Well, since I like blue cheese and Stilton is pretty much my favorite I decided to go for it.
Used the make from wa cheese (thanks Pav).
Some interesting things afoot, finally got a pH meter that works.
so here we go:
and excuse the typos, the big blue bird in the avatar is "helping" me type!
Make:
3 Gal Trader Joes creamline milk
Flora Danica starter
3/4 tsp CaCl
41 drops calf rennet
Chooit C9 PR (high proteolitic and aroma but that is what i could get today)
brouhgt the milk to 70 degrees
added a small pinch of the PR and 1/2 tsp of Flora Danica
pH was 6.85! Meter calibrates fine and measures other things that would give an expected pH. Don't know what is goingo on with the milk.
Let it ripen 90 minutes (got a .02 drop so I guess the FD is finally waking up)
Added CaCl and let it rest for 5 minutes.
Added 41 drops rennet and got floc at 12.5 minutes. Used a floc factor of four. Great curds and very easy to work with.
after50 min, cut to 1 inch.
Let brew for 90 min. Occaisional stirring to keep from matting. pH still high but dropping slowly.
pH dropped to 6.36. not quite what I wanted but I wanted to proceed. Curds looked really good and agian were easy to work with.
Moved curd to a cheese cloth bag. Wow, lot of curd. tied the ol' Stilton knot and put it back in the pot. Tightened tbe knot twice in two hours. Lot of whey expelled but i let it set in the why. pH dropped to 6.0.
removed bag of curds, discarded whey and it is now sitting at room temp to acidify. Made ricotta but only got about 300 gm's.
More to follow and of course pics.
2300 and the pH is 5.2. the flora danica is finally working and how!