I had a question from a reader today about the cheese fridge. Here it is;
Hi Gavin,I stumbled upon your website as I am trying to figure out how to convert my wine fridge to make cheese. This is such an usual task that I was glad to your your site. If you don’t mind I would like to know how you made the wine fridge work to make cheese. How do you keep the humidity at 95%? Did you have to drill a hole into the fridge in order to pump humidity in?I appreciate any time you have to answer my questions.Thanks,Maeve
Well Maeve, the solution is a lot less technical than you think. Have a look at a photo of my cheese fridge which is quite simply a wine fridge with the shelves replaced.
Yes I know that there is only one wheel of cheese in the fridge (Parmesan), but look, there are four bottles of Shiraz-Cabernet maturing as well! Now the reason I show you the fridge is to point out the little bowl of water down the bottom. I fill it up each week as it evaporates and create the right humidity for the cheese to mature. Also, if you wax the wheel after a few weeks, then this goes a long way to maintaining the correct moisture content in your cheese. Yes friends, it is that simple. No need to change your fridge radically, just add water!
This is great for non-mould cheeses, but how do you keep the humidity high for mould inoculated cheese without infecting all the normal cheese. Well that is also easy to solve.
Find a container long enough to store your cheese with room for a little bowl of water to keep up the humidity. You can get it up to at least 95% in this manner. This is a shot with the lid on.
As you can see, it is very moist, which is just right for Camembert to mature as is the case in this batch.
So without any complicated modifications, you can easily use any wine fridge as a cheese fridge as well.
Interesting to see that simple little wine fridge helping produce such delicious fare. I have only made labneh before but hope to one day get to your cheese standards. Your blog really is great inspiration so thank you.
Hey it must be the season for labne.. just learnt to make it too.
LOVE that you are making things so easy Gavin. BIG thanks for all your wonderful cheese postings.
Ever thought of doing a few condensed vids of the cheese making?
@ Cityhippyfarmgirl
Thanks for the praise. Labneh is a wonderfully simple and tasty cheese to make. I love making it for dips.
@ Oddity Acres Clan,
I have thought about some vids of cheese making, and next batch I make I will film the entire process. It might span a few YouTube clips seeing that you can only post 10 minute vids at a time.
Gav
Yup.. you definately rock!
Hi Gavin, thanks for the great tips!
My boyfriend and I are making brie (onto the 3rd batch now) but the first, which is still aging in 42-46 degrees is VERY dry. Is there any way to salvage it? We have a wine fridge, but didn’t consider the dryness when we started. We’re now following your advice to put water nearby/in a Tupperware, but are wondering if a [Parmesan] dry brie will always be a dry brie. Is there hope?
Thanks!