Cheese set to age

Last Sunday I made my first attempt at making Farmhouse Cheddar. This is a simple hard cheese that only needs to age for 30 days minimum. It was such an enjoyable experience that I'm going to make another this Sunday. Being my first try I was extremely careful about temperatures and triple checked the instructions as I went along. I pressed the cheese (this is why I built the cheese press described in an earlier post) for 13 hours and then set it to dry at room temperature. The drying process can take 2 - 4 days and in my case it took 3 and a half days, roughly, and lost about 6 oz by weight. The final cheese (without the wax) is 2 lb .5 oz. I started the process Monday morning and it was ready to wax by Thursday evening. Got it done. Here are a couple of pictures of the cheese before and after the wax was applied. So this cheese will be ready in about 30 days but I'm giving it 37 just to make sure it has flavor. My current temperature is not ideal though. At 60 degrees it is a bit warm. I would like it to be at about 55 however my basement is 60 and the refrigerator in my garage currently cannot climb above 38 as the weather here in SW Michigan is still cold. So, basement, 60 degrees, and inside a stainless steel stockpot with lid to keep any possible pests away (mice, roaches, etc). I don't know that I even have them down there but I sure would hate to lose my first cheese to such a silly thing.

Enjoy the pictures.


Dried but no wax.


Applying the wax.


Done!