Good afternoon everyone.
I decided to get back into making cheese, and while I was looking at the recipe book, I realized something.
All this time that I’ve been cheesemaking, I’ve made three big mistakes. These mistakes obviously impacted the cheese I made.
The first mistake was that I was directly heating the milk, not heating it in a water bath. I was reviewing the instructions for all the recipes, and it says to increase the temperature very slowly in a water bath.
The second mistake was that I was not heating the wax hot enough to kill mold spores. This is why mold kept growing under the wax whenever I tried to age it. I need to heat the wax outside, because apparently if you get it hot enough and at the right temperature, it can reach a flashpoint. So just as a precaution, I’m gonna heat wax outside from now on.
The third mistake was aging temperature. I needed to age cheese at 55°F. I have been aging cheese to warm, and that causes bacterial growth and spoilage. Fortunately, I found a way to age the cheese at 55°F.
I’m going to do an experiment as soon as I have the resources to do it. I’m gonna try making cheese the RIGHT way. I will start with farmhouse cheddar, and then if the ages without any problems for a month, the experiment will be successful and I’ll start making cheese again.
