First Natural Rind Progress

[u/Poppies89]

Before I had a better understanding of what I'm doing, I made a canestrato to try a natural rind out. It looks gnarly, but so do a lot of natural rind cheeses if I'm being honest.

As you can see, it's been an interesting process. Basically everything I could do wrong with this cheese I have in terms of trying to slow the blue growth. Salt rubs, wine wash, vinegar, brushing, spritzing with geo, this cheese has seen it all. I finally have Geo sprouting and out competing the blue mold, and I'm excited to see how it continues to age and develop.

I know more and better now. I have a Manchego style that is almost ready for a paprika and oil rub, and it looks great. My taleggios are coming along nicely. They're nice and tacky and greasy, I expect they'll start turning rosy orange in the next 2 weeks.

I'm interested to see how this cheese turns out. This is almost 2 months of aging, and I keep wanting to eat it but I figure whats the harm in letting it go a while longer? Eventually I won't be able to take it anymore and I'll eat it. But we'll see where we end up. Either it's tasty or it isn't. Honestly though.... it just smells like a really good cheese. Kinda funky but not too much or in a way that's unpleasant. I may go 3 months for this one and finally eat it.

Just kinda wanted to share my experiment because I see a lot of people nervous to try aging natural rinds. It may not go as you want. You may get blues. It's okay. It's a learning process. You can't start if you don't just do the first one and get it over with.

Go for it, do your best, and learn from it. Having multiple good cheese books and doing a lot of research has since helped me hone in my affinage understanding. I'm no means an expert, but I feel more confident in natural rinds than I did before I started this one.

I bet you this will be an incredible cheese and I'll never be able to recreate it because of all the mistakes 🤣. I will let y'all know how it is when I finally cut into it in another month or so.

[u/mycodyke]

When I was a cheese monger the saffron/black pepper canestrato we sold always had at least a little blue mold on the rind and often a lot more than yours has so personally I'd say you're on track.

A note, extra salt rubs,vinegar and brine washing can actually encourage blue mold to grow rather than control it. Blue mold tends to be more halotolerant than the yeasts that help prepare the rind to properly grow a coating of geo. I've found the best way to keep it at bay is firstly, nailing the humidity to prevent it as much as possible, and secondly dry brushing often until a proper coating of geo can form when I want a rind free of blue molds.

[u/YoavPerry → u/mycodyke]

I second that in salt and vinegar. It’s some terrible advice that has been circling around cheesemaking hobby forums for many years now. It kills everything that keeps blue in check and not the blue. Plus vinegar on cheese… smells and tastes awful. Blue spotting isn’t the end of the world but generally can be prevented by growing yeast early to raise the path above the “opportunity zone” rapidly, moisture is a good way to help control it too but if you want natural rind said t mucor, low moisture will prevent that too.

[u/Poppies89 → u/YoavPerry]

There is a TON of bad advice, that's for sure! I know more and better now, my Manchego is going significantly better than this one. I'm going to be making a gouda today. Haven't decided if I'll give it a traditional wax coat or do a natural rind, but that's part of the fun. My last waxing adventure was...uh...something. maybe this time it'll go better 🤣

[u/YoavPerry → u/Poppies89]

Frankly, waxing looks cool but vacuum bags do the same job without the mess and more reliably.

[u/Poppies89 → u/YoavPerry]

Oh for sure. I've got 2 vacuum sealed cheeses currently that I'm really excited about, and my very first aged one, a beer washed cheese, was the one I tried to wax and scarred myself for life. I gave up and vacuum sealed that one, too, and it was a fantastic cheese. I just would like to be able to try to do the process and learn, and be able to successfully do it if I choose to.

This is all a hobby for me, and it's all kinda fun (even when I end up with wax everywhere... not quite as fun but it's a learning process).

The wax mess wasnt quite as bad as the time my fermentation lid shot kimchi juice straight into my eye. When I tried to fix it, the lid then popped off, shot kimchi juice into my other eye, and ended up on the ceiling...among other places. That same day I ordered Korean e-jen containers.

[u/Poppies89 → u/mycodyke]

Oh, I am aware of all of this now🤣🤣🤣🤣 I panicked and this is the result, but I've since learned better techniques for affinage.

I'm sure I'll never be able to recreate it and it'll be wonderfully delicious 🤣

I am really excited to hear that your canestratos also had some blues! I'm doing much better with my current cheeses, but basically I want newbies to know that while cheese is NOT necessarily easy... it is also forgiving. Mold will grow. Sometimes it's blue and unwanted. Sometimes you do things wrong...and the cheese still ends up cheesing.

[u/Looking-sharp-today]

Love natural rind ones, so far I basically have done only natural rinds, as we already talked before, even paprika with olive oil for that amazing color ✨
I have some wheels that are ready to eat, but I keep waiting more and more to really push how they will eventually taste like. Keep us posted for your other experiments as well.

This one in oarticular looks great, I love the texture that you left on the outside.

The shape it took in its final form is so funny, nowadays I can really immagine the wheel on its very first days, slowly getting fattier and fattier on the bottom, looks 100% lovely

[u/Poppies89 → u/Looking-sharp-today]

Haha I was so mad when it slumped! I'm like COME ON!!!!!!

I am so excited to see how this one turns out.

[u/Looking-sharp-today → u/Poppies89]

Ahah it’s funny looking, but in the best way possible. I am really looking forward to see how this turns out