Hi everyone~

I just made my first aged cheese following the Monterrey Jack recipe in Ricki Carroll's starter kit recipe book.  It says to wax the cheese, and then to age it at a specific temperature and humidity.  The temperature qualifier makes perfect sense to me, but I don't understand the reason why waxed cheese should require a specific humidity level.  I've looked around these forums and around the internet, and I don't see this addressed anywhere specifically.  In one topic here I saw that the someone said waxed cheese didn't need a specific humidity level, but all of the recipes in the starter recipe book explicitly call for a specific humidity. Further, I have the book "Making Artisan Cheese" by Tim Smith, and he also calls for specific humidity levels with waxed cheeses, but again, there's no rationale provided.

My cheese is waxed, and I'm dutifully following the instructions, but my brain is still wanting to know "WHY?"

Thanks for any help and insight you can provide!

Kat

Very helpful, thanks!

I have the cheese in a recycled restaurant margarine bucket tipped on its side, tucked into a basement nook/closet next to the garage. In the back of the bucket is a mug of water.  The cheese is on a tulle reed mat in the front.  I have the lid snugged up against the front of the bucket, but not sealed.

An Oregon Scientific sensor is also in the bucket so I can check the temperature and humidity without opening the closet or the bucket.  The temperature has remained wonderfully stable, but I'm still experimenting with the right amount of "crack" between lid and bucket to get jsut the right humidity.

I'm relieved to know that the exact humidity isn't *too* important with waxed cheeses, and I'm also glad to know that there is a reason to be futzing with it to get it right!

Thank you, thank you, thank you!