2nd attempt at Blue, blue mold disappearing?

[John@PC]

Another cheese for you as well.  If you want you can wrap the other half in foil or plastic and let it continue "blueing" in the fridge a while longer.

As for humidity control one thing I've learned is that whatever method you use to measure make sure it's reading correctly.  If you don't have a certified hygrometer the easiest way is to place it in a sealed container with a saturated salt solution (here's some more info).  If you use NaCl the equilibrium will be very close to 75%, and if you use KCl it will be 85% which is the reason I prefer to use potassium chloride.  And as was said earlier mini-caves are nice because you can get pretty good at judging humidity by looking for light condensation on the sides of the box and adjusting the lid accordingly.

[LoftyNotions]

Well done, ninintothevoid. Have another cheese. I'm one of the short agers for blues, and typically I cut my Gorgonzolas at 6 to 7 weeks. I vacuum bag mine, which stops blue development, but they still age and further develop.

Larry

[Danbo]

Nice blue... :-) Have a cheese!

[ninintothevoid]

Quick question, is it typical to have a lot of b linens on the outside of a stilton? Cheese tastes good, but the smell is strong(not ammonia, but like a limburger or mother)

[LoftyNotions]

I can't answer specifically for Stiltons, but for my Gorgonzolas #3 didn't have significant B. linens but #4 does. I specifically tried to set up conditions for a wilder rind with #4 by increasing humidity into the mid 90s and by manhandling it every time i flipped it. I know that Boofer wears Nitrile gloves when he handles his cheeses, so that might be something you want to try on your future makes. It seems our hands are teeming with linens.

Here is a link with some general rind formation info from Linuxboy. It's from the Tomme section, but it's helpful here too: http://cheeseforum.org/forum/index.php/topic,5687.msg41588.html#msg41588


And a small section of it:

Here's a quick rundown on the most common flora types and their preferred conditions:

- Geotrichums like 92-95% RH, high O2 levels, and 52F, and up to 5% salt, depends on variant
- Penicilliums, both roqueforti and candidum like very high O2, 95% RH, and 50-55F, salt tolerance usually at least 4%, can be as high as 10%. Likes dry rind to bloom.
- Debromyces and Kluyveromyces like standard yeast conditions, 55-60F, sugar, nitrogen source, etc.
- Misc Streptococcus like 2-3% salt, can be higher, pH >5.7
- B linens likes 98% RH, 52F, 3% salt min, 14-15% salt max, pH >5.8

HTH,

Larry