Has anyone done this?

Debbie in Wa · #1 04/05/11, 01:23 PM

Last weekend Hubby and I went to the local LDS church as they were having an emergency prepardeness event. First one I have seen here in our neck of the woods. Anywho there was a famly there that had all there goodies to show on their table. I had to look when the Backwoods Home magazines were scattered all over. This can was showing some of here home canned goods of bacon, butter, and such. But what caught my eye was her cheese. She said she has been doing this for some time and had no problems. She buys the big loafs of cheese like Tillmook, takes a cheese cloth and dips it in paraffin. She then carefully wraps the cheese,still in its original wrapper, and makes a neat covering. After that dries, she then dips it five morre times, drying inbetween. If they didn't use the cheesecloth, the wax would chip off easier. She did tell me that she has done this for years with no ill effect, and the cheese seems to actual age more.
I am now going to go and buy some paraffin and do me up some. We are big time cheese eaters and hate to freeze big blocks of cheese. They tend to crumble more after thawing.

Canning Girl · #2 04/05/11, 01:43 PM

I don't know about her cheese, though it does sound risky, but I do know that canning bacon and butter is NOT recommended.

bee · #3 04/05/11, 01:44 PM

A couple of questions..does she wrap and parrafin COLD cheese as bought or bring it to room temp first? Does she store it in the fridge after her waxing or on a cool shelf in say a basement or root cellar?? Wax OVER commercial plastic wrap left intact?

Trixters_muse · #4 04/05/11, 01:47 PM

I remember some time back in the Countryside Families forum this topic was discussed and overall people had good results. You may want to check the archives there or maybe post a thread there.

As for canning bacon and butter, I know some people have had good luck with this, others have said it does not work so well. I have recently canned some bacon using a tutorial someone here posted and it worked well for me. It kept well and tasted good when we opened it. I have one more on the shelf, I wanted to let it sit for some time and open and try it.

NewGround · #5 04/05/11, 06:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Trixters_muse

I remember some time back in the Countryside Families forum this topic was discussed and overall people had good results. You may want to check the archives there or maybe post a thread there.

As for canning bacon and butter, I know some people have had good luck with this, others have said it does not work so well. I have recently canned some bacon using a tutorial someone here posted and it worked well for me. It kept well and tasted good when we opened it. I have one more on the shelf, I wanted to let it sit for some time and open and try it.

Do tell more about the canned bacon. You are talking cooked bacon, right?

Debbie in Wa · #6 04/05/11, 07:54 PM

Bee, she keeps it in her food pantry in the basement. I am thinking that the reason she left the wrapper on is to keep it fresh from air. I was thinking of how they do cheese now and put the wax coating on it and let it sit for a time to help age it.
TM, I have done the bacon and butter and had no problem with it. I will check out the archives in the other forum. Thanks
NewGround, I do my bacon right from the package. In the last issue of Backwoods Home magazine was an artical on how to do it. I used the parchment paper the first time but hte next batch I am using the brown painters paper as I was disappointed in how the parchemnt paper fell apart when putting the bacon in the canning jars. We have eaten some of our bacon that we canned and was really happy with it. It was not as greasy because when you pressure can it some of the grease ends up in the bottom of the jar.

Debbie in Wa · #7 04/05/11, 08:19 PM

O.K. found this site on the internet and hopefully this will help me some.

http://www.rugettingprepared.blogspot.com/

yailukmuu · #8 04/05/11, 08:47 PM

I love to visit the Vermont Country Store a bit South of Chester, Vermont. It's a very fun place to visit, and oftentimes they have samples.

They have at least 60 types of cheese. They have cheddar cheese that is 1 year aged; 2 year aged; 5 years aged; 7 years aged, and I believe that they even have a ten and twelve year "reserve" cheddar. As the age goes up so too does the price, I think I've seen it as high as $30+ a pound. Way too high for me to buy, but I just love the samples.

I'd like to know more about storing and aging cheddar and wonder if the paraffin needs to be a certain temperature to sterilize any bacteria or fungus (mold) on the surface, it would seem that it would need to be a certain temperature.

I also wonder if small blocks of cheese age as well as large blocks. If anyone knows more, please post it here.

Trisha in WA · #9 04/05/11, 08:55 PM

I have never canned butter, but ghee (clarified butter) is shelf stable and keeps a VERY long time.
Can't really speak to the cheese issue. I would think it should work though. I am currently trying to make a cheese a week from our cows milk. I will probably vac seal it after it has aged enough rather than wax it though...not sure yet as we keep eating it as fast as I can make it LOL

Just Cliff · #10 04/05/11, 09:00 PM

That is an interesting site. I may have to try the cheese idea.

Trixters_muse · #11 04/06/11, 12:48 PM

Here is the article for canning bacon, this is the method I used and have been very pleased with the results. I used freezer paper to wrap mine.

http://www.backwoodshome.com/articles2/gay127.html

As for the cheese, I spoke to my grandpa last night and he said my grandma used to "home dip" store cheese when it was on sale. He said she let it sit a few minutes on the counter to get rid of the chill, wrap in cheesecloth then dip it into the wax at least 5 times, allowing it to dry between dunks. He said she used 5 dips on very aged cheese and 6 or more on less aged. He said they kept it up to 9 months in a cool, dark cupboard... didn't last past that with all the kids and grands in the house.

mekasmom · #12 04/06/11, 12:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Debbie in Wa

some of here home canned goods of bacon, butter, and such. But what caught my eye was her cheese. She said she has been doing this for some time and had no problems. She buys the big loafs of cheese like Tillmook, takes a cheese cloth and dips it in paraffin. She then carefully wraps the cheese,still in its original wrapper, and makes a neat covering. After that dries, she then dips it five morre times, drying inbetween.

People have done this with cheese for ions with no ill effects. It's just the newer recommendations that say not to do it. I also can butter, and would can milk, but haven't had good luck with the color. I don't know anyone who has. It's one of those things that "could" possibly be a risk. But how many people have gotten ill from it in all truth? I mean you could get hit by a truck tomorrow, but does that mean you don't cross the street?

Debbie in Wa · #13 04/06/11, 01:46 PM

Thanks everyone for the input. I think I will start by using the pariffin and see about maybe doing some with actual cheese wax. I think this will be a good thing to do for us as I can cut the loaf in half so not as much is being "open". Also if I had to share or barter in an emergency, I wouldn't be giving out a huge brick of cheese.

lonelyfarmgirl · #14 04/07/11, 10:20 AM

we had a 40 pound block of cheese in the fridge. DH forgot about it for years. It was vac-sealed from the plant. Well, when he 'found' it one day, I opened it and cut it into smaller pieces and re vac-sealed it. and I put it in the basement in the cellar, It stays 55-65 in there. It aged faster and was very good.

I also made some goat parm and vac-sealed it and put it down there. Well, after about a year, the goat parm went bad, and then a pac of the other cheese went bad. It was floating in liquid in the vac-seal bag and smelled rotten. Why did this happen?

It you stored a store bought cheese long term, why would you need to wax it if the plastic cover is intact?

mekasmom · #15 04/07/11, 05:35 PM

I don't know how anyone else does it, but I open the package and throw it away. Then wrap the chesse in cheese cloth and wax it repeatedly. The plastic is trashed though.

calliemoonbeam · #16 04/07/11, 09:20 PM

There was a good discussion about this on here a year to year and a half ago, but I've searched and searched and can't find it. Guess it got pruned in the last board overhaul, too bad.

Someone on here decided to try it as an experiment. She posted links to where she found her information, and she reported back every so often on her results and how her cheeses were aging. It seemed to work very well for "hard" cheeses, but "soft" ones not so much. It wasn't regular paraffin, but the red cheese wax...apparently there's a difference.

If I recall correctly, she too said you had to dip them five times in the wax, letting them dry thoroughly between each layer. Then she stored them somewhere out of the sunlight (pantry or root cellar?) and just turned them about once a week or maybe it was once a month, so sorry I just can't remember!

She had one that the wax split when she bumped it or something, but she just redipped it, and when she cut into it a couple of months later it was fine...and delicious, she said, lol! Sure wish I could remember who that was, not sure she even posts here any more. But I'm pretty sure she did post it on the S&EP board. She said it changed texture just slightly, but tasted like a more expensive well aged cheddar. She posted pictures, and it looked pretty good to me, maybe just a little darker and a little "oilier" looking than normal, but pretty good!

P.S. She did bring it to room temperature and took it out of the original wrapper. I could almost swear she didn't use cheesecloth, but maybe I'm just remembering that wrong. It seems like her picture showed the piece she sliced off of, and it was just the cheese and the red wax, but don't quote me on that, lol. I can see how the cheesecloth might make a "sturdier" coating though.

suitcase_sally · #17 04/08/11, 03:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lonelyfarmgirl

we had a 40 pound block of cheese in the fridge. DH forgot about it for years.

I can't even IMAGINE not being able to see a 40 lb. block of cheese in my fridge. Talk about the elephant in the room!

lonelyfarmgirl · #18 04/08/11, 07:27 PM

ok, it was in DH shop fridge, in a dusty corner, surrounded by his jars of whatever it is he drank at the time. I don't often look in there.

beaglebiz · #19 04/08/11, 07:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by suitcase_sally

I can't even IMAGINE not being able to see a 40 lb. block of cheese in my fridge. Talk about the elephant in the room!

Sally, you hit my funnybone...
I have two fridges, one in the basement, sometimes aging dried sausage (dh's thing) so it wouldnt suprise me a bit to pull out a cheese the size of a small goat

**GREENCOUNTYPETE** · #20 04/08/11, 10:30 PM

living in the land of cheese , litteraly more cows than people in the county i can tell you at the dairy , they soak the cheese in brine tanks first then wax them this would further reduce bacteria from getting in and spoiling your cheese , then they are kept to age from months to years in climate controlled rooms.