Author Topic: First Blue, 1 week old  (Read 5974 times)

Offline Al Lewis

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Re: First Blue, 1 week old
« Reply #15 on: February 18, 2015, 10:16:14 PM »
Can't see why you still wouldn't want it.
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Offline awakephd

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Re: First Blue, 1 week old
« Reply #16 on: February 19, 2015, 01:33:30 AM »
Can't see why you still wouldn't want it.

Since this is my first foray into the blues, I have no idea -- but the recipe in the Caldwell book, upon which this make is partially based, calls this a "rindless blue." Of course, whether I am even close to doing this the way Caldwell intended is a matter of great doubt!

Here it is on day 15:

-- Andy

Offline Al Lewis

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Re: First Blue, 1 week old
« Reply #17 on: February 19, 2015, 02:04:15 AM »
See, there's the problem.  You need to read that book to the molds. LOL  That is very curious as I don't think I've ever seen a cheese without a rind except cottage, ricotta, and the like. Well, rindless or not, it looks great! AC4U Andy ;)
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Offline awakephd

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Re: First Blue, 1 week old
« Reply #18 on: February 19, 2015, 02:13:07 AM »
Aha, I see the problem -- I haven't been talking to the molds on this blue.

By contrast, I was caught by my wife crooning something addressed to "my fuzzy little babies" as I was checking on the camemberts that I made about the same time as this blue.  :-[

Thanks for the cheese!
-- Andy

Offline Al Lewis

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Re: First Blue, 1 week old
« Reply #19 on: February 19, 2015, 02:18:51 AM »
Just read the recipe, I have the book on my Kindle, an wow!  Just a few differences from stilton but I really got surprised when they said to wax it.  Also, the recipe just after that doesn't look much different.  Also the use of lipase.  I was told that was reserved for hard Italian cheeses.  I would be interested in knowing what they are describing when they say "rindless".


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Offline awakephd

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Re: First Blue, 1 week old
« Reply #20 on: February 25, 2015, 02:45:24 AM »
New development, and I don't think it is what it should be. This blue has been feeling increasingly squishy ... and when I pulled it out to check on it, it had leaked! I went ahead and cut it open; clearly I was starting to get a sort of slip-skin, which is ironic since I wasn't trying for a Cambozola. Would the blue have made it start to get oozy? I think there is also some geo under/alongside the blue -- maybe that is the culprit? It has been in the 50˚F cave all its life (3 weeks) -- should it have gone to the cold fridge at some point?

In any case, I can see some flecks of blue where I pierced, but clearly the holes did not stay open long enough to do too much. Flavor-wise, it is a bit bitter, not much blue. I have put it in the cold refrigerator to slow down the development of the ooze, and with the faint hope that maybe it will develop a bit more.

So, help me with the post-mortem analysis. Maybe I need a drier curd? Maybe I cross-contaminated the blue with the camemberts I am also tending? Maybe ... ???

-- Andy

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Re: First Blue, 1 week old
« Reply #21 on: February 25, 2015, 04:10:43 AM »
Andy, I don't think most blue strains are that proteolytic. Which strain did you use? My guess would be that this is a result of the geo. 50°F shouldn't have caused a problem. I age mine around 55.

What humidity were you running? In addition to putting it in a cold refrigerator, would it help maybe to start drying it out a bit at a lower humidity? Maybe wrap in cheese paper. It's hard to guess whether drier curd would help. I'm thinking more along the lines of lower humidity during aging so molds won't get so carried away.

If you can keep it together for a couple more weeks in the cold frig it should develop at least a little more blue character. Call it a Cambozola and brag about it. :)

In looking at the 200 Easy Cheeses recipe, if you used a 1-1/2 hour set time, 1 inch cut, no stirring, and ladled the curd directly into the mold, then yes, curd too wet could have exacerbated the problem. Small size probably was against you also. Look at step 14 in the 200 cheeses recipe discussing humidity.

If you want to develop a funky rind like Al does,  use a Stilton recipe with an additional draining and milling step. And go for broke size-wise on your next one. :)

HTH,

Larry

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Re: First Blue, 1 week old
« Reply #22 on: February 25, 2015, 03:29:25 PM »
]I was caught by my wife crooning something addressed to "my fuzzy little babies"
Is the a variation on, "My Melancholy Baby," by William Frawley? --- Come to me, my fuzzy little babies. Cuddle up and don't be blue...
Maybe that's why there is trouble with the blue cheese!

Offline awakephd

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Re: First Blue, 1 week old
« Reply #23 on: February 25, 2015, 07:43:20 PM »
Larry, thanks for the helpful feedback. Here are my notes on the make -- as you can see, I introduced some stirring into the recipe, based on the Caldwell book:

Add cultures when milk is at 70-80°; add CaCl; bring to 90°.
Add rennet. Wait 90 minutes.
Cut into 1” cubes; rest 10 min.
Stir gently; rest 10 more min.; repeat 3 times (40 minutes total after cut).
Ladle curds into cloth-lined colander; drain.
Add 1/4 tsp salt and mix.
Transfer curds to 4” form.
Turn every 15 minutes for 1 hour. Turn every hour until bedtime.

I think I will either try a Stilton or a Gorgonzola for my next blue attempt ...

]I was caught by my wife crooning something addressed to "my fuzzy little babies"
Is the a variation on, "My Melancholy Baby," by William Frawley? --- Come to me, my fuzzy little babies. Cuddle up and don't be blue...
Maybe that's why there is trouble with the blue cheese!

I'm afraid this was more of a tuneless crooning, but setting it to music is a great idea!
-- Andy

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Re: First Blue, 1 week old
« Reply #24 on: February 25, 2015, 08:21:04 PM »
Salt level probably also contributed to your problem. I weighed a couple kinds of salt I have around here and found that 1/4 tsp of canning salt weighs about 1.75 G. 1/4 tsp of Morton Kosher salt weighs about 1.5 G. Assuming you got about 450 G of curd out of 1 gallon of milk, your salt levels were in the neighborhood of 0.3% to 0.4%.

My Gorgonzola recipe calls for 4.0% of the formed cheese weight in salt, applied over a couple days. That's a factor of 10 more salt. Most blue recipes I looked at call for between 2.2% and 4% salt levels.

Low salt is probably a significant factor in your runaway molds/yeasts.

Larry

Offline awakephd

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Re: First Blue, 1 week old
« Reply #25 on: February 26, 2015, 02:12:06 AM »
Oops -- forgot to include dry-salting another 2-1/4 tsp of salt after 24 hours. That was based on a calculation of 2.5% salt by weight. But I do wonder if I nevertheless came out too low on salt -- it tastes like it might be low on salt. Maybe I lost too much off the sides ...
-- Andy

LoftyNotions

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Re: First Blue, 1 week old
« Reply #26 on: February 26, 2015, 04:18:22 AM »
No, if you got another 2-1/4 tsp on it, even if some fell off I think you're in the right range. :)

You just ended up with the small cheese version of Elephant's Foot. :)

Larry

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Re: First Blue, 1 week old
« Reply #27 on: March 02, 2015, 04:16:51 PM »
Maybe I cross-contaminated the blue with the camemberts I am also tending? Maybe ... ???
Did you isolate this one and/or the cams in a mini-cave?  The candidum wasn't in the recipe so it had to come from somewhere.  I'm still learning how molds "operate" and the other comments here make sense including lack of salt.  I made the same cheese with the same recipe 2 months ago but instead of 1" pieces I cut mine into 1/2".  Caldwell gives a very wide range for some reason (3/8 to 1") so I wonder if the smaller make and the larger curds resulted in too much salt lost in the whey? 

Offline Al Lewis

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Re: First Blue, 1 week old
« Reply #28 on: March 02, 2015, 05:28:05 PM »
I would say the PC took over the exterior and worked its way in just like it does on brie.  Strange because normally the PR is the stronger of the two and takes over everything else.
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Offline awakephd

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Re: First Blue, 1 week old
« Reply #29 on: March 03, 2015, 02:43:42 AM »
I have to say that it hasn't really looked like PC ... but there is some geo type appearance. In any case, now that it has been in the cold fridge, the softening has stopped, but the blue development appears to be continuing.

I'm anxious to try another blue ... just got to find the time ...
-- Andy