ # 18 ]
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Herman van der Hoek that would be great !
I thought the article was interesting in that it shows that peoples belief are all over the place. Experience is the best to know whats what and its always wise to keep an open mind to see what one may still learn. Constructive criticism always helps to keep our minds fresh smile

Fridges have been a recent invention, cheese has been around for eons.

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The Cheese Hole

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Posted: 04 June 2011 02:56 PM   [ Ignore ]   [ # 19 ]
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Herman had said that it would let the cheese breath, but I don’t know how plastic coating could do that.

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Herbs, Sausage, Beer and Cheese
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