2nd attempt at Blue, blue mold disappearing?

[ninintothevoid]

Hey, this is my second attempt at a blue cheese, after forming the cheese, there seemed to be a decent amount of blue mold growing on the top and bottom of cheese. I put it in the cheese fridge at 55F and 85% humidity. However, it looks like all the blue mold is disappearing and being replaced by candidum? The curds were inoculated with mold from a tasty Stilton. It also looks like the cheese is drying out despite the humidity. Based on the photo below, is there anything I should worry about? Cheese is being turned every other day. Thanks!

http://imgur.com/AOvxFoi

[Schnecken Slayer]

That looks very dry and forming a crust in the photo. Is it really that dry?

[LoftyNotions]

I agree with Bill. It looks really dry in that picture. Ideally the cheese should be in a mid 90s humidity for mold growth. Try putting it in a covered ripening container with a container of water with some kind of wicking in it to promote evaporation. You should have a light mist forming on the container walls.

Larry

[ninintothevoid]

I have a humidifier in the wine cooler, unfortunately I am travelling a bunch this month so I have someone else watching the cheese.  I asked them to turn up the humdity and see what will happen (cheese wasn't dry a week ago).  Its right now sitting in a plastic tupperware container with no lid.  Aside from cranking up the humidity, anything else I should do?  cut away the dry part?

[Al Lewis]

Not top worry, here is a picture of the 6 pound Stilton I did.  It turned brown on the outside but turned out great.

[Schnecken Slayer]

I have a humidifier in the wine cooler, unfortunately I am travelling a bunch this month so I have someone else watching the cheese.  I asked them to turn up the humdity and see what will happen (cheese wasn't dry a week ago).  Its right now sitting in a plastic tupperware container with no lid.  Aside from cranking up the humidity, anything else I should do?  cut away the dry part?

I wouldn't cut any off it but, as Larry said, put a lid over the tupperware container. (Leave a little opening at one end. You should start to see it mist up.)

[LoftyNotions]

Like Al said, mold on the outside really doesn't matter, unless you think it does. My Gorgonzolas rarely develop much blue on the outside.

Maybe it's just the photo, but the cheese does look extremely dry. I'd still get the humidity up.

Nice cheese, Al.

Larry

[ninintothevoid]

I've kept the humidity up in the 90s. Cheese is not as cracked as it looked in the first picture, but it's still dry. Using a cup of water and a paper towel instead of a humidifier.

[Al Lewis]

Looks fine.  I keep my humidity right about 85%.  Also sit my blues out at room temp for about an hour a day.

[Fundy Mental]

Al

after airing them for an hour, do you put them back in the container with the lid on?

[Al Lewis]

I don't use containers for blues.  I wrap mine in a single layer of butter muslin and sit them in the cave.  That seems to keep the blue mold to itself and allows the air in the cave to circulate around it.

[John@PC]

I don't use containers for blues.  I wrap mine in a single layer of butter muslin and sit them in the cave.  That seems to keep the blue mold to itself and allows the air in the cave to circulate around it.

That is an interesting thing to consider.  I assume your using the cloth for mold isolation and not RH control?  I do use mini-caves but more for getting RH higher than my 85% cave.  Just got me thinking about whether disposable poly cheesecloth would be worth trying?  I've got a bunch of the stuff laying around and I may wrap my last blue and my RH datalogger in it to see what happens. 

[Al Lewis]

Well so far my butter muslin wrap has worked fine for mold control.

[ninintothevoid]

The cheese looked even more dried out, so I decided to call it quits and slice it at 7 weeks.  Surprisingly, it isn't as dry as I thought and has some decent blue veining.  It probably would have been better if I aged it another month, but it was pretty tasty and easily spreadable.  I'm going to have to find a better way to control the humidity, even with a bowl of water and a paper towel wick, the humidity varied from 60% to 90%.  My portable humidifier died on me for no obvious reason.

[Al Lewis]

That blue looks great!  AC4U!!