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

[DoctorCheese]

My first personally crafted recipe... though highly derivative, but I would argue that everything we know about anything is derivative  My cheese, named "The American", is a double adjunct ripened cheese with a a layering and "precise" temporality of microbial growth. The plan, whether it comes to fruition in exactly this way is doubtful given my limited experience, is to use the make of a cooked curd blue cheese followed by a period of b linens promoting washes to facilitate a distinct and unique flavor profile. Eventually, hopefully, ending up with a Frankenstein of the two that is edible  Below is what I have done so far:

The American 1.0
2 gallons whole P&H cows milk
1/2 tablet rennet
1/2 tsp CaCl
1.5 tbs salt
1 packet mesophilic C101 (I believe this is about 1/8th tsp but its been a while since I measured)
1/16-1/32 tsp PR
1/16-1/32 tsp B linens + an even smaller amount for the wash

1. Ripen milk for 1 hour after adding all cultures and CaCl @ 88 degrees F
2. Heat milk to 100 degrees, add the rennet, and in my case I waited 80 minutes because I was not happy with the curds at 60 minutes.
3. Cut the curds in to 1 inch cubes, giving 5 minutes to heal between every direction of cutting (length, width, horizontal).
4. Stir gently two or three times every 3 minutes for 1 hour (keep an eye on curd temp and don't let it drop below 84 F).
5. Pour curds in to cheese cloth and let it stand until minimum dripping.
6. Fashion the cheese cloth and curds in to a ball/slab and them between two hard objects to be pressed at 6 lbs for 3 hours.
7. Mill the curds in to thumbnail sized pieces, add the salt, mill the curds again to distribute
8. Place curds in to mold, flipping every 15 minutes for the first two hours, then every 30 minutes for two more hours, then let sit over night (or 8 hours), flip again for a final 8 hours.
9. Give the cheese a rub up to fill in and even out the surface.
10. Air dry at room temp, flipping every 6 hours, for 2.5 days
11. Realize that its drying too quickly, panic, wash it early with a 3% brine and B linens solution
12. Stick it in the cave @ 55 F and 95% humidity, flipping daily, washing every other day
 

To be continued (as I make it up)

To be completely honest, I do not feel that I have the experience or the tools to properly execute my goal cheese in the first try. If anyone has any suggestions on improving my method please give them to me as this is a work in progress.

I plan to give the cheese a b linens infused brine wash after about 5 days (or as soon as I see any unwanted blue mold growing). The cheese will be kept at very high humidity while I mature the b linens and attempt to keep the blue mold from coming in. After I feel the linens has secured its territory, I will stop brushing off the blue, as well as lower the humidity slightly. Fingers crossed!

I will continue to update this original post as things progress, so keep your eyes open and hearts atwitter!

Mistakes I made/changes I feel need to happen:

• I only meant to heat the milk to 96 before adding rennet but overshot it.
• I did not mill the curds into small enough pieces
• I do not know if I waited too long before doing the rub up phase or what, but it did not work perfectly so I need to alter something about that step
• In the future I think the addition of geo would be beneficial, even though it seems to be rampant in my cheese cave without adding it in
• Possibly a different mesophilic culture, but at this juncture I have no idea whats what
• Next one will be 3 gallons (the biggest I can make at the moment)

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[Al Lewis]

Looks great!  Should make an awesome blue with those beautiful gaps in the curd.  You molded that, and rubbed it up, perfectly.  AC4U

[awakephd]

Sounds like a good experiment. In terms of the rubbing, I think what you show looks fine. The only suggestion I would offer is to wait a couple of days, leaving the cheese in the mold and flipping periodically, before removing it from the mold and rubbing it - this lets the cheese soften up a bit.

FWIW, my "Stilton-esque" attempt a few weeks ago developed quite a signficant amount of linens on each end, due to trouble I had with my ripening box arrangement (the ends stayed too damp). I'm still waiting for this cheese to finish its ripening (aiming for 12-14 weeks), but when I cut it and bagged it at 6 weeks, the combination seemed acceptable, though hard to be sure with the immaturity of the cheese and the fact that I added too much salt.

[DoctorCheese]

Update-- I got worried that the outside of the cheese was not starting to get slimey at all and so there wasn't any yeast or geo or whatever it is that needs to raise the ph of my rind for me. So, I gave one of my b linens that has a well established colony of bacteria a good rub down with a little brine and then schmeared that enthusiastically all The American. I was able to even out he surface of the cheese while at the same time hopefully spreading some good micro flora. Fingers crossed.

[AnnDee]

Maybe let the blue well established before getting the blinens overactive? Because the blinens will start to melt the inner paste (plus the geo too), I have a runny around the edges raclette courtesy of overactive blinens.

[DoctorCheese]

Ann, because I do not own any of the yeast or molds that help b linens grow, the surface is not getting sticky and b linens is having a hard time getting established I think. I have not even poked holes in it yet but your comment has inspired me to do the puncturing now so that I at least end up with a super tasty blue.

[Gregore]

It quite often takes 5 to 7 days for geo to show up  on my cheeses , so don't worry too much about it as you made this on the 19th ??..

[DoctorCheese]

It quite often takes 5 to 7 days for geo to show up  on my cheeses , so don't worry too much about it as you made this on the 19th ??..

I made it on the 17th, which would put it at the upper end of your range. In general, I tend to worry that the sky is falling when it comes to my cheeses and then over react. Really what I need is some kind of constant lifeline of someone I can text and ask quick questions that google and this forum don't seem to answer right away. A cheese mentor if you will.

[Al Lewis]

If you want b linens to grow add 1/4 teaspoon of them to a spray bottle filled with your brine and mist your cheese every day.

[DoctorCheese]

I have been applying a 3% brine that has b linens almost daily.

[Al Lewis]

Then hang in there, they'll come.

[DoctorCheese]

Alright, I have given both he blue mold and b linens what they need to survive. Now it is time to let them battle it out! May the best adjunct win, or will there be a twist ending and they will live in harmony. Stay tuned to find out!

[Al Lewis]

The blue will win and every thing in your cave will be blue from now on. LOL

[AnnDee]

Looks like the blue and red has started to flourish. Congrats!

[DoctorCheese]

The cheese is going exactly as I had hoped! The flavor train has left the station and in a month or two it will arrive in my mouth. Hopefully the cheese maintains its structure with all this micro organism activity.