Author Topic: Ideas for how to stop spots of blue mold on my shitake Brie  (Read 1788 times)

Offline Tiarella

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Ideas for how to stop spots of blue mold on my shitake Brie
« on: November 18, 2012, 02:51:40 AM »
Hope someone has an answer for this.....I really like how this cheese is doing and I'm excited about trying it but suddenly I've spied a few bits of what must be wild blue mold on the top.  I've carefully picked it off yesterday but there is a bit more today.  I've thoroughly wiped down the inside of the box and I'm giving the cheese a bit of air for 20 minutes to give it and the box a bit of time to dry out a bit more.  It's been at about 55-57 degrees.  I'll attach photos.  The shitake is ground dried shitake from our logs and it's layered into the middle (put two thinner cheeses together with the ground shitake in between) and dusted onto top and bottom and a bit on the side.  It was a slippery, sliding stack of the 2 halves so it got a birch bark girdle and that seems to be working very well and the PC seems to be growing underneath the bark just fine from what little peeking I've done.  I'll post a close up that shows  (get out those reading glasses) some small specks of blue and a more overall photo.  I love how the PC is sticking out around the edge of the birch bark.

My questions:
Is there something I can do to prevent more blue and get rid of what's here?
Should I wrap it and put it in the fridge?
Would salting it help?
Should I wrap the rest of this batch and put in the fridge for the remaining of their ripening time?  The PC growth is luxuriant to say the least and yes, I've been patting it down but it's not a "stay down" type of growth!

Offline Tiarella

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Re: Ideas for how to stop spots of blue mold on my shitake Brie
« Reply #1 on: December 17, 2012, 04:54:52 PM »
Short update just in case someone else ends up with this situation.  I carefully did a bit of micro-scraping on small areas but was aware I hadn't gotten it all.  I am pleased to report that the blue did not become an issue at all.  The PC outgrew it.