Author Topic: Blue aging temperature gone wrong  (Read 3332 times)

dirigoma

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Blue aging temperature gone wrong
« on: August 31, 2012, 02:20:57 PM »
I'm aging my second Ricki's Blue Cheese with goat milk which was at 70 days ripening.  My first attempt was too dry, this one was a little warm at initial mold growth so is miss-shapen, but smell and color are good otherwise.

Have trouble maintaining 50F in my mini fridge in basement and needed to defrost it the other day.  FORGOT to turn it back on and my cheese sat for 2 days approaching 70F.  I'd scraped the red smear just prior.  Found it weepy, smelling very blue, soft red smear on surface, liquid under the mat.  Scraped off and back in the fridge at 40 ... or should I just seal and age out in reg fridge at this point?

Can't blame the distraction of swapping out ice blocks in a separate cooler to keep my Camembert at 50F ... but it didn't help.

Thanks, Jen

Offline Tiarella

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Re: Blue aging temperature gone wrong
« Reply #1 on: August 31, 2012, 08:52:46 PM »
Hi Jen,  that's just sad!!  I have no advice since, as you know, I have no blue experience.  I hope some of the forum experts will show up in their super cheese hero outfits, capes flowing behind them, to save the day.
; >

linuxboy

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Re: Blue aging temperature gone wrong
« Reply #2 on: August 31, 2012, 08:59:09 PM »
Cold crash it and let the flavors mellow now for 2-3 weeks at ~40F. Will taste different, but should still be edible.

When you have faster than normal breakdown due to elevated temps, it can lead to a runaway situation where undesirable flavors are formed. So if you cold crash it, that will really slow down the process, giving whatever enzymes have been formed a chance to dissipate.

dirigoma

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Re: Blue aging temperature gone wrong
« Reply #3 on: September 01, 2012, 04:22:32 PM »
Thanks for the cold suggestion - would you seal it or leave it in ripening box?  I've read about vacuum packing blues - is that to hold the mold but still give them time?

linuxboy

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Re: Blue aging temperature gone wrong
« Reply #4 on: September 01, 2012, 04:53:18 PM »
In this case, I would not seal. I would let the gases and aromas escape to temper the excess fat and protein breakdown and any off flavors.

dirigoma

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Re: Blue aging temperature gone wrong
« Reply #5 on: September 10, 2012, 09:12:36 PM »
I just couldn't resist cutting into this poor cheese after spending a morning making Castle Blues ... a hole had developed on one side and so I cut a wedge around it -- Yicks, colors I wouldn't even taste.  Almost burgundy, some white dots -- I trimmed it out around the reddish but some of the veining (that worked pretty well) almost looked a celery green color? I'll put up a photo later but wondered if you could guess at the mold and confirm my fear that it's these mold sections are not recoverable.  I could salvage 1/2.  Thanks.

Tomer1

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Re: Blue aging temperature gone wrong
« Reply #6 on: September 10, 2012, 11:00:15 PM »
Same thing happened with my last make.  Alot of bitterness.

dirigoma

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Re: Blue aging temperature gone wrong
« Reply #7 on: September 11, 2012, 01:17:22 PM »
Braving photos of this problem cheese so I can learn from numerous temperature mistakes.  To recap, this is Ricki's 'blue cheese' recipe made with goat milk mid June, now about 3 months old.  Had trouble keeping temp below 60 before piercing (thus the odd shape), then almost froze just before piercing, then spent a 70 degree day by accident last week when the mini fridge went off.  Heading out to pick up a wine fridge today!!

First is of the red mold -- the cheese surface developed a funky spot which I had carved out ... when it overheated this area was very wet.  When I decided to cut into it, I took a wedge around this hole and adjacent was this ugly red patch.

The send pic is the light green veining on one side, more normal blue on the other.

Finally the half I hoped to salvage, showing the marbling.

Thanks for anything folks can offer.

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Re: Blue aging temperature gone wrong
« Reply #8 on: September 11, 2012, 08:49:04 PM »
Wow!!!  That sure is colorful!!!  don't bring any of the burgundy part when we have our next tea.  ; >  Congrats on getting a wine fridge.  I'm going to have to get a food sealer because my wine fridge is full already and I need to be able to stack some of them.  good luck!  Hope folks with more experience have some helpful suggestions.