A little snippet here piqued my interest. I’m having a good think about food storage at the moment, to ensure year-round produce, and this is one of the classic methods of preservation. Not seen so much nowadays as everything is plastic-wrapped, but waxing a hard cheese allows you to keep it - unrefrigerated -for some time, possibly even years. The wax coating, when done properly, hermetically seals the cheese, preventing mould and retaining its moisture.
For more details on how to wax cheese (and why to do it), here are some great resources:
- How to wax a cheese - great instructions.
- Making Hard Cheeses – with instructions on waxing to help the cheeses mature
- Cheese Wax - supply 1.5kg blocks of wax for 11 quid – plus all the other cheesemaking apparatus including Complete Cheesemaking kits
Posted by wine blog on December 15, 2008 at 11:33 pm
really great info! I didn’t know you could wax cheese…
Posted by lepotager on December 16, 2008 at 9:14 pm
Neither did I – it’s fascinating isn’t it.