[stringweaver]

I've been toying with cheeses for a few months-I've made a few batches of mozarella, which turn out more like string cheese, several of feta, a farmhouse cheddar and a lot of fromage blanc.

I currently have a parmesan aging in a used wine fridge. It has four more months to go. I have a cheese air drying after brining and a whey cheese (ziergerkase) soaking in a brine of water, salt and my first homemade wine, a red zinfandel.

The recipe for the whey cheese suggests wrapping it in cheese wrap.. I haven't got any... would a permeable vegetable bag work? It's a really small cheese which can be eaten fresh or aged a month. I think I'll cut it in half for the rest of the brining (3 more days) and try some right away and let the other half age for the month.

Once you cut open an aged cheese what's the best way to store it? If it's a waxed cheese I know I can rewax and put it back into the wine fridge, but what about when I start using my parmeson, which has developed a rind and is not waxed? Wrap the cut edge or let it dry and leave it at 55 or move it to a colder refrigerator?

I have culture coming this week for swiss type cheeses, so that is my project for this weekend.

[milbrosa]

I'm not sure about the whey cheese you asked about. Ricotta is a whey cheese, and it is very soft and definitely can't be aged for a month unless it is drained of nearly all moisture. I just put Ricotta in a small plastic food container and eat it within five days.

I haven't made a parmesan, but I use the Cook's Illustrated recommended method for storing store bought hard and semi-hard cheeses once I've removed them from their packaging. I wrap them in parchment paper, then in foil. Not too tightly. You want moisture to wick away from the surface, but you don't want them drying out too much either.

Good luck on your cheeses. Please post your swiss cheese experience when you get it done.

[stringweaver]

thanks, I can manage parchment and foil.

The recipe for ziergerkase is in Ricki Carroll's book, the first one in the whey cheese chapter. It was hung to drain and then pressed 24 hours at 20 pounds. It's somewhat crumbly around the edges, but holding its shape well in the wine and picking up a bright magenta color. Just looked at the recipe again...more like two or three weeks aging in the fridge, not a month.