Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Cheese in the process of milling.
Put a ten-pound weight on top of the mold to press the cheese
for fifteen minutes. Then, remove the cheese from the mold,
take it out of the cheesecloth, flip it over in the cheesecloth,
and put it back in the mold. Press with the ten pounds of
weight for another 45 minutes. The reason we use a light
weight at first is to prevent expelling fat with the whey.
Then, flip over the cheese in the cloth, and increase the
weight to 40 pounds for 24 hours. The next day, flip the
cheese again, and continue to press with 40 pounds for
another 24 hours. So in total, the cheese has been pressed for
two days and an hour.
Now, remove the cheese from the cloth, wipe it down with
either vinegar or a brine solution using a clean cloth, and
place it in a protected room-temperature place on a bamboo
mat for a day or two until a rind starts forming. (You can
make brine solution by mixing as much salt into water as the
water will dissolve.) What I do to keep insects away is put a
wire scaffold over the cheese and drape some cheesecloth
over it. Once the rind has started to form, either coat the
cheese with cheese wax or seal it in a plastic bag using a
vacuum sealer.
