The American- A Red, White, and Blue cheese (my personal recipe)

[nccheesemike]

Great looking cheese there Doc! Love the experimentation idea! Look forward to hearing the taste results!

[AnnDee]

Very nice! Beautiful cheese Jobe.

[AnnDee]

A cheese for your creation.

[DoctorCheese]

Truly red white and blue now. I plan to age it about 2 months but am not sure yet if I will open earlier. Need to figure out a core sample device.

[Al Lewis]

If you don't have a trier use a potato peeler.

[AnnDee]

How about an apple corer, some time ago I believe Gregore gave that idea.

[Gregore]

A boba straw works really well

[DoctorCheese]

This cheese smelt a little like ammonia today which spooked me so I cracked it open (40 days old). As you can see it does a little blue "flecking". The paste in the middle is chalky consistency, which I think means it needs more aging? Other than being too salty and having not enough blue flavor, the cheese is pretty good. If I make this again I will puncture it later and make sure to manage the humidity better; oh, and less salt. Also, while I do like the taste of cultured buttermilk in my cheeses, I am in need some new cultures before I get sick of it (my last 4 cheeses have had it in them). Do people make lower profile blue cheeses?

[awakephd]

Yes, I'd say you need to age it longer. I find that a blue cheese at 6 weeks (right about where you are at 40 days) is rather disappointing, with only a little bit of blue flavor. At 12 weeks, though, the flavor has developed dramatically.

[Al Lewis]

Cheeses typically give off an ammonia odor.  Once that stops they are ready to eat, in many instances.  Next time you try this one be sure to pierce it to get your blue growing inside. AC4U!

[Gregore]

Are you able to put the piece back in and use spare paste to seal it up ? If so age it longer .



Bagging it now will stop the blue from aging it more , so enzymes would have to do all the work .

[DoctorCheese]

Are you able to put the piece back in and use spare paste to seal it up ? If so age it longer .
Bagging it now will stop the blue from aging it more , so enzymes would have to do all the work .

It is too late now, but the cheese tastes good as it is now. I will do things different next time to help the blue grow inside better. I do not like super strong blue anyway, so I am not disappointed with my results.