# mold on cheese



## tlt0000 (Apr 28, 2009)

Okay, I am not sure if I am doing something wrong or if this is normal. I have been making the cheddar and montery jack cheese that are in the stickies. I have just been wrapping them in plastic wrap and putting them in the refrigerator. We usually eat them at around 4 weeks. At that time they are covered with mold. Sometimes it is a greenish mold, sometimes a brownish mold and sometimes not very much mold at all. Why is there so much variance? Should the mold be there? I think it is okay, so I cut it off and underneath is a very yummy cheese. The problem with cutting it off is that as I move my hand around the cheese I get the mold on my fingers and transfer it to clean spots and then I need to cut that part off, so on and so on. So, should I just buy some wax? Would that take care of the mold problem? I thought I had read elsewhere that you still get mold with the wax but maybe it wouldn't be as much. Any ideas? thanks!


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## linuxboy (Oct 26, 2009)

The mold that settles is natural variability. It depends on what was in the air, and how well the cheese was wrapped, and how well everything was sanitized. 

Molds will usually colonize a cheese, but unless you have built up an environment conducive to mold growth, the wrong molds will settle on a cheese. It's hard to get the right environment in a fridge. When the wrong molds settle, they cause off-flavors in the cheese. Like that green mold is likely the vegetable-loving variant of a penicillium genus.

If you want to protect against bad mold here are your options:
- Use natural cave that has good molds or inculate with good molds
- Maintain the rind by washing with brine or vinegar+salt
- wax
- Paint with PVA that has natamycin
- Use sorbate or natamycin solution spray
- Vacuum seal

So it comes down to controlling the mold by removing it once it appears, killing with an antimycotic, or sealing away where molds can't get to it.


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## tlt0000 (Apr 28, 2009)

So if I wax it, will that do away with the mold? I was ready to buy some, but then I thought someone said they still got a lot of mold even with the wax.

- Use natural cave that has good molds or inculate with good molds
- Maintain the rind by washing with brine or vinegar+salt

I am not sure what "natural cave" means.

I am also having a hard time getting it to dry when I leave it out for a couple of days. It always seems to be a little damp on the bottom, even though I flip it continuously. I assume this could be part of the mold problem.

Is there a link that I could read to learn more about washing it with salt and vinegar.

Thanks for your reply.


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## linuxboy (Oct 26, 2009)

If you wax thoroughly, it should be okay. What sometimes happens though is there will be a pinhole that lets air through, or while handling the cheese a side will be bumped against a hard edge, or there will not be a thick enough layer, or something else. What I mean is that there's some room for things to go wrong. Some wax comes with a tiny little bit of natamycin or other mold protector in it; this usually works well.

By a natural cave I mean an aging room dedicated to cheese where the mold populations are stable and the good kind and the temperature and humidity are stable because of all the cheeses in there. A refrigerator converted for aging cheese sometimes works, but I've found something about it is not the same. Maybe it's the humidity, maybe it's not enough air exchange, not sure. The emphasis here is that in an area dedicated to aging cheese, you can inoculate cheeses with the good kinds of molds, and then they'll be yummy and not taste like bad mold. That's what I tried to mean by "natural", not necessarily occuring as a cave in the wild.

High humidity and a slow initial rind formation do contribute to mold. I usually leave a wheel out at 50-70% humidity for a few days for a slight rind to form, them move it for aging.

The whole salt and vinegar wash is for very stubborn molds. If you rub dry salt into the cheese (means you can't wrap it or you need to unwrap once a day and rub salt in to build up the rind), it makes the surface not very hospitable to molds. Similarly with vinegar. If you take a rag and some vinegar, you can scrub mold spots out just as they appear. Usually, it will kill them. If the molds keep coming back, what you can do is take coarse salt, and put it into the vinegar, making a fully saturated brine. Then you're using both a lot of salt and an acidic solution to kill molds.

To do this, you take a few cups of vinegar, and a lot of salt, 1/2-1 cup, and mix it together so some dissolves. Then take a tablespoon of the mixture from the bottom, or more, getting some of the salt, and put it on the wheel. Then rub with a brush or a cotton rag, like a towel or terry cloth. It should get the mold right off.

But overall, it's the rind formation that makes for mold growth. The rind needs to not be wet, or it needs to be salted or acidic, or some combination of those, so the mold can't grow.

I am currently writing a series of articles on rind and mold management, but they are weeks away from being done; I will post them on my site when they are. I haven't seen a good discussion of this elsewhere.


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## tlt0000 (Apr 28, 2009)

Thank you Pav for this expanation. I know I am not getting a good enough rind on it and I don't think I am getting enough moisture pressed out of it. If I were to rub the vinegar/salt mixture on before I wax, would that help some? Thanks again for the explanation


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## linuxboy (Oct 26, 2009)

If you want to dry out the rind, you're better off using a small fan for an hour and dry salting the rind. Just take the salt and sprinkle it on top and rub it in. The salt will draw out the outer moisture, and the fan will evaporate it. Vinegar is only for mold control after you start getting a few spots.


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