Large Easy Blue

[Al Lewis]

Kudos for such a comprehensive pictorial, Al. That deserves a cheese for your efforts.

Question: How long between rehydrating the rennet in milk and using it? Seems like a fairly long time...any concern?

Looking forward to seeing further entries in this series.

-Boofer-

Thanks Boofer!  I place the tablets of rennet into the bowls of WATER at the beginning of the make.  They dissolve fairly quickly.  As soon as the milk is up to the 86° F mark I add the rennet and wait 1 hour for it to set.  Remember I am trying to keep this "time based" for ease so no floc times or PH markers for the novices.

[Kern]

Al:  Thanks for the information.  I am really looking forward to following the progress of your "Monster Blue". 

I see that you've got an Albertsons at few miles south of Port Orchard off Highway 16.  (But no Haggens) In the south part of Auburn are both an Albertsons and Haggens (Lake Tapps area).  I think that the Home Dairies brand I used from Haggens simply ran out of lactose (milk sugar) stalling the pH drop at 4.84 - too high for a Cam.  I am playing around with the idea of getting some lactose and adding it to this milk to see if that will help achieve a lower pH. 

We opened one of the Home Dairies Cams last night and found a somewhat sticky yellowish white gooey paste.  The flavor was OK but certainly not as good as Cams made with vat pasteurized non-homogenized whole milk.  What intrigues me about these milks is the $2.69 per gallon price tag.  I wouldn't use this milk for a cheese where curd formation, stirring and cooking were important to success but think such a milk might be fine for feta, cams and blues where the curd is cut large or not at all.  Finely dispersed fat (through homogenization) might even be an advantage here.

Keep us posted on the progress of Monster Blue.   

[Al Lewis]

We have a Albertsons on Mile Hill about 2 miles from my house.  The Haggens was a Safeway on Lund they bought and went bankrupt.  It's boarded up now which is a real shame as the Safeway was great.  Haggens sucked. LOL

[hilltop1400]

At the end of the four hours remove the dried curd mass from the cloth and place into a clean dry pot.  Break the curd up into walnut size pieces lightly sprinkling coarse kosher salt over the curds as you go.  Allow this to sit in the pot for 1 hour.

Al, how much salt per 4 gallon batch?

[Al Lewis]

3.5 ounces or just under 1/2 cup of coarse kosher salt.  Be careful when measuring salt by cups as it depends on how fine it is as to how much will fit.  Here is a chart to convert the various volumes of different salts.

[Al Lewis]

Made this on Saturday and got an early arrival of the blue today.  First time I've used the liquid PR so that may have something to do with it.  Normally this will show up in 3 to 5 days but mine have always taken 5 days with the freeze dried PR.  The mold is beginning to loosen up on the sides due to drying/shrinkage.  This is a good sign as you cannot take the mold off of the cheese until it has loosened otherwise the cheese will squat and give you what if referred to as "elephant foot."  You also cannot smooth the sides with the mold on so timing is important.  No point to rush things at this stage as you will only mess things up by doing so as would waiting too long.  If you are going to err though longer is better as it will just make smoothing more difficult.

[H-K-J]

That was fast AL
I have used the freeze dried PR/PV and PS and had great but varied results with both.
I just don't think I will be trying the liquid ant time soon, I have a lot of freeze dried.
I haven't made a blue in 22 months soon Maybe very soon.
I'll be watching you 

[Al Lewis]

Glad to hear you're back in the saddle old friend!!   Talk about quick, this is what I woke up to this morning.  I definitely love this liquid PR so far.  Kind of pricey but remarkable results.

[Boofer]

We have a Albertsons on Mile Hill about 2 miles from my house.  The Haggens was a Safeway on Lund they bought and went bankrupt.  It's boarded up now which is a real shame as the Safeway was great.  Haggens sucked. LOL

That whole Haggens deal was a sham and a shame. We too had a perfectly good Safeway here and after a short time with Haggens...no more store at all. Fortunately, we have alternatives so not all is lost.

Al, you didn't answer my question: how much time passed between rennet make and then use?

-Boofer-

[Frodage3]

Al - the colour of your blue looks really bright, and similar to my one going on right now:

Thirteen days and fluorescent blue!

Is that a trick of the camera, or is it really that shade?

[Al Lewis]

We have a Albertsons on Mile Hill about 2 miles from my house.  The Haggens was a Safeway on Lund they bought and went bankrupt.  It's boarded up now which is a real shame as the Safeway was great.  Haggens sucked. LOL

Al, you didn't answer my question: how much time passed between rennet make and then use?

-Boofer-

Sorry Boofer, I thought I did buddy.  I simply put the rennet tablet into 1/4 cup of cool water when I start the cheese making process, i.e. dumping everything into the pots, and by the time the milk comes up to temperature it is completely dissolved and I add it.  Not sure how long that takes but as soon as they dissolve in the water they are good to go.

[Al Lewis]

Al - the colour of your blue looks really bright, and similar to my one going on right now:

Thirteen days and fluorescent blue!

Is that a trick of the camera, or is it really that shade?

Nope, it really is that color.  It should turn a bit darker if it progresses the same as the freeze dried stuff, and I have no reason to believe it won't.  Really a pretty shade of blue! If you look at the photos on this thread you can see how it turned out for him.  I bought the same PR from Glengarry.  LOL  Even stole his picture of it. 

[mikey687]

Really great write up Al! AC4U, looking forward to how it turns out.

Have you got any thoughts on how long you will let it mature before piercing etc.?

[Al Lewis]

I do two piercings.  One after the rind has formed well and another a week later.

[Al Lewis]

Ready for the smoothing stage, rubbing up.  Here's the video.  Now here's a little tip.  If your cheese has dried out too much on the outside to smooth simply brush around the outside with some white wine.  Give it a few minutes to penetrate and you should be able to do a great job of smoothing.  If you don't have wine you can use water.  Non-chlorinated is best but, in a pinch, tap water isn't going to bring an end to the world.  A 4-5 pound cheese will normally take 5 days to dry enough to remove the mold and rub up, or smooth.  Due to the size of this cheese I've given it an extra 2 days.