It’s not always true what they say, that age doesn’t matter.

For cheese, it most certainly does.

Aging cheese (also known as ripening or maturing) is an important part of developing the signature of the particular cheese you are making. It allows time for millions of microbes and enzymes to do their thing, breaking down the proteins and fats into a complex combination of acids that influences how texture, taste and aroma are expressed in your chosen cheese.

A longer aging time causes a firmer, more intense cheese, whereas short aging times result in a more mild taste and a softer ‘paste’.

It is also during this evolution that mold rind bloom, ‘eyes’ open to create holes and blue veins branch out.

Cheese is aged after it has been formed in the mold (with a press if required) and in many cases, salted or brined.

Ideal aging times differ depending on the profile of the cheese you are creating.

Fresh cheeses often have little to no aging time, soft cheeses are usually aged for between 2 weeks and 2 months and hard cheeses have longer aging periods starting at a few months and spanning out to 2 years, or more.

How your cheese ages will also differ based on whether you are making a surface ripened cheese like Blue cheese which ripens from the surface in towards the middle of the cheese, or an interior ripened cheese such as Cheddar which does the reverse, ripening from the middle of the cheese outwards to the surface.

My NewAir Wine Fridge Cheese Cave Review

Combined with time, and cheese type, your aging environment is the most essential factor for the success of your final cheese and should be carefully controlled to provide the right conditions for your homemade cheeses.

While most of us don’t have access to a cave or cellar, as traditionally used to age cheese, you can still provide a suitable alternative environment and get great results.

Whether using an adapted fridge, a wine fridge or containers and a cool space in the house, as long as you have the fundamentals of a good cheese aging/storage environment in place, you can still enjoy plenty of success with your cheese making:

Cheese Aging Conditions

Temperature

Maintaining correct and consistent temperatures when aging cheese can mean the difference between failure and fabulous. Most cheeses are aged somewhere between 7° – 14° Celsius. A home fridge is usually set below this range, which is why they’re not suitable for aging cheese.

Follow the recipe guidelines for the temperatures required for the type of cheese you are making but also perform checks with a thermometer to make sure your equipment is achieving the right levels and make allowances for any variables unique to your environment.

Humidity

If your cheese aging environment is too dry your cheese will dry out. Too humid and you might attract unwanted molds or end up with other undesirable effects like the dreaded Slip Skin. Depending on the cheese you are making, you will need humidity levels of between 75% and 95%.

Getting humidity levels exactly right can be difficult but you should certainly attempt to get them as close as possible if you want a good end product. Similar to a thermometer, a hydrometer will determine if you have a suitably humid environment for your cheeses.

To provide different humidity levels for specific cheeses, you can use enclosed containers to create diverse micro-environments. Laying down a clean, wet cloth in the container will add more moisture if required, and closing the container off from the moisture provided in the main part of the environment will reduce it.

Ventilation

Constant, low flow air circulation in your aging environment supports the exchange of gases (oxygen, carbon dioxide and gases emitted from the cheeses) necessary for the proper development of your cheese. Too much air movement will draw moisture from the cheese causing the surface to crack and the cheese to dry out.

Appropriate air flow is easy enough to achieve simply by making sure your cheeses are well spaced and your aging environment isn’t overcrowded. If you have a cheese fridge, regularly leave the door open for a short period to let in new, fresh air and crack the lids on any containers as well.

Vacuum Sealing Cheese

Maintaining Your Aging Cheese Environment

Constant surveillance and maintenance of your aging environment is crucial if you plan to get the best possible results with your home made cheese. Not only do you need to keep an eye on the temperature, humidity and ventilation but you also need to check your cheese regularly for undesirable molds.

While some cheeses require the right molds to age true to their ‘design’, unwanted molds can take your cheese from promising to potentially dangerous and spread to your other cheeses if left untamed.

As well as checking for unwanted guests there are also cheeses you will need to turn and flip, cheeses you need to pat and wipe, and cheeses that get carefully washed.

Aging Cheese is not a set and forget step.

But all your love and attention will be well rewarded with delicious, true to type, home made cheese if you are willing to be a little fussy and spend the time.

My NewAir Wine Fridge Cheese Cave Review

Related Cheese Cave Articles

Easy To Create Cheese Ripening Box For Aging Cheese At Home

How To Age Cheese At Home Using A Cheese Fridge

Do you have any questions or comments about Aging Homemade Cheese? Join the discussion over at the Curd Nerd Forum. We would love to hear from you!

Curd Nerd Forum

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?

The main conditions you need to control while aging your cheeses is temperature and humidity. Each cheese you make has specific requirements for both of these conditions and if you want to end up with a cheese that closely resembles the type you are attempting to make, you need to meet these requirements where possible.

Cheese Fridge – Not Your Average Kitchen Fridge

Unfortunately, the kitchen fridge doesn’t really allow for this. The temperatures they run at are normally too low and the humidity is all wrong.

The other issue you have is the aromas and bacteria that are inherent in the standard family kitchen fridge. These can play havoc with your lovely cheeses and you really don’t want to start mixing them if you want to avoid contamination.

So what options are there? As you are probably aware, the tradition is to store and age cheese in cheese caves. A cheese cave is an area that is separated for cheese production and will either be a cellar type room or literally a cave dug into the land.

Most home cheese makers can’t manage the latter but many have cellars or cools stores that are being used for cheese making.  For the rest of us, we have to fashion something up to do the job.

When I first started cheese making I used to put my cheese in containers in the South facing bathroom at the far end of the house, with buckets of water for humidity.

It was a task keeping it all sterile and at the right humidity and if the temperatures rose with the weather, I couldn’t really do anything to control it so it was a hit and miss operation at best.

Once I realised that I was keen to stick to my new found cheese making hobby I started seriously thinking about what else I could do.

I read all over the internet and learned that a lot of people take old fridges and make them into caves using various tools and implements to control the humidity, but it all seemed like a lot of work (and a bit of electrical knowledge) to get it right.

Get Your Cheese Fridge Here

My Wine Fridge Cheese Cave

Then I read about using Wine Fridges as cheese caves. I did a bit more research and after reading a number of first hand accounts of how it was working out I decided that was the plan I would follow.

Hubby obviously decided that the cheese making wasn’t an overnight whim too because when I suggested he check out some prices for me, he did just that, but went a step further and bought me one home!

This picture is from when I first got the fridge plugged in and started populating it. I was so excited to be migrating these lovelies from the bathroom to their new home.

The unit I got has two temperature zones which makes it perfect for aging cheeses like Camembert, which have different temperature requirements for different stages of the aging. It also has wooden, pull out shelving which was one of my preferences.

Since I got this fridge my cheese making has been 100% more successful as the conditions are more suitable and I’m not constantly battling molds, condensation or lack of humidity.  It is now full to bursting with cheeses busy maturing to utter deliciousness.

I wouldn’t say this option is the cheapest option but it has been well worth the investment.

The fridge sits in the corner of the dining room and is a bit of talking point with visitors often stopping to take a look to see what’s in there lately. And if they are really lucky, sometimes I even drag a block out to cut up and share.

If you have a cheese fridge or use something similar at home send us a photo we would love to see it. Especially if it is stocked with gorgeous aging cheese.

Related Cheese Cave Articles

Easy To Create Cheese Ripening Box For Aging Cheese At Home

Age Does Matter – Aging Homemade Cheese

Do you have any questions or comments about storing your home made cheese? Join the discussion over at the Curd Nerd Forum. We would love to hear from you! 

Curd Nerd Forum