Author Topic: Scraped my blues  (Read 8982 times)

Shalloy

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Re: Scraped my blues
« Reply #15 on: March 26, 2013, 04:03:06 AM »
So what should I be doing with this slimy but sticky coating? My instructions say to scrape the blue mould from the surface every 20-30 days. But after I scraped the mould off when I hit the fist 30 days I haven't had any further mould grow on the surface, except a few small patches and the cheese is now around 70 days old.

Should I be washing the slimyness off with a vinegar and salt soluton?

Offline Schnecken Slayer

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Re: Scraped my blues
« Reply #16 on: March 26, 2013, 05:22:17 AM »
As Tiarella said, it is probably Geo which is keeping the other moulds at bay and isn't a problem.
You could try washing/wiping it with a salt & vinegar solution but this may not be necessary.

How much longer is it going to be aged?
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Shalloy

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Re: Scraped my blues
« Reply #17 on: March 26, 2013, 11:17:07 AM »
Well the recipe said a total of 90 days before wrapping so they have another month.

Offline Al Lewis

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Re: Scraped my blues
« Reply #18 on: March 26, 2013, 02:08:53 PM »
Not sure which recipe you are using but I never scrape the mold off of my stiltons.  They form an incredible hard crust that protects the interior.
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hoeklijn

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Re: Scraped my blues
« Reply #19 on: March 26, 2013, 03:54:56 PM »
What recipe did you use, or, what kind of blue is it supposed to become? A Fourme d' Ambert does have a different body than a Stilton-like.
I've got a Stilton-like in the cave at the moment and every evening it's out of the cave for about half an hour. Then I rub the rind with a clean cheesecloth and twice a week I clean the rind with a brine solution.

Offline H-K-J

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Re: Scraped my blues
« Reply #20 on: March 26, 2013, 05:30:07 PM »
I have just let my Stilton go scary the rind has always dried out after a couple of weeks, unless I have the RH to high
The only scraping I do is where I seal the rind after the first 5 days of flipping
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Shalloy

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Re: Scraped my blues
« Reply #21 on: March 27, 2013, 08:59:32 PM »
its the recipe that came with my mad millie cheese kit. It aid after 30 days to scrape the mould of the surface which I did and it took it back to a white as in the photos futher back in my posts.  It then says to scrape the moul every 20-30 days but there is no surface mould any more.

So it would be ok for me and beneficial to give these a wipe in brine to remove the stickyness?

Offline H-K-J

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Re: Scraped my blues
« Reply #22 on: March 27, 2013, 10:23:46 PM »
I have Ricki Carroll's book, I noticed in almost all of her blue recipe's she say's to scrape after X amount of day's (or months) I have never done that on mine so I thought it was kind of odd, I remembered she posted a Stilton recipe on her site, she doesn't say to scrape the cheese at any time.
as far as salting yours, not ever doing this either, yet they do on other blues, it may help or it may draw out more moisture from the interior, not sure about that, if your RH is to high (95% +) you might want to bring that down to 85 or 90% to help dry the rind out some what.
I have only been playin with these for about a year, so maybe someone who has salted the rind might be able to help you more in the direction you need to be going.
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Offline Al Lewis

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Re: Scraped my blues
« Reply #23 on: March 27, 2013, 11:59:01 PM »
I use the recipe from her site for my Stiltons and they come out great.  Quit scraping the good stuff off of the outside or you won't have any cheese left.
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Shalloy

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Re: Scraped my blues
« Reply #24 on: March 28, 2013, 04:13:46 AM »
Ive kept the lid open in my maturation container for about a month now on and off to try and reduce the humidty. My hygro packed up but before that the humidty was down around 85%.

A couple of times my temp controller relay has stuck and the fridge got down to -5C but Ive fixed that and it didnt seem to have a detrimental effect on the cheese. I will admit I was concerned about how much cheese I lost from the surface the first time I scraped them and was reluctant to have to do it a second and a third time when due.

So I will leave them alone for now and see how they are in another months time when they are due to be wrapped and dropped to 3C.

thanks.

Shalloy

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Re: Scraped my blues
« Reply #25 on: April 05, 2013, 10:04:44 AM »
I ended up washing the cheese in a salty water solution to remove the slime. I also moved them from my camping fridge to a normal fridge and even with the lid on the container closed and a wet cloth in the bottom the best I can get the humidity up to is 74%. I struggled to keep it below 90% in my camping fridge and Im guessing its because the new fridge has a fan which blows cold air in from the freezer. (even though the lid is filly closed on the maturation box.)

Will 74% be humid enough for these blues?

Offline Schnecken Slayer

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Re: Scraped my blues
« Reply #26 on: April 06, 2013, 09:59:17 PM »
In the cooler fridge they will take a lot longer to fully mature and the low humidity may cause them to dry out a bit too much.
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Offline Tiarella

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Re: Scraped my blues
« Reply #27 on: April 06, 2013, 10:55:13 PM »
I use the recipe from her site for my Stiltons and they come out great.  Quit scraping the good stuff off of the outside or you won't have any cheese left.

Al, I love the ID paper in your photo.  It reminds me of cataloging numbers next to an archaeological find!  And the cheese looks like it was dug up somewhere with that lovely antique look!   :D