Author Topic: My 2nd Stiltonesque  (Read 7440 times)

JeffHamm

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My 2nd Stiltonesque
« on: November 11, 2013, 04:48:16 AM »
Hi,

Well, I've been watching so many wonderful blues being made I just had to try again.  I've more or less followed Pav's make, but I added a bit of weight during the draining phase (5 kg) as H-J-K does.  I didn't have time to give it the full 8 hours drain (kids to tend to, etc), but 6.5 hours with the weight I'm hoping will be enough.  I should have started the make a bit earlier, but I mistimed things.

Anyway, I harvested some mould from Mainland Blue Vein (Mainland is a big company here in NZ, but their blue vein cheese is quite good, a bit on the mild side, but that makes it enjoyable for Genesta, who is only 6 but who has a wonderfully diverse palette).  I'm hoping the resulting blue will likewise be acceptable. 

The curds look good.  As long as they hold together when they come out of the mould for smoothing, all should be good.  I'm thinking I might put 2.5 kg on top for a day, just to simulate the sort of weight a full sized stilton would produce on the curds.  Perhaps tomorrow I'll do that.

Anyway, will update as things progress.  Oh, and this is my 70th cheese.

- Jeff

Stilton Approximation modified a bit from Pav (Linuxboy)’s make (Sunday, Nov 10, 2013)

11 L Milk, Budget standard  3.3 g fat/100 ml ; 3.2 g prot/100 ml
300 ml cream (37.0 g f/100 ; 2.2 g prot/100 ml) (total p:f ratio – 0.76:1)
Mold from Mainland Blue Vein cheese.  (1/8th tsp scrapings maybe?)
6 ml Renco rennet
1 ice cubes Buttermilk
1 ice cube MW3
½  tsp 50% CaCl (put in milk before starting)
5.3 – 5.5 tsp Salt. Use around 2 tsp salt per gallon of milk (I used 5 tsp this make)
1 cup Distilled ice cold water, for diluting rennet.

Process
1)   heat milk to 30 C with 2 ice cubes from start
2)   add mould
3)   Ripen 60-90 minutes until pH is 6.45 (time 8:40 –98:14 temp 29.9 – 30.4 C)
4)   Add rennet (diluted in water) (time 8:14:00 floc time 9:31:30 17:30 4x = 70m 00 sec cut time 10:24)
5)   Cut curd into 2.54 cm pieces  heal 5-10 minutes (10:24-10:30 cut, 10:30-10:40 rest  C; 29.5 C)
6)   Stir 30 minutes to prevent matting (10:40 - 11:10 temp 31.3 – ??.? C;)
7)   then stir intermittently for 30 minutes more (11:10 –11:40 temp ??.? – 29.7 C)
8)   drain whey, cover, leave 8 hours or overnight (increase acidity) (left in lined colander on top of a pot, and placed 5 kg weight on top – wasn’t going to have 8 hours, closer to 6)
9)   mill curds into smaller pieces (6:00 pm; a bit short on time; milled to thumbnail sized)
10)   salt at 0.5 tsp/l
11)   pack curds into mould (do not press)
12)   turn mould every 15 minutes for 4 flips (flipped at 6:20, 6:35, 6:50, 7:05 pm)
13)   flip mould every 30 minutes for 4 flips (flipped at 7:35, 8:05, 8:35, ?:??) (missed the 4th flip)
14)   flip mould every hour 2-4 times (flipped at 6:00 am, ??:??, ?:??, ??:??)
15)   Leave in the mould for 4 days to continue draining, flip 1-2 times a day (room temp) (Tuesday, day 2 in the mould, added 2.5 kg weight to emulate weight of full sized cheese.  Can only do this when the open side is up; Wednesday, flipped cheese in mould, and put 2.5 kg weight on to press).
16)   Remove from mould (may show some blue) and smooth (Did this Friday evening.  Lots of blue.  Weight 1402 g).
17)   Place in cave and age 7-10 days
18)   Pierce all over, vertical and horizontally (Pierced Nov 27, 2013; 1294g - rings top/bottom and 5 spot pattern on sides; very creamy)
19)   Pierce after 3-4 weeks (Pierced ??, 2013; )
20)   Pierce again at 4-6 weeks
21)   Age minimum 60 days
« Last Edit: November 26, 2013, 05:57:13 PM by JeffHamm »

Offline Boofer

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Re: My 2nd Stiltonesque
« Reply #1 on: November 11, 2013, 03:03:26 PM »
Oh, and this is my 70th cheese.
30 more and you get the Silver Century Cheese Award! :)

Should be good. Watching with interest, Jeff.

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Offline H-K-J

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Re: My 2nd Stiltonesque
« Reply #2 on: November 11, 2013, 03:40:39 PM »
Looks real nice Jeff, your curd looks a bit dryer than what mine turns out to be,
with the opening's between the curd, should produce a nice veining in the interior :)
the one thing I haven't done is cut and stir the curd, I will try that on my next one,
I want more interior blue in mine, and as usual, I want to try one or two other tweeks.
Nice job so far, really interested how blue it will be on smoothing day  ^-^
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JeffHamm

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Re: My 2nd Stiltonesque
« Reply #3 on: November 11, 2013, 05:29:25 PM »
Thanks!  It's leaking whey still in the mould, but yes, the curds are dry.  I gave them a good stirring for the hour while listening to Robert Johnson, which I deemed appropriate.  I've flipped it with the open side of the mould up, so I've put 2.5 kg of weight on top of the follower, so the curds may compress ever so slightly.  This is more to ensure that they fuse a bit, so there is enough strength to hold it together during the smoothing and later aging.  My last make had good veining and blue development, but it had ammoniated slightly and was inedible.  This one, we hope, will be better! :)

- Jeff

JeffHamm

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Re: My 2nd Stiltonesque
« Reply #4 on: November 13, 2013, 05:53:44 AM »
So, it's now 3 days on, and the blue has sprouted through the day.  In the morning, there was not much, now, during the evening flip, the blue has really shown itself.  Smells good.  Still whey on the surface and needs a bit of mopping up each flip.  Will smooth it on Friday, and then it's into the cave.  Fingers crossed.

- Jeff

Geodyne

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Re: My 2nd Stiltonesque
« Reply #5 on: November 13, 2013, 06:24:30 AM »
Wow, that is looking lovely. That's a rapid blue!

JeffHamm

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Re: My 2nd Stiltonesque
« Reply #6 on: November 13, 2013, 10:26:04 PM »
Thanks Geo.  Hopefully it won't get out of control, as slower is better with most cheese related things.

- Jeff

Geodyne

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Re: My 2nd Stiltonesque
« Reply #7 on: November 14, 2013, 12:06:51 AM »
I was wondering whether the mainland Blue might be a quick-maturing, quick-to-pass strain. I'll be very interested to see how this will compare to the stiltons made from commercial stilton slurry.

JeffHamm

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Re: My 2nd Stiltonesque
« Reply #8 on: November 14, 2013, 12:39:54 AM »
I would not be overly surprised if this is a fast growing strain.  I was going to pick up a piece of Stilton, but the store didn't have any (I was in a Pack N Save, and sometimes their selection is a bit limited).   It was a surprisingly nice mild blue though.  I'm hoping this will be ready in about 6 weeks for around Christmas, but we'll see.

- Jeff

jwalker

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Re: My 2nd Stiltonesque
« Reply #9 on: November 14, 2013, 03:06:11 PM »
I just put a Stilton in the cave yesterday , it didn't have openings between the curds nearly as big as yours , it smoothed over quite easily , that one could be a bit of a challenge to smooth out.

Mine still had no real blue at 3 days , yours is doing great !

So far all my blues have been good at 6-8 weeks , but my latest Stilton recipe calls for 6 - 15 months , I don't know if I'll let it go that long though.

Be sure to post pics afterwards.

JeffHamm

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Re: My 2nd Stiltonesque
« Reply #10 on: November 14, 2013, 06:03:18 PM »
Hi,

Yes, smoothing could be tricky.  My first stilton was much like this, and I suspect I could mill smaller to reduce the gaping caverns.  But, the last one smoothed out ok, though not as nicely as some of the ones I've seen here.  The important thing will be to fill in the gaps, not necessarily create a perfect piston.  The mould is really coming full on now, so I'll be smoothing this after work today.  Here it is this morning.  At least there is no question about whether or not I'll get blue mould development! 

- Jeff

Offline H-K-J

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Re: My 2nd Stiltonesque
« Reply #11 on: November 15, 2013, 01:43:36 AM »
And that's the way mine used to turn out, since I started to smoothin with a knife, the rind has changed, can't figure that out :-\
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JeffHamm

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Re: My 2nd Stiltonesque
« Reply #12 on: November 15, 2013, 05:04:27 AM »
So, smoothed it today.  Was easier than I recall the first one.  Some bits crumbled off, but pasted back in.  Weighs 1402g after smoothing.  It's now in the cave at around 10 C.  Will flip twice daily, and give it some air during that time.  Will probably only age this around 6 weeks, as my first one ammoniated by 60 days.  That was due to the humidity being too high in the cave I believe, so I'll try and keep a closer eye on things that way.  Fingers crossed.

- Jeff

Offline Boofer

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Re: My 2nd Stiltonesque
« Reply #13 on: November 15, 2013, 03:05:15 PM »
So, smoothed it today.  Was easier than I recall the first one.  Some bits crumbled off, but pasted back in.
I guess I was absent from class that day...isn't it supposed to be smoothed before the blue shows up? Seems like the Stilton video showed them doing that while the cheese was still fresh & young.

I can imagine it being more than a challenge to try to get the blued curds to adhere to each other. :o

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JeffHamm

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Re: My 2nd Stiltonesque
« Reply #14 on: November 15, 2013, 05:14:37 PM »
Hi Boofer,

I think the smoothing usually is before the blue shows up quite this much, but the blue took off so quick that wasn't possible.  It still needed to drain, and the blue was coming on big time.  It wasn't too bad getting it to paste back in, but would have been easier had it just been moist paste.  I think this works in my favour, though, as I want to cut into this earlier rather than later, so well advanced blue may be fine.  Or, it may mean things are out of sync, and be less than it could be ; a sort of anti-army cheese.

- Jeff