Engraving Brie Cheese

[mbeavs]

I have wanted to engrave brie cheese for some time now, and I finally did it! I have tried both Aldi brand brie (Emporium Selection Brie Cheese Round) and Kroger brand brie (private selection).

I had much better luck with the Aldi brand because the rind is consistent and smooth, making the engraving process more consistent. Kroger brand was not coated consistently, and some areas were able to be engraved, and some were not. It may be trial and error if you do not have an Aldi near you.

Both cheese brands were 1 inch thick, so I removed the crumb tray and placed .4” risers, and set the cheese on a .4” cutting board. With the material being 1.8” total (without the crumb tray…so -1.4”) I set the material to custom .4” height.

Inside the cardboard, the cheese is wrapped in paper and sealed with a sticker; that side is less smooth because of the folds, so flip it over and try the other side.

The settings I found best for the Aldi brand were:

Engraving- 800/15/270 (2 passes where necessary)

Scoring- 500/20

Please share if you try this out!

[evansd2]

@mbeavs

some areas were able to be engraved, and some were not

That’s what you get for not using proofgrade brie.

[bill.m.davis]

I guess as long as the brie is completely sealed it should still be food-safe?

Since you are just engraving the wrapper?

[CMadok]

Brie has a mold rind surrounding the soft inside. The rind is edible too. Looks like they engraved the rind.

[bill.m.davis]

If they are engraving straight onto the rind, I wouldn’t eat it unless it is a machine that has only been used for food-grade materials.

[geek2nurse]

The laser beam is totally sterile, regardless of what it may have cut before.

[bill.m.davis]

But the fan is not.

Do you want a fan with MDF gunk on it blowing on your food?

[mbeavs]

It is more decorative, but if you decide to eat it you can cut off the engraved top and only eat the bottom half was covered with the wrapper. Definitely at your own risk and not FDA approved unless you’ve only used your GF for food!

[mbeavs]

I engraved the rind

[rvogt]

Cool engraving!

[evansd2]

@bill.m.davis

Do you want a fan with MDF gunk on it blowing on your food?

I’m the dummy that eats raw cookie dough when I’m baking, so this doesn’t worry me too much.

[bill.m.davis]

I understand that it is “probably” okay, and a little dirt won’t kill you.

But posts about warnings and measures taken before make me hesitant to do it myself.

Engraved foods

Out of an abundance of safety, the chocolate rocket the girl in the marketing video put in her mouth was actually cast from a laser-cut acrylic mold lined with plastic wrap, so the chocolate never touched anything laser-made directly. But the chocorockets were laser cut, although the settings and chocolate formulation took a week to get dialed in!

Food and contamination

I guess wood & plastic are oh so much more dangerous than all this stuff the FDA allows in our food https://www.fda.gov/food/guidanceregulation/guidancedocumentsregulatoryinformation/sanitationtransportation/ucm056174.htm

Food for printing

So much crazy stuff with food! For the video shoot, we used a chocolate candy that doesn’t need to be tempered like real chocolate, because we’re lazy. It doesn’t melt, get fingerprints, etc. WIlton Melts, if I recall. It took hours of fussing to get the cut settings right. For ‘regular chocolate’, I found that freezing and engraving works well for whole chocolate bars. Glowforge has a software-controllable focus lens, so theoretically you can defocus and cook thin things. We haven’t tried t…

@dan

This is a good time for me to restate that, out of an abundance of caution, we must recommend you not use your Glowforge for both edibles and inedibles, but dedicate it to one or the other.

[Deleted]

I’m not very Fondue on the idea, But who am I to diss a brie?

Sweet Dreams (are made of cheese)

[bill.m.davis]

After all the warnings about food contamination…

I love your play on words with this engrave.

Eurythmics, Annie Lennox, Dave Stewart - Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This) (Official Video)

Edit: Looks like I was a little slow on the upload!

[mbeavs]

Yes, definitely a personal choice and at your own risk! It is important to educate yourself and make your decision accordingly.

[mbeavs]

Yesss! I’m glad you included this! And someone has to give the disclaimer!

[jamely]

Isn’t the fan meant to suck out the debris, and not re-blow it all around?

Your caution is appreciated, many of the new and inexperienced users of this sophisticated equipment may not know that there are possible health hazards on eating anything that comes out of a laser… or eating anything, for that matter Good of you to make a note about it, and as always, each user must decide their own comfort levels of caution.

(I’m also guilty of eating cookie dough before cooking! Probably more likely to get salmonella from spinach than eggs anymore anyway )

[bill.m.davis]

@jamely

Isn’t the fan meant to suck out the debris, and not re-blow it all around?

I am referring to the air assist fan that blows on the laser contact surface.

Air Assist Fan

My machine is past warranty, so you might not want to do what I did. I’ve already gone through cleaning the case fan, and done a few modifications so that it wasn’t such a hassle the next time…and there was a next time. So I’m not nearly as reticent about opening up MCEtcher and getting my hands dirty. I got my first air assist fan warning, right as I was trying to print the bases for a large (to me) order. I thought I knew what the air assist fan was. I was wrong. In my weekly cleanings, I’ve …

[busybeaveredp]

You did an awesome job! Great idea!

[geek2nurse]

@evansd2

I’m the dummy that eats raw cookie dough

Same.