# cheese wax



## tlt0000

I am just starting to make cheese and need some wax. Are there local places that carry cheese wax or is it something that needs to be ordered online?


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## hsmomof4

I got mine online.


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## Dana

I ordered mine from New England Cheese Making Co. Maybe a hobby shop sells wax for you to make candles with but I don't know if it's the right kind. I know there are many different waxes.


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## MiaBella Farm

Honestly, we have found that using cheese wax allows too much room for mold to grow.

We started out using it, then moved to vacuum sealing everything and it has worked out SO much better...

If you are not already a member of this website, you should take a look...they have some great information for cheese makers:
www.cheeseforum.org


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## linuxboy

If you just want to use it as a way to avoid having to control humidity, you're better off painting with a PVA sealant. Nelson Jameson, Kelley Supply, other commercial dairy supply companies should have some. The PVA you paint on usually has some sorbate and natamycin so it helps with mold control


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## tlt0000

Michelle, Are you talking about the vacuum sealers that you seal into a bag? My mom has one but I can't think of the name. That would be so easy. thanks


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## debrad636

Michelle,
When do you use the vacume seal? I waited till the cheese had formed a hard outer, then used the vacume seal. I'm like you, alot of our hard cheese started to get mold under the wax, no matter how carefull I was.

I have been second guessing myself though, thinking I should go ahead and wax the cheeses. Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks 
Deb


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## buckrun

I never got the hang of vacuum packing cheese. It must have been too wet or some such.
They always turned into something rather gross while my waxed wheels were great.
The wax still breathes. The plastic does not.
I learned the hard way that I did not want to vacuum pack.
Please share if you have good results with vacuum packing aged cheeses after aging.
Thanks
Lee


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## nightskyfarm

Please explain how cheese in a anaerobic environment can still go through the aging process. Explain the aging process where the bacteria in the cheese eats at itself until it is extinguished. How can it do so in an environment with no oxygen? If you can age cheese while vacuum sealed, why does one have an aging room?


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## linuxboy

buckrun said:


> I never got the hang of vacuum packing cheese. It must have been too wet or some such.
> They always turned into something rather gross while my waxed wheels were great.
> The wax still breathes. The plastic does not.
> I learned the hard way that I did not want to vacuum pack.
> Please share if you have good results with vacuum packing aged cheeses after aging.
> Thanks
> Lee


Jennifer, I'll answer your questions tomorrow. One I'll answer now. Aging room is for temp stability and humidity stability. Vacuum bagging removes the need to regulate humidity but you still need to regulate temp.

Lee, the trick to vacuum sealing is that you want rind formation to already start and whey expulsion to fully complete, and for the salt levels to stabilize. This requires for the cheese to be in a stable form. There's a standard process for ensuring stability I'll try to write about later.

Meaning practically, you leave for at least 3 days for the rind to start forming, brine the cheese, or for cheddar, salt the curds. You could salt the rind, too, but then you have to wait longer before you can vacuum seal.


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## buckrun

Well I have the same questions as Jennifer because I was rolling along stocking a good amt of wheels to age in wax with no bacteriastat painted on and then someone talked me into vacuum packing right after rind formation and the entire group that I did that to went to the chickens. Too much work to risk it. It was a sorry loss. I had 5 day air dried rind after 24 hour brine soak and no trouble with waxed only the ones in plastic. 
No thanks! Unless you can make me understand a stable cheese! Go Pav! Thanks for all the input.
Lee


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## linuxboy

nightskyfarm said:


> Please explain how cheese in a anaerobic environment can still go through the aging process. Explain the aging process where the bacteria in the cheese eats at itself until it is extinguished. How can it do so in an environment with no oxygen? If you can age cheese while vacuum sealed, why does one have an aging room?


There are three main biochemical dynamics by which cheeses acquire flavor and paste characteristics. In order of importance, they are proteolysis (and associated hydrolysis of casein, catabolysis of amino acids, and peptidolysis) of proteins, lipolysis of fats, glycolysis of residual sugars (including lactose), and in some cheeses, citrate catabolysis. I'll try to go through each one and talk about its importance without getting too geeky about it.

Your first question addresses one part of the sequence, glycolysis. What you are asking is how can bacteria eat residual leftover sugars once out of the mold. Bacteria eat various sugars, depending on the type. Some eat only lactose, others (such as LH) are able to consume additional sugars (such as galactose), which give unique flavor compounds. This whole process of using up sugars is calles glycolysis. In glycolysis, you have a sugar that will end up as 2xATP, 2xNADH, and 2xpyruvate (along with water and H+). For lactic acid bacteria, that pyruvate is further reduced to lactate by a natural enzyme called lactate dehydrogenase (LDH). This process is completely anaerobic and like a chain reaction. Via LDH, pyruvate, H+, and NADH is converted to lactate and NAD+ necessary to continue glycolysis. Again, this process is anaerobic. If it was aerobic somehow, the net energy gain would be drastically bigger than 2xATP. A tiny little portion does undergo aerobic fermentation, at the very beginning. Lactic bacteria are capable of it, the pathway here become oxidative phosphorylation. But this has little to do with final cheese aging.

Glycolysis is very important at first because it sets the stage for later processes, which are less involved with the bacteria cells. I am talking about the breaking down of proteins via proteolysis and the breaking down of fats via lipolysis. It is during these processes that cheeses get their aromas, paste, and overall flavors.

Proteolysis works like this. You have at first the hydrolysis of caseins that break them up a little. That's why moisture and salt in final cheese makes a huge difference in the paste. This breaking down is aided by rennet. Yes, rennet continues to act on a1, a2 and b (to a lesser degree) caseins after the cheese is out of the mold. This is why too much rennet makes for a bitter cheese. Anyway, after the caseins are smaller, they're broken down by naturally occurring proteases, proteases found in the bacteria cell wall, and after cell lysis, the proteases found inside of the cytoplasm in a bacteria. Those proteases and rennet make for smaller chains of peptides, which tend to be bitter. Through futher proteolysis (technically peptidolysis), those chains are broken down even more into smaller peptide chains, and even amino acids. All this requires no oxygen.

Lipolysis is a similar story. You have complex triglycerides and naturally occurring and introduced lypases, which are enzymes that help to break apart fats. Those smaller fatty acids then undergo additional catabolism to make all sorts of complex compounds responsible for aroma and taste. Again, no oxygen.

And there you have it. If you're wondering why, then, do vacuum aged cheeses taste differently from natural rind cheeses, or even cheeses with a breathable skin, like wax or PVA? It's not because of cell activity, but because of secondary cascades of reactions during which all the various products of the breaking down of sugars, fats, and proteins combine into new ways. Oxygen is used here in a very limited way. More importantly, however, having a breathable skin helps to remove various compounds from the cheeses, such as ammonia, acetic acid, and all sorts of volatiles. These do make a difference in the final nuances of flavor of the cheese, for better and for worse. But that's a personal preference, not a biochemical reason. Some people may like the flavor of a natural mold rind, some of a brine wash rind, some of a vacuum sealed cheese, etc. I will add that commercially, most 40-lb blocks of cheddar are vacuum sealed.

Lee, no time left today to cover that. But in short, it's moisture that's your enemy when vacuum sealing. If there's leftover whey in the curd, any mold or other formation of undesirables on the rind, no salt balance reached in the wheel, etc, it will be a failure. Easier to maintain cleanliness in the make room commercially. I'll try to post more tonight. One good way of doing it is to pre-season the rind by killing off any bacteria/mold on it, either chemically or by making an inhospitable place. One good way to make the rind inhospitable is to let it sit and dry off for 3-4 weeks, eliminating the moisture bacteria need. It may be easier to use wax... just depends on your situation. I just wanted to make the point that vacuum sealing is a viable option.


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## nightskyfarm

Very interesting. I do vacuum seal all my cheeses, but did not realize they could age in that condition. i have kept cheeses over a year vacuum sealed and they appear the same as when I sealed them. I open them and they are fine. I will still finish my aging room, but will consider vacuum sealing at least some of the cheese I plan to age. I have a chamber Torres MiniPak sealer should I continue to vacuum at 100%?


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## linuxboy

Yep, you can crank it up to 27-30 if the vacuum will go that high. When you say you open them a year later and they are the same, do you mean the taste hasn't changed at all? That may happen if the ripening temp is too low. You still need to keep the temp at ~55. Oh and this only applies to hard cheeses, obviously. You can't vacuum seal a moldy rind, blue, or washed rind.


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## buckrun

Thank you for all that info Pav.
We do have a humid climate and much of my cheese is made before we close up and start the AC so as to use early lactation milk and retained moisture could have been the problem but as noted- wax still breathes. Particularly if you bandage and then wax.
I guess I could shift to cheesemaking once we are climate controlled and see what difference that makes.
I know that it works with soft fresh cheese to extend the life but I just was not happy with the aged cheeses under plastic. They were as you mentioned above like opening a bottle of ammonia. Thank you for sharing your knowledge and your time.
L


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## MiaBella Farm

Ok well Pav answered all your questions, so my work here is done! :biggrin

We love the vacuum sealing procedure...so quick and easy once a nice rind is formed!

The vacuum sealer that we have is: The Weston-Pro 2300 Stainless Steel Vacuum Sealer

http://cgi.ebay.com/NEW-WESTON-PRO-...all_Kitchen_Appliances_US&hash=item51928c2a40


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## nightskyfarm

Yes it was pressed cheese I kept sealed for a year and yes too that it was in the fridge at 39 degrees. SOOOO, there's my problem and answer. My sealer is a MiniPack-Torre Model 31 and progammable, I don't know about 27 -30. It goes from 0 to 100% on extraction then I can re-introduce gas if I want, then I set the length of the seal time and then the air return. I have the gas kit and have not yet used it. I guess you would use that if you did not want to squish your chevre. I did investigate the packaging for using the gas and a double bag set was expensive. My chevre is frozen and inserted into tubing and then vacuum sealed while in the frozen state. Works for me. I do put my feta in brine or marinade and seal that in a pouch using the MiniPack. It's really a versatile machine.


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## linuxboy

27-30 is the mercury. Usually that's the vacuum level when using a manual analog gauge. In your case, it would be to crank it up to 100. No need to backflush unless you really want to, as that gets expensive. And yep, at 39F, it would take something like a decade to get anywhere with aging. Vacuum sealing is just to eliminate the need for humidity control and to be able to have a rindless cheese (less waste).

Sounds like you have an awesome setup. I use a vacmaster, and it's not so fancy, but it does a great job. I use it for soups, charcuterie, dried stuff from the dehydrator. Soo nice to have.


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## linuxboy

Lee, based on what limited details I know about you, I don't think you would enjoy vacuum sealing as a way to preserve your cheeses. It's really meant for a cheeseplant that has a dedicated sanitary area and can pack away production for longer term aging, or a setup for moderate production hard cheese makers at home. It fits some personalities better than others. I think the preservation style that fits your personality is to use bandages and lard, or a basic 3% brine wash that builds a classic gruyere-like rind.

The gist of how to get it to work if you want to try is to:

1) Take out of mold, put in to room at same temp and 70-80% RH for 1-3 days. This is to dry the rind out a little.
2) Put into 85-90% RH room at 55 and watch the rind, treating any outbreaks of mold. When a thin shell looks like it has formed all around and the surface is dry to the touch, then you can vac pack.


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## buckrun

Pav! Thanks~ I really think I will stick with my retro cottage type cheesemaking.
I imagine myself imitating my Italian ancestors someday with their water buffalo mozz!!!! YEAH Right! :nooo
Too funny isn't it that this happens to be the one thing I cannot master and touted as so easy!
We love the results of the waxed aged wheels and esp the extra aged and so will save the vacuum packing for our dried fruits! I hate to think it is my sanitation :blush and prefer to believe it is the lack of control over humidity.  BUT...it is a kuntry lifestyle here! Might as well not pretend to be something else. 
The steps you outline above is what I do with addition of a brine soak overnight after removing from the mold and then wax instead of vac. My long term aging is in an infinite control fridge that I can set to 55. A great investment since the floor of the closet got to be rather....inconvenient to say the least!
L


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## hsmomof4

Well, I, for one, am glad that I'm not the only one who has problems with mold growing under the wax!!


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## linuxboy

Yep, I figured as much . It's more satisfying to me personally to take a wheel in my hands, turn it, rub it with a brush, see how its coming along. Becomes almost like another way to enjoy my goaties. I can go back and look at my make notes to see what was happening that day, read my journal, etc. It's not quite the same when you pick up a plastic bag. I'm a very earthy/tactile person.

Raw milk also tends to have more varieties of bacteria, so you get all sorts of protein breakdown from them. It's a good thing, usually, just not as cookie cutter as using the same culture and making the same cheese every day in a factory from pasteurized milk. Sanitation may not even play into it at all. I was trying to say that in an isolated room dedicated to cheesemaking, there are usually fewer airborne molds and other stuff than in a normal kitchen or a multi-purpose room. Just a fact of life, and sometimes those molds, yeasts, etc, land on the cheese, and are able to grow just enough to cause some off flavors. In a natural mold it's no big deal, but in a vacuum bag, it may be.

If you ever do vacuum pack for aging, you must keep it out of the bag for at least 2-3 hours before eating to let the cheese find equilibrium in the new environment and aerate out. If there are ammonia or similar flavors, you can also age it for a few weeks not in the bag and in a cave to let all those flavors mellow out and a little moisture evaporate.

Back to the original poster, I think Kelley Supply has some of the best pricing on wax, if you're willing to buy in large quantities. If you're near a homebrew or cheese shop, they may have some in stock locally.

Stacey: yep... the commercial guys cheat and they'll paint the wheel with PVA that has a mold killer, spray with a mold killer or put a mold killer/preservative right in the wax. It's normal practice. They may be out there, but I don't know of a single plant who doesn't standardize products... they all use natamycin/sorbate for mold control with wax.


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## buckrun

> I'm a very earthy/tactile person.


Well - we all have our problems.... :rofl

That is the charm of doing it for me as well-tending to it. I am not much into plastic being a potter! 
And yes working on this in a busy kitchen is a rather more risky thing but don't have many mold problems and only wipe with vinegar if I get a spot or two while curing a rind before aging. Only major setback was the vac/amonia thing on what was otherwise good cheese texturally etc. I did not know you could continue to age it but did try leaving it in the fridge for awhile and it was still 'gag'.

Looking forward to your website- will you answer questions there as well?


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## linuxboy

LOL. The continued aging trick is hit and miss. Hard to predict which way it will go if something is off. But, overall, additional time does help most hard cheeses, even if they start out bad, like with bitterness defects. 

I do plan to have a small forum that has a general Q&A area. I don't want to make a large forum because there are already many good places to read about cheese like here, yahoo groups, cheeseforum.org..., and I don't want to add to the general confusion, rather help give exact answers people can use. I think most people will be there for the recipes.


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## hsmomof4

Pav, you are the BOMB!


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## nightskyfarm

Agreed.


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## buckrun

PavBomb- asking about your plans with your upcoming site-I was thinking that you would perhaps get a wider range of cheesemakers posting sans the goat connection. People that cheese without owning livestock or that use unusual milk and I am particularly avid to learn about working with milk from sheep. Hurry!


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