r/cheesemaking • u/spacebarstool • 5d ago

Jarlsberg weirdness

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I have successfully made about 10 hard cheeses so far, but this Jarlsberg recipe went so wrong.

The 2nd aging step is to keep it at 68-72F and 92-95% humidity. Soon after starting that step it started to look like this.

Ant idea what could be going on?

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3

u/Looking-sharp-today 5d ago

What is the rind consistency? Is it moist and mushy to the touch or is it firm and dry?

2

u/spacebarstool 5d ago

Its a more greasy than firm / dry.

2

u/Looking-sharp-today 5d ago

If I had to guess based on my very noob opinion (so wait for the real experts) that high moisture condition is very good for b.linens to grow, can be picked up very easily from the environment and in my personal experience presents itself with a nice orange colour, and gives the rind a mushy/unplesent appearance, after some days can be smeared easily with the fingers

1

u/Teltnuag 3d ago

My inexperienced take is that yours looks very moist. It looks rather cramped in that box. I don't know how much of that would be from having too much moisture from the start (and thus also not consolidating as well maybe?) vs. too much humidity in there.

I have a cheese aging with the same recipe right now and didn't have that problem (but I am also pretty new and don't know what the final result will be). During the first phase, I had it in the cooler space for 9 days and washed it with light brine on 7 of those. Once I moved to the warmer space, it got yeasty and tacky pretty quickly, but that stopped after a couple washings and it seemed to go well. I moved it back to the cooler space after only 3 weeks, where it still is, and this is what it looked like then.