My First Stilton--Opened at Last!

[Brie]

I've been waiting to open this one, and did last week at my wine and cheese tasting. Quite pleased with the results--it was so creamy! Back into the cave for further ripening of left-overs!

[Sailor Con Queso]

Looks perfect. Nice color, good blue penetration, and a wonderful disgusting looking rind. As LinuxBoy said in another thread, "a 90 day old Stilton is a thing of beauty".

[DeejayDebi]

Looks great Brie! One of the best cheeses I've seen - wish I could try it.

[Brie]

Ah--Mr. Sailor (aka the King of Blues) I am very proud to hear your accolades--I have followed each and every one of your threads.

[Sailor Con Queso]

My friends keep eatting up all of mine, so I'm making 2 a week right now.

Try a little crystalized ginger in one sometime. The flavor is incredible. I am trying to figure out how to incorporate some lime or lemon zest.

[Brie]

It's not that your tastes are eclectic,; they are only so in your cheese-making! Ginger in Stilton? Sesame Oil as a rub? Blueberries everywhere? I love it! As for the lemon/lime idea, I would grate and dry the peel (peel only, no white rind) and allow to dry. Then grind (coffe grinder comes to mind) and add to the curds before molding. I live in Arizona, so the fresh lemon peel only comes from lemons that are from the tree.; store-bought lemons are treated with wax so do not have the same
taste. Perhaps a freeze-dried lemon would work.
Thanks for all of your help!

[linuxboy]

Sailor, I would candy the peel, adding a dash of vanilla and some port, so that they become more buttery and have light caramel notes. Then in your final cheese, they'll work like a candied ginger, use the same make details. Meyer lemon would be especially good. IMHO, incorporating the oils into the curd as microzested or similar rind will give you a citrus-smelling stilton. May be good, but I would prefer to have the hunks of light sweetness and citrucy zing as chunks, as a flavor and texture contrast/complement to the taste and feel of the cheese paste.

[Brie]

I am interested in your take on this, Linix--please help with your take on the rind--it's self-forming so please inform on the difference.

[linuxboy]

That natural rind looks great to me. I like both a wrinkly and a smooth finish on a stilton. The wisps of what looks like penecillin or geo mold really adds some character in yours. Does it taste good? If it does, you have a winner . Many people don't like to eat the rind, but that's one of my favorite parts.

In the previous post, I said candy the rind. Typed too fast, I meant the rind of the citrus, aka the peel.

edit: took a closer look. Seems like you have some proteolytic/peptolytic action happening right by the surface, more than happens with roqueforti, so looks like there was a white mold bloom. IMHO, this adds some depth to the blue, but also makes it not a strictly classic stilton style, which doesn't have much white mold action. The inside blueing in a stilton is blue, white notes are considered a defect. The paste looks creamy, almost like a stabilized brie. Another dead giveaway of a white penecillin mold, so what you made is a blue/white hybrid. That soft paste is a little tough to get with a blue mold alone.

[Sailor Con Queso]

LB - What's the physical indicator of the "proteolytic/peptolytic action happening right by the surface"? What do you see that shows that?

[linuxboy]

See how right below the rind, all around the outer edge, there is this band? It's a different color than the rest of the cheese paste. It also looks to be a slightly more liquid than the rest of the cheese. That's one of the biggest indicators... that's what a brie or cam look like after a few weeks, and also what a lactic cheese with a white mold looks like. A normal blue with only blue will not have that (compare to your blues, for example, from what I recall in those pics, they were blue only).

The white mold on top of the blue in the inside, along with the more liquid paste confirms that there's some white mold, because blue mold, as aggressive as it is, does not have proteases/peptidases that are that active.

[Sailor Con Queso]

Good eye LB. I see the whitish band below the rind. So the semi-liquification in bloomy rind cheeses such as brie and also in this Stilton is a function of proteolytic/peptolytic activity from the white mold? With hard cheeses, proteolysis really kicks in after the starter bacteria start dying off (and releasing enzymes). But that starts happening very early on with the white mold.

When I make blues, my cheeses are COVERED in blue mold and out compete anything else on the planet. I actually don't know how I would get a white to grow. I like the idea of a softer paste type hybrid blue/white so how would I get a little white to grow intentionally? Should this just be a surface application or added with starter? Seems like a white added with the starter might be too much. Is there a commercial blue/white cheese?

[Brie]

Good call, Linux, yes the white line is there. This, being my first Stilton, I would not have known the  difference. I followed the recipe for Ricki Carrol's Stilton--did not poke until 5 weeks and then again at 8 weeks. My additions were to  breathe at room temp once per week for 2 hours at room temp (outside of containers). A few times, I left out up to 8 hours. Used MA with LL & LC as starter. Raw organic milk. I have another aging--will be interesting to see if I have the same result.

[FarmerJd]

That really looks great, Brie. I just opened my blue/stilton/whatever. It was 2 weeks early but it was really great. I did not have as much veining as you did but the taste is awesome. I am turning into a blue man I guess. I have been eating it on everything. It weighed 20 lbs so I have alot left in the cave for later. Did you post your basic process? I don't have Carrol's book and was just curious. What were the specs that it aged under? temp, humidity? Again, great job.

[Sailor Con Queso]

I start poking holes as soon as I have a healthy blue bloom going and repeat about every 10 days for a month. I rippen at 58-64F in a Tupperware container with an inch of water in the bottom (with a few drops of StarSan). I leave the lid slightly ajar so the humidity doesn't "rain" on the cheese. I always get a fantastic bloom this way that looks like a cute blue fuzz ball.

I have started experimenting with a Blue Gouda. A professional cheesemaking friend told me some of his "secrets". He says that the trick is to pierce the Gouda right out of the press BEFORE brining. That way the brine helps seal the holes open to allow more oxygen deeper into the body of the cheese. Made my first one on March 12th. I'm going to cut it at 60 days to see how it worked. Since the Gouda is brined and not salted like a Stilton, I doubt that I would ever try to use blueberries. Maybe crystallized ginger though....