Author Topic: Fourme d'Ambert - My turn :)  (Read 4572 times)

Tomer1

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Fourme d'Ambert - My turn :)
« on: March 15, 2013, 06:49:59 PM »
Raw milk. initial pH 6.52 ?
inoculated with 0.75% of pre-ripened messo starter (probat 222) and blended 50gr piece of dambert with milk to make a slurry.
Renneted and after 13min the milk turned to gel.  used a 4.5X multiplier and by 60minutes I was ready to ladle about 8 liters of curd directly into a plyban bag for stilton and the rest was cut to 1` pieces.
Acidification was slow dou to not enough culture so instead of 80 minutes of occasional stirring it turned into about 140 minutes before draining.
I removed the way, piled the curds in the pot and pressed them to get them to mat better and cut pieces to fit the moulds.
I tried to maintain 28-30c in the pot as much as I could. It took almost 15 hours (instead of 8) to reach salting pH.
Dry salted by weight, 5% and its air drying now.
The stilton make was according to Pav's recipe, it also took forever to reach 4.6 but eventually it did , I miled and salted to 3% by weight and got them into two 500gr moulds.
Overall: 2X500 gr mini stiltons
3X500 gr mini dambert, 1X1300 gr tall dambert.

Should be enough blue cheese to last for the entire summer  :P

Quote
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Tomer1

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Re: Fourme d'Ambert - My turn :)
« Reply #1 on: March 15, 2013, 08:43:24 PM »
Stilton curds were not mating what so ever after 60 minutes so I decided to put them in the oven set to 35c to warm them up and what do you know... after 30 minutes they matted.
I saved some salted curds and put it in the fridge. how do I use them to fill the holes while smoothening the surface?  should they be warmed? should I mash them very finely?

Offline H-K-J

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Re: Fourme d'Ambert - My turn :)
« Reply #2 on: March 15, 2013, 09:52:13 PM »
Tommer
I never save curd for my Stiltons, after flipping for 5 days in the mould I use a non-serrated butter knife and aggressively smooth the sides top and bottom,
 check this video out

 and here is one I made doin my last Stilton
smoothin a home made Stilton cheese
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Offline Schnecken Slayer

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Re: Fourme d'Ambert - My turn :)
« Reply #3 on: March 16, 2013, 05:13:06 AM »
I have not seen anyone say how to use the saved curd to fill the outside.  :(

As HKJ says just smooth them later on. The recipe I used said to do this at 4 days but they were still too firm.
Day 5 was a different story and I was able to smooth the outside relatively easily. (I had a few chunks try to come loose but managed to persuade them to stay there!)


-Bill
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Tomer1

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Re: Fourme d'Ambert - My turn :)
« Reply #4 on: March 16, 2013, 04:52:09 PM »
Yep, @ day 2 the cheese no longer expells much whey and it looks very firm. 
Id imagine that by day 4-5 It will start geting humid in the box and some rind will start to form.
I might heat the curds (which are at the cave in a plastic bag) to 33-34c by dipping the bag in warm water, so they are more pliable.

bbracken677

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Re: Fourme d'Ambert - My turn :)
« Reply #5 on: March 16, 2013, 05:06:27 PM »
Using saved curd to smooth would be very similar to applying frosting to a cake   ;D

Offline Al Lewis

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Re: Fourme d'Ambert - My turn :)
« Reply #6 on: March 16, 2013, 05:59:58 PM »
Forget saving curd, just smooth it.  If it has small imperfections in the surface they will go away as the mold/rind develops.  Mine didn't come close to smoothing perfectly but smoothed itself with time.
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Tomer1

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Re: Fourme d'Ambert - My turn :)
« Reply #7 on: March 21, 2013, 03:04:59 PM »

Left - unsmoothened, right- smooth.
It took about 4-5 minutes per cheese. had to be cerful to not break the curds and  chip the cheese. (the curds on the edges perhaps matted a bit loosely...)



Tomer1

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Re: Fourme d'Ambert - My turn :)
« Reply #8 on: March 21, 2013, 03:07:00 PM »
My F.D grew some PC.  which is odd as I dont have any PC ripened cheeses in the cave.

Is it possible that the FD rind had some PC under all that linens and yeast?
I reduced the humidy and patted down the growth. which is now competing with the greenish blue mold.

bbracken677

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Re: Fourme d'Ambert - My turn :)
« Reply #9 on: March 22, 2013, 01:08:12 AM »
That seems to be a common development. The early pretty blue covering changes into a wide variety of colors and molds looking not nearly so pretty lol


jwalker

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Re: Fourme d'Ambert - My turn :)
« Reply #10 on: March 22, 2013, 11:54:24 AM »
Forget saving curd, just smooth it.  If it has small imperfections in the surface they will go away as the mold/rind develops.  Mine didn't come close to smoothing perfectly but smoothed itself with time.

 What is the main purpose behind smoothing the outer layer , is it just for looks or is it really necessary  for some other reason?

I recently made a gorgonzola , it looks much like the one in Als first pic , it was pressed lightly in the mold at 5 lbs. , it's already pretty smooth and I really don't want to handle it anymore than I have to.

Looks great Tomer!
How do you measure the ph , do you have a meter or use test strips?
I was thinking of buying a meter.

Cheers , Jim.

Tomer1

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Re: Fourme d'Ambert - My turn :)
« Reply #11 on: March 22, 2013, 04:22:13 PM »
Stilton is cheddared so there are alot of holes\openings in between the curds which is great, but also alot of openings in the rind for yeast and excessive amount of oxygen to enter and ripen the cheese too quickly.
So... as I understand it, stilton should be smoothened for optimal flavor\ripening.

I use an Extech Ph110 unit which has been very reliable (but I do keep good care of it regarding cleaning and calibrate it before each make).

Tomer1

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Re: Fourme d'Ambert - My turn :)
« Reply #12 on: March 22, 2013, 04:24:04 PM »
That seems to be a common development. The early pretty blue covering changes into a wide variety of colors and molds looking not nearly so pretty lol

It smells very mushroomy but I obviously dont want such intense protolysis to cause the paste to liquify and also ammoniation can become a problem as these are box ripened cheeses...

Offline Boofer

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Re: Fourme d'Ambert - My turn :)
« Reply #13 on: March 23, 2013, 05:44:12 AM »
Stilton is cheddared
Really!? ???

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Offline Schnecken Slayer

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Re: Fourme d'Ambert - My turn :)
« Reply #14 on: March 23, 2013, 06:25:18 AM »
Stilton is cheddared
Really!? ???

-Boofer-

Yes you break it up in to walnut size pieces and then... Oh wait that's not cheddaring..  ::)

I knew what he meant!
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One day I will add something here...