How to Turn a Mini Fridge Into a Cheese Cave
I learned how to make cheese under the guidance of two women on a farm in New Zealand. A memory that’s really stuck is showing a cheese cave, an outbuilding sheltered by the biggest duck I’ve ever seen. As if explaining his generosity, the cheese maker remarked: “We throw him a lot of cottage cheese.”
I don’t have a duck keeper, but I do have a cheese cave. When my hobby of making cheese really started to take off, it became necessary to have a place to age and store them. Making them is not difficult, you just need to find the details.
What you need to know about cheese caves
Cheese caves do two things: help the cheese ripen by creating an environment perfect for mold to grow, and protect your cheese from anything that might have mold that we don’t want to grow. If you really love cheese but don’t plan on making it yourself, you can just use your fridge, which usually has drawers that can keep the humidity higher since you buy cheese that has already matured.
The cave maintains a certain temperature and humidity. The required temperature and humidity may vary slightly depending on the specific cheese you are making, but they are all in the same rough area: around 50℉ and 80% humidity. Your average refrigerator is set to a much lower temperature and much lower humidity – 35-40℉ and 65% RH – so we’re far from standard settings.
You will need space in your cave; you need space for air to circulate around your cheese. Soft cheeses can be three to six inches, and if you’re making hard cheese, they can be eight to 10 inches. You will also need a way to get fresh air in, although opening and closing the door is often sufficient.
You will need shelves for your cheese and most refrigerator shelves are not suitable because they are glass. We need air to circulate around the cheese, so wire shelves are great, and wood can be used in some cases.
Container
With modifications, refrigerators make great cheese caves and most hobbyists use them as a base. They are really well insulated, able to cool and are a big box.
You can start with any working refrigerator, and some people go for bigger ones, but for your first foray, I recommend a mini fridge or wine cooler. Many start with a used appliance. The real benefit of a wine cooler is that it often controls humidity and temperature so you don’t have to do much more, which is a real bonus.
If not, then you need a mini fridge without a freezer. This is very important because the freezer will affect the temperature and humidity in the fridge and you usually can’t remove them without destroying the properties of the coolant. The goal is to protect one empty box. At the time I built mine, everyone was chasing the Danby because they tended to fit. You will be competing with people trying to build beer fridges because they have the same needs.
Start with all the places you would look for used items: Craigslist, Facebook Marketplace, BuyNothing, Nextdoor, even Reddit or OfferUp. Finding the source may take some time.
Once you have the fridge in your hot little hands, the most important step is to search it like your life depended on it. You’re going to create a very mold-friendly environment, but we want to control the appearance of mold, and that starts with a perfect environment. Use bleach and get into all the nooks and crannies.
Next, you need to remove the shelves, both from the refrigerator and from the door, as well as any baskets. They are usually fairly easy to remove. You won’t need them, so you can repurpose them. The refrigerator should now be completely empty.
Instead of shelves, we will insert wire racks; you just have to find the right size rack on Amazon. This is usually pretty easy to do. You can also use some really strong glue and some strips of sheathing to support the shelves.
Temperature control
The refrigerator works by turning on when the temperature reaches a high temperature. It cools the passenger compartment to the set temperature and then turns off. We just need to change this temperature, and we can do it with the Inkbird controller . Connect the refrigerator to the Inkbird controller and set the temperature to 50℉. The controller will tell the refrigerator when to turn it on and off. I highly recommend watching a video on how to set up Inkbird.
Inkbird probes are small and can be taped to a wall and then carried out the door. You don’t need a hole for this, the wire is small enough for the rubber grommet on the refrigerator to seal it.
Humidity control
The Inkbird controller will also monitor and control the humidity, but since there is no humidity device in the refrigerator, you will need to make one. People usually use small cold mist humidifiers for this, and you plug them into a controller. You need to find one that doesn’t require you to press a button to turn it on; it should turn on after being connected to a power source. Now these gentlemen need to be refilled with water fairly regularly, but that’s okay because you’ll be checking these cheeses daily.
You might be tempted to “hack” this by hanging wet towels in the fridge. Do not do that. Again, we do our best to encourage good mold, but as any lazy teenager will tell you, damp towels also create bad mold.
Adding fresh air
Opening the door of your (small) refrigerator every day will usually provide a sufficient exchange of fresh air. But as you get bigger or need a more controlled environment, you can add a computer fan to the vent on the side and plug it in and you’ll have fresh air all the time. You’ll need one for the intake and one for the exhaust, so you’ll get a breeze. Get the smallest fans you can and keep them as low as possible. They will keep the air circulating even though your humidifier will run longer.
Securing the floor
I put my cave underlay because all that moisture has to go somewhere and I’d rather it wasn’t my floors.
Other than that, you’re all set. Now that you have a cheese cave, you can put all your cheese in it, not just the cheese you make yourself. But you really should start making cheese yourself. This is very beneficial.