I was very excited when around Thanksgiving we ran a promo on a few of Capriole Farm's goat cheeses. These cheeses are soft bloomy rind cheeses that visibly age in a few weeks time. I love an almost overripe bloomy cheese that, once you cut into it, starts oozing onto the plate forming a small pool around the body of the cheese, so I wanted to babysit and age one myself...
We got in a batch of Piper’s Pyramids: six darling pyramid shaped cheeses delivered in a wooden box: And a case of Wabash Cannonballs packaged in the same fashion, but ash covered and sphere shaped:
I slapped a sticker on a Piper’s Pyramid that read “11/25 do not sell, Esther is aging this!” and my affinage adventure began. I kept the cheese in the back where it could mature quietly and undisturbed. I didn't want to age it on the floor for fear of it selling before I could take it home.
I quickly found out my passion for cheese does not automatically turn into success in the production arena. In the case of aging, I had zero know-how and it showed in the results of my experiment. A month later, my lactic pyramid looked and felt exactly the same. When I pressed on it, the cheese did not yield indicating that it was firmer than when it first came in. “What the hell?” I thought, “Where is my soft ooey-goey dream?”
But happy ending...because oh my god! I bet you forgot about the Wabash Cannonballs! How could we?Well, they aged out nicely in the floor case (higher temperature usually around 38-40F and packaged in small perforated containers that kept in moisture but still allowed airflow. I bought the last one just in time for my New Year’s Eve gathering. It turned out exactly the way I wanted...all without me futzing with an already wonderful thing.
Happy New Year! Stay cheesy out there.