Search This Blog

Saturday, July 20, 2013

Hunter Valley Wyandotte Club Annual Show, Drying and Coating Cheese

After the morning chores it was off to Maitland for the show. Some incredible birds on show and what an art form picking the winners. We stayed around for the post judging auction and watched one Silver Laced girl go for $150. I suppose they won't be using her eggs for omelettes.




Having brined the Havarti that was made a couple of days ago we are now drying it. It has drained on cheese matting for 24 hours and now a piece of folded paper towel is put underneath to absorb the excess moisture. If the cheese isn't dried enough and waxed then liquid will form inside the wax shield and discolour the cheese. Once the first piece of paper towel is wet it is put to one side to dry and a fresh piece put underneath. These are rotated until the towel no longer becomes wet.



At that point two coats of Plastic Cheese Coating (food grade Poly Vinyl Acetate) are applied and when that is dry the cheese is waxed and a label showing type and date is placed on the cheese and adhered with molten wax and coated with wax. As we use natural coloured wax the label is readable and does not fall off and is water proof. The Type and date label can be linked to the Cheese Making Notes sheet that is completed with each cheese. This is good reference as to what went well or not so well when tasting the cheese some time down the track. The reason for the PVA is to ensure a good bonding surface for the wax. We have done with out the PVA but found the wax can be damaged easily exposing the cheese. The down side of using the PVA is that it has to be sliced off and a little cheese is lost.

1 comment:

  1. Hi, was a great show at Maitland, we were lucky enough to pick up a couple of Silver Laced Wyandotte pullets at the auction and are just settling them in with our flock. Everything is going well so far - great blog keep up your hard work!

    ReplyDelete