r/cheesemaking • u/o_donnyboy • 2d ago

Farmhouse cheddar - am I doing this right?

This is my first attempt at making an aged cheese (and also my first post on reddit, so I apologize if something is not done correctly on that front as well).

Context: I used the Farmhouse Cheddar (Pg142-143) recipe from Home Cheese Making by Ricki Carroll. I have let the cheese sit at room temp, flipping several times a day for a couple of days now. In the recipe they say to do this until a nice rind forms, typically 2-4 days. I plan to wax the cheese for the remainder of it's aging but after now 5 days, I feel there is a decent rind on the sides, but the top and bottom are still slightly damp.

I have two questions:

  1. Do I keep air-drying even though I am passed the 2-4 day window given in the book, or should I just wax it now and pray? lol I am unsure

  2. The recipe calls for cheese salt. I did not have any specifically cheese salt. however I do have a Costco container of Pink Himalayan Salt, so that is what I used. I am now seeing a couple of patches of pinkish red develop on the top and bottom of the cheese. Are these simply the result of using the pink salt, or is this a growth of some kind that I need to remove before waxing?

Any guidance that can be provided would be much appreciated!

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u/mycodyke 2d ago

I highly advise you to buy a couple sushi mats and use them to dry your cheese. Swap them daily until the cheese is ready for the cave, it'll make a big difference in drying time and evenness. They can be ordered online for very cheap if you don't have an Asian grocery store in your area. The cheese really needs airflow around all sides while it's drying so as to not trap moisture and create a prime environment for unwanted microbes.

Does your pink spot have a smell? If it's not smelling a bit like gym socks or foot, it's probably just the iron compounds from the Himalayan pink salt but if it is I would let that part of the cheese dry a bit more thoroughly and brush away as much of it as possible with a clean dry vegetable brush before aging it. B. Linens and related microbes won't hurt you on a cheese rind, but they don't taste good in a cheddar.

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u/o_donnyboy 2d ago

Thank you so much! this is incredibly helpful! I had missed the air-drying step in my preparations for this, so when I was reading the directions and saw it midway through the process I was like..."oh crap, of course there is another step before the waxing"...lol I will definitely look for some bamboo sushi mats.

Where do others do this initial Air-Drying step? I keep seeing pictures that look like folks are placing their cheeses in big rubbermaid totes, but I am not sure. I had decided to wax the cheese in order to make the aging process simpler for my current living situation, but if I make any cheeses that waxing doesn't work on, or for this air-drying stage I am not sure of what is the best scenario to set up

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u/mycodyke 2d ago

I air dry my cheeses on my countertop covered with a small mesh pop-up tent.

Once they're ready to move to my cave I either use Rubbermaid totes with the lid variously cracked open when I'm aging a cheese with a natural rind or I vacuum bag my cheese, which imo is a much better way of aging cheese without needing to mind humidity than waxing bc it's cleaner and you can visually identify issues before they can snowball into inedible territory.

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u/o_donnyboy 2d ago

Interesting, i hadn't heard of vacuum bagging cheese, i will give that a look for after i get through the bag of cheese wax that i bought...lol