I work at the world's most powerful cheese plant, so I got a lot of cheese. This is cheese straight off the cows tit. When the cheese company's get ahold of what the cheese plant makes they add about 6 more chemicals to it. So I have raw uncut, 4 ingredient cheese, so shelf life isn't the best. I have been collecting it for a while and need to preserve it better or I'm going to start creating "blue cheese" and I don't want blue cheese. So the time table on this is the sooner the better. Step 1 buy cheesewax. Looks like cheese wax is its own thing. You can try to use cheap paraffin wax but don't be surprised if it cracks. Old school cheese wax was beeswax, but bees wax is espensive now. So seems like do it right or you're just screwing around. So I bought 8lb for $50, yeah I got a bit of a cheese stash. My cousin is a beekeeper, but I don't think I can get any beeswax from them till next spring or summer, I could at least replenish what I use.
This is quite interesting! Tell us how it turns out and what problems, solutions, short term, long term you run into. I got into 'real' cheese doing all those years in Europe, especially my first 6 years in the Netherlands (WOW! talk about good cheese!), use to purchase big wheels of the stuff.
I'm going to put the cheese out to dry for a day, just until the surface gets good and firm. Then dip the cheese in white vinegar and let that dry to kill all the nastys. Then dip it in cheese wax which is mostly beeswax.
Super jealous of your access to good cheese. I have quite a stash of waxed cheese. The added bonus is if you wax mild cheddar, it'll be sharp by the time you eat it. I get my cheese wax from Blended Waxes, INC,Cheese Wax | Find Your Coating | Blended Waxes Inc available in a number of colors and types. They sell on Amazon, or direct if you wanna get 1000 pounds. I dip in white vinegar, then let air dry for 24 hours same as you do meat you intend to smoke. Lets it develop a skin that the wax sticks to better. Then heat the wax just hot enough to melt. You don't want it hot or it'll cause the oils in the cheese to melt and break through. I put the blocks in the fridge for 10 min prior to get them cold before the first dip. I leave my wax in a .50 cent pot I got from the thrift store just for waxing cheese. Dip an end in then set aside to harden while I dip the other blocks. Lather rinse repeat, until the cheese is coated and you don't see it's color through the wax (esp the corners). Halfway done I usually pop in the fridge for a few minutes to rechill. Once it's done, it's onto wooden slats in the cellar. Ideal temp is 50F with 80% humidity. You can rig this with a dorm fridge, a water bowl, and a computer fan. Or just wing it. Humidity too low and the cheese really shrinks. My last batch of waxed cheddar.
@ditch witch It sounds like a real art, one that you have mastered! Going to talk to wife about this and see if this is something we want to try...
Definitely wouldn't say I've mastered it, but so far so good. I watched a lot of YT videos before I ever started, so other people's failures prevented my own. I don't believe for a second this will make your grocery store cheese last 30 years, as some videos claimed. A hard cheese like parm, mebbe, but not walmart brand Colby.
I am demolding the cheese let it dry dipped it in vinegar. Dogs eat moldy cheese. My bottle of Charly Romeo and Juliette Delta was sitting next to the cheese. I think I'm going to coat a block or 2, then my stomach and see what happens.
As I recall, govt cheese was in very good wax covering. Had a great-Aunt who got the stuff in the 70's. Read a story that govt has millions of tons of it in the Kansas City salt mines. I actually toured those mines in 1972 when they were being set up for govt. Kid I knew from church camp took me over there when I was visiting. They were wide open and you could drive back in them. They were hollowing out, installing lights and doors, and stuff back then. Actually was going to be for cold war storage.
