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How To Age Cheese At Home Using A Cheese Fridge

Curd Nerd Aging, Storage 13/04/201125/11/2019aging cheese, aging cheese at home, cheese aging fridge, cheese fridge, cheese ripening box, How To age cheese, how to age cheese at home, storing cheese

When you get into making cheese, there quickly comes a point when you have to figure out just where you’re going to age and store all this fabulous cheese you’re making.

Initially when you first start out, and you are focusing on soft cheeses such as Feta, Haloumi and Ricotta, it’s not such a problem because these can be stored in brine, oil or vacuum packed and stored in a standard fridge.

But when you get into the harder cheeses and the mold aged cheeses you will need something that provides the right conditions for storing your cheeses while they mature.

So what are those conditions? And why can’t you just use the kitchen fridge?

How To Add Cheese Starter Cultures

Curd Nerd Basic Instructions, Cultures 12/04/201125/11/2019cheese cultures, cheese starters, starter culture for cheese

Cheese starter cultures are a form of bacteria used in the production of cheese. They are added to the milk at the start of the cheese making process (not for all cheeses though, there are exceptions such as Haloumi) in order to determine taste, smell, texture and mouth feel.

The main cheese starter cultures are Thermophilic and Mesophilic. Thermophilic cultures can handle being heated to higher temperatures, Mesophilic cultures suffers at higher temperatures.

There are also specific culture strains made by commercial manufacturers which fall into each of these types (Therm and Meso) and each subtly changes the results you will get with your cheese. Your recipe should tell you which culture type you need.

Cheese Making – We’re Going To Need Some Milk

Curd Nerd Basic Instructions, Milk 09/04/201130/01/2019cheese making, home cheese making, milk cheese, milk to make cheese

This post is Part 1 of the continued basic home cheese making instructions. See the Curd Nerd Beginner page or the Basic Instructions category for previous parts.

All of the cheeses you will read about here will be made with raw milk. Fresh, raw, cows milk to be exact.