Stinking Bishop cheese

[caciocavallo]

Hello Everyone,

Had a client from the UK visit our company this week and we got to talking about cheese and cheese making. They brought up a popular cheese from their town and thought I would share that info here and ask if anyone has every heard of it. They told me that it really us a very STINKY cheese but very good tasting..

Here is the link to wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stinking_Bishop_cheese

Enjoy!

Cacio

[silverjam]

Stinking Bishop: Does anyone have any ideas on a base cheese and rind development? My thoughts are a Raclette style cheese but I am not sure of the rind? Any thoughts on culture etc? I would like to try and develop this cheese.

[linuxboy]

It's similar to epoisses. Washed with perry, b linens rind.

[silverjam]

Thanks Linuxboy. I'm half way there... Anyone have a recipe for either Stinking Bishop or Epoisees? They both seem pretty rare.

[linuxboy]

This is from memory; I haven't made this. Someone else here probably knows more about it.

Milk: pump morning milk and evening milk into the vat.
Warm it up to 26-30C, depending on the TA. If the blend is coming in at 15-16 TA, usually do a little higher, towards 28 or 30.
Let milk set for 4-6 hours... looking for a good delta ph down to 6.1 ish
Rennet, let it set for 16-24 hrs. Need about 4.6. Your culture should be DL type, real stuff is from raw milk. It has CO2 formation from heterofermentives.
Scoop or cut, pack, drain for 48 hours
Dry salt after 48 hours

This part is key, you have to keep humid air moving in the aging room. Need good oxygen exchange and humidity. Once you get a good bloom of linens (should have good sized specs... usually 7-10 days), you can start the wash.

For epoisses:
- First week, once with 3% brine _ wine. Don't know how much wine.
- Then slowly add marc to brine, wash 2-3x/week (every other day)

Yoav posted before the marc addition rate for epoisses, IIRC

Key is the early development. You must, must get terminal acidity right, and final moisture right. And then, you must get the humidity and rate of air exchange right for the b linens to grow.

[JeffHamm]

I've heard of it, but never tried it.  Wallace and Grommit made it famous (In "Curse of the WereRabbit" Wallace is revived by a piece of stinking Bishop I believe).  Anyway, from what I've read it's a washed rind (so b.linens based) cheese where the wash is from pear cider.  I believe the pears are grown on site, and had heard they are called "stinking bishop pears".  However, the following quote comes from http://www.pongcheese.co.uk/the-big-cheese/articles/stinking-bishop-the-story-of-a-masterpiece.html and seems confident in their assertions:

"
But wait! Stop press! This is wrong: we've heard from a reliable source that there is no pear such as the 'Stinking Bishop'. The variety used in the perry in question is actually called 'Moorcroft'. The truth is is that the perry itself is eponymous with a malodourous and drunken member of a local family from yesteryear called Bishop who is said to have created the cider. According to Charles "it cuts you off at the knees - after you've drunk a few you're absolutely normal apart from the fact that your legs no longer work." At least that's now settled.
"

Anyway, the above link seems to have some decent information on the cheese, but, alas, no real instructions on the make.

- Jeff

[fied]

Stinking Bishop is a pleasant cheese. The paste is milder in taste than the stink would suggest. It can be either creamy/liquid or firm depending on the season. One curious feature is the thinness of the sticky rind; it tends to split if the paste has got creamy. It also has holes in it - not sure how that's done, unless a proprionic culture is used. It's made with milk from Gloucester cows, I gather.

I would guess, as John said, that it's similar to a Reblochon make, but with local variations and variations in the make.

[silverjam]

Hmmmm... I am going to have serious problems with humidity and airflow. Canberra has no humidity and my cheese cave (wine fridge) is around 55% so I have to use ripening boxes to bring up the humidity (85% max). But that doesn't allow for any airflow of course. Thanks for all the info thought. I am going to draft up my own recipe (based on your comments) so I can make it when I move closer to sea level (or if global warming brings the sea to us - that might take a while...).

[linuxboy]

It also has holes in it - not sure how that's done, unless a proprionic culture is used.

CO2 from heterofermentive LAB fermentation. That's part of why you have the long time in molds.

Silverjam, it's a tough cheese to do well. Give it a try, but humidity and air exchange are crucial. Hard to do on small scale.