Time for a Holiday Blue

[OzzieCheese]

It's getting to the silly season once more and my thoughts turn to Rum, Port and of course sharing Cheese with friends. A Blue takes a good 3 months to mature - well this one does .  My wife named this one Silky Blue the first time I made it, and, it stuck.
It is a Stilton style made cheese with a good dash of cream in the mix. 

The Blank control sheet is attached and I update photos as I progress.

I just found my other makes of this type and I have been slack... nearly 2 two years !!  have to correct that and soon.

http://cheeseforum.org/forum/index.php/topic,14931.0.html

-- Mal

[OzzieCheese]

Going back over the notes from the previous makes there was more cream so I will have to watch the ripening.  Also, I have 10 lts of Milk instead of 8 and I'm going to correct that with slightly more rennet taking it to 2.4 mls.  It will still be a long Coagulation period which is still the goal here.

-- Mal
 

[OzzieCheese]

Oh all right ... for those who just can't wait.

1. You all must know my kitchen by now.
2. Just so the measurement don't confuse - they are real measures
3.  Getting the stage ready
4.  My dual probes for Temperature control.  1 for the milk and one for the water jacket.

Back Soon.

-- Mal

[Boofer]

What is "M0 036R"?
Also, I see that your floc factor is "6", right?

I want to make a blue but can't decide Fourme d'Ambert, Castle Blue, or your Silky Blue. 
Figured I'd pick up 5 gallons of creamline milk to make a 2 gallon (8 liters) blue and a 3 gallon Taleggio (#10) this Saturday.

Hey, still like the kitchen, Mal...Mise en place.

-Boofer-

[OzzieCheese]

MO 036R is a Clerici Sacco Meso culture
https://www.greenlivingaustralia.com.au/assets/media/pdf/specs/Mesophilic-soft-curd.pdf

There are other cultures that Flora Danica doesn't have especially the Citrate fermentation .
Citrate-utilizing lactic acid bacteria play an important role in many dairy processes. They are responsible for the production of the flavoring compound diacetyl. Diacetyl is essential for the flavor of dairy products,
Info from
Citrate Fermentation by Lactococcus and Leuconostoc spp.
MARJO J. C. STARRENBURG AND JEROEN HUGENHOLTZ* Department of Microbiology, Netherlands Institute for Dairy Research (NIZO), Ede, The Netherlands
Received 25 June 1991/Accepted 27 September 1991

The Floc Factor of Six was from GC's Stilton Style blue cheese recipe.

I personally am not a fan of Fourme d'Ambert - its a bit bland for my tastes and Castle blue is always a good one. this one will make a nice piquant blue and when aged our to 4 months is pretty darned good.

Though I have a tale to tell about this make...

 

[OzzieCheese]

So... Everything was going along well.  2.4 mls of single strength rennet in 10 litres gave me a floc. of 16.5 minutes.

Cut the curd

Give it a little stir - gently to reveal and cut the larger chunky curds.

Let it rest for 5

Stir for 10 minutes

and getting ready to drain

[OzzieCheese]

How to tie a Stilton knot.  This is a technique that creates a ever tightening curd ball to help express the whey while also keeping the curds at a reasonably stable Temperature.

1. After the curds have drained for 10 minutes - find the four corners.
2. Choose the longest of them and lay it to one side.
3. Gather the other 3 tails together.
4. Twist to start compressing the ball.
5. Take the long end and wrap it around the other three close to the base.
6. make sure that each wrap is under the previous one to create the tension.
7. Until you run out of cloth.

[OzzieCheese]

Return the ball to the pot and allow the ball to sit in the warm whey for about an hour.
 
After that and every hour after until you get to a pH of about 6.3 - in my opinion I aim for about 6.0, drain the whey and re-wrap and tighten the ball and place back into the pot until the pH target is reached.  I personally like to do this at least three times.  At the end you should just start getting the slightly 'Cheesy - Tangy' smell as the curd ferments.

I was going along nice for two hours ......


and then.......
 

[OzzieCheese]

DISASTER

[OzzieCheese]

I turned on the stove to get the water in the jacket to 40 degC - measuring the Ball temp was about 30 degC .  Thinking that 3-4 min of stove element time to get the temp up and the Ball would be at stable at a bit over 31 Deg.

And I got distracted... and I forgot to put the Thermometer with the alarm into the water instead - and I took a photo of it - put the wrong one in and then proceed to watch the 'Wonder Women' movie with my wonderful wife.   

we needed a drink break and only then realised that the element was still turned on.

PANIC !!!

[OzzieCheese]

Internal temp of the Curd ball was now just on 39 DegC - this is the scalding temp for the cultures I was using. 

Grabbed the ball out of the pot and dunked it into sink of cold water (still wrapped) to immediately halt any further heat getting into the ball.  Now was the decision time ---

Chuck it - or .... see what happens.   The outside of the curd ball was, as you can imagine, a bit tough and had been shrinking while heating and squeezing out whey faster than normal.

I thought why not, lets continue  - the only indication of culture activity was that the pH would continue to drop and over the next 2 hours we got a pH decrease from 6.41 to 6.11 so there was something still going on it there.

[OzzieCheese]

The last part of process is to let the pH drop overnight - hopefully getting to about 4.7.  So, I wrapped it up and fretted all night about it but there was nothing I could do expect wait and see.  so early this morning I ventured to have a look and measure the pH.  While not as low as I would have liked it did get to 5.01/4.99.  The curd was tougher and drier than the others I had made which confirmed that too much whey had been lost due to the increasing temperatures the previous day.  This removed and further available Lactose from the curd and therefore what culture that was still active had run out of food.

I decided to then continue with the milling and salting.  2% by weight the curd ball was a bit over 1.9kG (still a good yield).

Milled and mixed the salt in and let still for 10 minutes to let the salt mellow.

Normally the curds are let settle in the forms over 2-3 days but as the curds were way to firm they needed a little help.  I've put a 1 kg weight on top to help the process.  I don't want to dry the cheese to much but I will need to be pressed to consolidate the curds so the smoothing up process doesn't break the cheese rind apart.

I therefore have a question.   What is the overall consensus on the possibility of this actually turning into something edible ??

-Mal   
 

[Gregore]

I think it was a good call to salt early , and I think you will have something edible , though probably not a Stilton .

your certainly not the first among us to get distracted during a make , and have to invent a name for the cheese we created .

[Boofer]

Roll the dice, Mal. You might just be pleasantly surprised down the road.

-Boofer-

[OzzieCheese]

I have a smaller one that I'm going to gauge the Bluing and taste. I'll keep the photos coming...