Cheese Refining

After salting, place the cheeses on the shelves in accordance with the required temperature. At the beginning of ripening, the molding heads are not laid out directly on the shelf, but we put mesh plastic or bamboo substrates. This will allow the crust to dry better and prevent it from sticking to the shelf. We turn the heads over the first week twice a day, add dry salt on top if necessary. Cheese such as scamorza and caciocavallo are suspended from crossbars.
After the crust has formed, you can turn the cheeses less often – at first once a day and then every 2-3 days. After exposure for 2-3 months, it can be turned over once a week or less. On a dry surface, you can apply several layers of olive oil in succession, each layer drying. This will make the crust smoother, more elastic and prevent cracking. You can also apply a ratafia-based coating similar to that used for whole-muscle dry-cured foods. Coating procedure: apply to the top and side of the head, hold until dry, turn over and repeat the process. Cheese such as scamorza and cacocavallo do not need to be coated, they form a natural dense glossy surface.
As it matures, mold appears on the surface of the cheeses. To prevent this, a wax coating can be applied to the formed crust. For my taste, mold is not worth avoiding; it gives mature cheese a spicy mushroom aroma. Over time, the mold dries up, its spore-bearing layer can be cleaned with a brush. An even whitish coating will remain. Also, a cheese mite can settle on long-aged cheeses. This will be seen by the shedding of grayish dust around and under the heads. For craft aged cheeses, this is allowed.
Before use, the head can be washed with cold water, removing the remnants of mold and covering the head with a hard sponge under running water. The aged cheese crust is quite dense and thick, it will not suffer from cold water. The heads of cheese in the photo just after such processing and drying.