Eccles Blue

[graysalchemy]

Well after my affinage problems, I have decided to make some more blues.

Roughly taken from Caldwells Stilton recipe.

4 Gallons (uk) whole milk (bog standard supermarket milk)
100ml cultured butermilk
PR form my  inoculated sourdough
2.5ml calcium chloride solution.
2 tsp of junket rennet

Heat milk to 32c
Add buttermilk and CaCO3 and PR
rippen 1 hr
Add rennet and leave 1 hr
Cut curds to 1"
Leave 10 minutes
Strain into cloth lined collanders.
Tie up and back into double boiler at 32c for 2-3 hrs
Press overnight between boards
Salt and put in hoops



My PR



Milk ripening 32c



Cut curds



Draining whey



Resting in bundles. Will tighten the knots every so often.

Leaving for a few hrs now before putting under a little weight overnight.

[Matthewcraig]

good luck, looking forward to seeing how it turns out using sourdough PR 

[graysalchemy]

The last lot, the PR was quite virulent  and maturing quite nicely.

Just put another sourdough baguette in with the PR. 

[H-K-J]

Yep, this should be interesting to watch

[graysalchemy]

These are two weeks old and coming on well I think. 

[graysalchemy]

After spending the night under some weight, they have now been milled, salted and packed into two molds about 880g each at this stage. 

[Andrew Marshallsay]

I'm interested to know how you extracted the blue from the sourdough as I have a sourdough PR culture myself.
I soaked mine in water for a while and then strained it and added the water to the milk,but I'm wondering if there's a better way.
The growth on the 2 week old ones looks great.

[graysalchemy]

Before now I have just done as you have soaked a bit in water. This time I took the tub with a lid on and gave it a good shake and loads of spores just fell off. I just tipped the whole lot in a sieve over the Vat and loads just fell in. I think I may also try grinding a load up then sieving to see if that works. 

The PR on my sourdough goes all the way through not just on the surface, so I think it may work.

[Andrew Marshallsay]

Thanks for that. I might try something similar when my next blue make comes up.

[Matthewcraig]

i am going to be very interested to see how this turns out good luck!