Buttons: an experiment with cheese

Step 2 Drying

I gave these a few hours outside in the breeze, under a sieve. However I did return to find the sieve displaced and the Edam gone, so I had to cut that one again.
Then I gave them a gentle warming with the fan-heater that warms my toes at night. This caused the cheese to "sweat" grease, which was blotted with kitchen-towel (paper).

The cycle was repeated: sun & breeze during the day, warm air in the evening, over 7 days.

Austrian Smoked Processed Cheese
Not really cheese, but it dried quite well shrinking to ¹/₂" 67%

Edam
Quite a good cheese for drying shrinking to ⁹/₁₆" 75%

Boursin
Hard to tell, as something mushy there wasn't any apparent loss of width, it was the thickness that diminished. However since it started plastered on a strip of packaging it's not that suprising.

Mini Babybel Original
Formed a bit of a crust, not a nice finish, shrunk to ⁹/₁₆" 75%

Mini Babybel Cheddar Variety
Like the original it formed a bit of a crust, but more so, shrunk to ¹⁹/₃₂" 79%

Red Leicester
Dried the best (and quickest) finishing at ⁹/₁₆" 75%