H-K-J's 2nd 5 gallon Stilton

[H-K-J]

H-K-J did you do a brine rind wash or have you?

UUmmmmm no?
My Stiltons are natural rind PR-PV induced rind, I never do anything to the rind, make them scary as Heck >:D

[H-K-J]

OK, Never mind :-\
Just went ahead and done-it  :o
The little bit we were getting from the piercing was so delish,
Hope the holes are big enough to get air to the inside PR-PV :o
If the holes close to fast I will be using a larger tool in a week or so 8)

[shotski]

Very nice H-k-j. I will be piercing my Stiltons in the next day or two. Smells irresistible.

[Al Lewis]

Looking good!!!  Can't wait for mine to ripen fully. ;)

[Reino]

HKJ, I had the similar question some time ago.

I don't know about the size of the piercing tool they use for real Stilton, but what it seemed to me when watching the videos, they are making really a lot of holes with a small diameter. So I did myself a tool with which I can make 6 holes at a time with the diameter of around 1 mm only. And as you can see from the picture in my thread: https://cheeseforum.org/forum/index.php/topic,11000.0.html the airing has worked pretty OK. But on the other had I have not used any additional cream.

[H-K-J]

Here is a little tool I will be making.
such a great Idea (from member Moski 8))

Very nice H-k-j. I will be piercing my Stiltons in the next day or two. Smells irresistible.

Thanks Al ^-^, say out of curiosity (hhhmmmmmm how do I put this?) how big is your Stilton Cheese piercing tool? ;)

[Al Lewis]

I use a 1/8" diameter wood skewer.  You can buy a bag of them at any grocery store for a buck or two.

[Reino]

I thought of posting a picture of my piercing tool, but it looks the same as you have linked, HKJ. The only difference being that mine has 6 needles and the diameter of needles is way way smaller.

Makes the whole piercing work much faster!

[Al Lewis]

Here is a little tool I will be making.
such a great Idea (from member Moski 8))

Very nice H-k-j. I will be piercing my Stiltons in the next day or two. Smells irresistible.

Thanks Al ^-^, say out of curiosity (hhhmmmmmm how do I put this?) how big is your Stilton Cheese piercing tool? ;)

Someone stole the wife's knitting needles. LOL

[H-K-J]

A thought  >:D

[H-K-J]

Not wanting to over ripen this we took a peek at it last night.
My opinion, Fantastic!!!
We puled 2 core samples out (I forgot to take pix's of the first one) the interior bluing has started to radiate from the center as I have seen in the video's
the picture's don't do the blue color justice, it is much brighter, the paste is still young yet has a very nice creamy taste and texture, wonderful after taste
no blue bite, very mild, so back to the cave/cooler and I think only 3 more weeks of aging, I hope this will be the happy medium I have been looking for.
As a note to myself, the bicycle spoke piercing holes didn't become over grown as the larger skewer holes had. I was afraid they were to small and wouldn't let enough oxygen into the center of the paste, I observed that the curd has the cracks and crevasses I have been trying to get, the blue is growing just fine. ;D
I won't re-pierce this unless the holes start to get overgrown, nowhere have I seen or read that Stilton does this, only under certain circumstances.
All in all very happy with the way this is ageing  ^-^ so far so Good 8)

[CWREBEL]

Oh baby! Bet that's going to be great melted on a grilled steak!

[bbracken677]

Congratulations!  A cheese for your wonderful looking cheese! 

I am so going to make the perfect stilton one of these days....

My most recent was a white stilton (no blue) just cause I wanted to see what it would be like. After a couple of failures (one major, one minor) I feel like I am due a really good one..

[shotski]

Great job H-K-J, That looks awesome. That deserves a cheese just for being able to not cut into it.

[H-K-J]

WOW guy,s thanks for the cheese ;D
The smoothing with the knife, the smaller air holes, overnight pressing and dryer curd all has helped move this cheese closer to what I have been trying to do.
Still have 2 weeks, then I will check the bluing again, if it is where we think it should be, BAGGIN TIME! :)
Not going to let this one go overboard on the blue, the last one not only bites back it smacks yuh right in the mouth :o
(my wife says tuh quit bitchin or she'll eat is all by her self ::))
All the holes are turning dark from the PR, but they seem not to be growing over, time will tell 8)