Stilton approximation big batch

[BobE102330]

My Stilton Approximation #3 was a great success.  Dad cut a wedge and I had trouble not gobbling up the whole thing.  We took some to a Kentucky Derby party and found it went well with Mint Juleps (at least with a light simple syrup and really heavy pour of Maker's Mark).  Dad said "Keep 'em coming" so here we go again.

Decided to make a large batch, 3.5 gallons of P/H milk, a quart of cream and Pav's recipe.  My back started to go out when I hit the stirring phase, so I just put the curds in the bag to drain.  As expected, the resulting cheese feels a bit softer than the last make. I don't have a single mold big enough to hold that much curd in the proper form factor so I slip it between two tall Camembert hoops (The ones from Yoav are taller than the ones from cheesemaking.com).

When I went to bed last night the four day old cheeses were white.  This morning I was greeted with this:

[george]

NICE, Bob!  It's aliiiiiiiiive!!

What a great thing to wake up to (among lots of other things, of course).   :)

[linuxboy]

I love the smell of Stilton in the morning  ;D

[BobE102330]

'cuz Charlie don't surf!

[Boofer]

'cuz Charlie don't surf!

8)

-Boofer-

[BobE102330]

Much softer than the last make.  It was interesting smoothing.  Too little pressure and it wanted to fall apart.  More pressure and the curds spread like butter.  I'll try to take a smoothed picture when they come out for air next time.  For now struggling to get humidity up where it belongs.

[shotski]

Hey Bob coming along very nicely. I did a 24 liter with 1.5 liters of 35% cream on Friday, just have not got around to posting. Do you have any pic's after smoothing?

[BobE102330]

Thanks, Shotski.  Here we are today - Needed a bit of touchup smoothing.  I will pierce tomorrow.

[shotski]

Nice, they must be starting to smell good as well.

[BobE102330]

Yes, they smell and taste nice.   ::)

[H-K-J]

For my wife and I there aint nuttin like the smell of an ageing Stilton :o ^-^

[BobE102330]

Three week piercing time.  I had a couple days of extra warm temps - controller issue since resolved.  They seem to have weathered the 65-70 degrees just fine.  The cheese that pushed up the needle was delicious, albeit mildly blue as expected so young. 

Scariness seems to be developing nicely.  ;)