We are working on rubbing cheese blocks (4oz and 8oz) in spices to create flavor varieties. After the rub, we vacuum seal it.
The spice rub sticks great if we heat the cheese a bit on the outside so it gets slightly oily. But we are not sure how to best do this without creating food safety issues.
Any one ever develop a safe process for something like this?
A couple initial ideas
- An additional ingredient (oil) applied to the cheese as a sticking agent (not attracted to this bc of flavor impact)
- Put the block on a stainless steel hot plate and rotate it (this seems a bit much and slow)
- Put the block under an infrared light and rotate it (could be on stainless steel or in the spices, also slow)
- Some type of conveyor through a small heat tunnel with infrared light
While I am sure this process will impact our shelf life, I am not sure to what degree.
Any thoughts or experiences to share?