Waxin' De Cheese Mon

After a week of aging/rind-building the cheese has mellowed and lost most of its sour aroma, but has kept all of its delicious cheese smell. It's built a nice yellow rind and was dry to the touch on day three. I gave it a few extra days of rind building as I've read this can help it dry out a bit, get the extra whey out, and help with the sourness. Although dry, the cheese was slightly oily to the touch. It didn't have drops of oil on it or anything, so I think this should be fine.

Time to wax!

I used a casserole tin to heat up my wax in. Expect that whatever you use will be ruined forever, and should be considered your waxing container henceforth. I plan on storing the wax right in this container when I'm done.

Make sure to use some sort of double boiler system, as wax is highly combustible and shouldn't be allowed near an open flame.

I heated on high until the wax was almost completely melted, at which point I turned off the burner. Make sure to keep an eye on things to prevent the tin from tipping over and letting water in or wax out.

I then washed my hands thoroughly and started by rolling the edge of the cheese in the wax. This was the easiest part and went very smoothly. Next I dipped the ends in. This was wrought with issues. Primarily the large uneven surface was prone to create air pockets that were either encased in the wax or created areas that didn't get covered at all. I used a wide toothpick to pop the bubbles and fill out any uncoated areas. I repeated for three coats. Two would probably be sufficient, but three isn't going to hurt anything.

Lastly I added labels noting when the cheese was created and when it was waxed.

This all took about 45 minutes, but 30 of that was waiting for the wax to melt. Next time I think I'll dip the edges, but use a natural paintbrush to paint the wax on the ends (don't use synthetic as it will melt and destroy your wax and possibly your cheese too). All in all, very easy.

I'm planning on aging one of the wheels for three months and the other for six months. My basement is currently 61F which is pushing the upper limit for aging temp. If it goes any higher I'll move to the fridge.

Happy Waxing!