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We have had a few questions about different moulds growing on our lactic cheeses lately. So we thought you might like to hear a little about the maturing process and why these moulds develop. Once the cheese has been salted and ashed it is left in a warm room to hasten, this is the process of allowing the yeast to grown on the outside of the cheese and is the first stage of the rind development.
You can just see the beginnings of the rind development
This can take up to 48-36 hours, even although all our rooms are temperature controlled sometimes the outside temperature can affect this step. Once the yeast grown has covered the entire cheese when then move the cheese to the drying room, where we leave it until the rind dries, sometimes we assist this process with a fan.
Cheese with rind developed and being dried
Once the rind has dried to the touch, we then move the cheese to the maturing room, which is kept at a similar temperature to the drying room, but has a higher humidity, it is this process that sees the rind develop and often different moulds can appear. This can be due to a variety of reasons, the time of year, has the cheese been dried too much or not enough can all affect the development of the rind and they types of mould that grow on it. Even cheeses from the same batch and on the same rack can develop rinds differently. The temperature in the maturing room has also been affected by the colder temperatures we have been experiencing lately which has given us an added challenge.
Cheeses in maturing room
The cheeses in the pictures are only 2 days apart in age, its amazing watching how quickly the rind develops. I hope this has helped explain why the cheeses vary.