Coating a Stilton type with fresh curds...details please.

[Tropit]

I was reading an old copy of the Cheesemakers' Journal (double issue: Nov/Dec 83 & Jan/Feb 84) and I came across an article on how they make Stilton Cheese in England. After they take the mass out of the large hoops, the cheese ladies take a spatula and go over the whole thing with a coat of fresh curds.  I assume this is done so that the end product looks uniform and also to help hold the mass together.  Has anyone else ever tried this technique?

~Cindy

[Tropit]

No?  No one?   

Hummm...looks like it's time for some experimenting...Buuuahhahaa!

[linuxboy]

Yes, this is standard for Stilton. It also works for similar cheeses that are lactic coagulated or use a high flocculation, and therefore have higher moisture content. You could not use fresh curds with a harder cheese like a cheddar because you couldn't spread the curds and get them to stick. For hard cheeses, you can use a spatula heated in hot water.

The reason for spreading fresh curds or for smoothing is for presentation, but more importantly for the rind. If there are a lot of cracks in the rind, the molds can get inside the cheese. And instead of forming a crust and then dying off, as happens with stilton, they would go inside and ruin the cheese. With a smoothed surface, the rind forms uniformly on the surface, mold grows, and then dies off.

[Tropit]

Muah!  Muah!  Thank you Linuxboy!

That's what I thought too.  So, can I just make up a batch of simple lactic cheese curds and "frost" it on?  I'm guessing so.  I'm going to try it today.  I have a blue that was actually taken out of the mold about a week ago, but it's still very soft and moist.  I probably should have done it right when it came out, but that's water under the bridge.

[linuxboy]

I'd use the same recipe for some curds as you did for the original cheese. A straight lactic cheese will spread almost like a cream cheese, and you don't want actual curd adhesion, not a straight spread coating.

[Tropit]

So...what are you saying?  I should make up another batch of blue?  Perhaps I can leave out the mold culture.  I have been examining some blues and Stiltons and I notice that the outer perimeter doesn't have a lot of veining.  I assume it's because the "coating curd," is not blue.  Just a guess. 

At what stage should the cheese be coated?  Right out of the mold?  A few days later?  A couple of weeks later?

[linuxboy]

You should smooth the surface with a cake spatula right out of the mold. You could also in theory use it as a filler if you get a crack in the cheese, but this is problematic because you'll likely be pushing mold into the cheese and contaminating it.

The edges if a cheese tend to be more tightly knit, so there's less oxygen, and therefore less veining.

[Tropit]

OK...Well, I'm going to try it the next time.  I was going to experiment with my last cheese, but it's really too far along now.  Thanks for all of the great info!