smoothing stilton cheese after molding

[T-Bird]

I just pulled mt 7th small stilton out of my cheese mold. I have been making "stilton"  a year and 1/2 2 ahve turned out well, 4 have not. Anyway,  this cheese stayed in the mold for a day longer than usual and I already have a strong blue bloom on the outside. I smoothed it anyway, but I began wondering if I should have smoothed or let the mold grow undisturbed and not smoothe? T-Bird

[Gina]

I dont know what is best, but my last 2 Stiltons also had blue beginning when the mold was removed, and I lightly smoothed both of them. The one which is a week older is now totally blue, and the other getting bluer, so the light smoothing didnt hinder the mold growth.

[T-Bird]

I don't know whether or not the smoothing I did would qualify as light or not.I smoothed sunday, this is wed, the places I smoothed are covered with the beginnings of a brownish film and no blue has returned as of yet in the smoothed places (which was most of the cheese). I might try painting some more P. roq. on on the outside in a slurry if it doesn't rebloom in a couple more days. Would that help? I had high hopes for this cheese, I have been studying this board and other places (learning about flocc. points etc) and these curds were the best so far.

[T-Bird]

 just checked it today, it is beginning to be covered be a whiteish mold. could this be P roq. mycelium returning, or should I attempt to remove this?

[T-Bird]

so, if the mold bloom on the outside of the cheese doesn't recover it's original color that it had before smoothing can it still develop blue veins when I pierce?

[MarkShelton]

If you added the p. roqueforti to the milk, then the spores have dispersed throughout the cheese and will grow wherever they can find oxygen. That means the rind and the interior (when pierced) should grow blue mold just fine. It is an aggressive mold, so I wouldn't worry about it; it will do it's thing.

I do worry about the white mold. It is definitely not p. roqueforti, which is only blue while it is developing. Maybe you had some contamination; I'd scrub it with brine. Can you post a picture? It would be much easier to diagnose.

[T-Bird]

I have no Idea how to post a picture anywhere. I should probably get my kids to teach me, I'm sure one of them knows. I know that it would come in handy for boards like this. Besides, the 2 cheeses that turned out, I would liked to have shown off here. The white mold isn't getting thicker, It just looks like a faint whitish color that I'm now not positive isn't light blue. I turned it this morning. Should I have smoothed it since it had already turned blue or should I have just not smoothed? I did add the P roq. in with the milk so the spores should be all thru the cheese, I just didn't know if the internal spores would "smother" waiting for me to pierce, or if they could sit in the body of the cheese dormant until air arrives via piercing.

[MarkShelton]

The way I always post pictures is I put them on the desktop of your computer then click the "additional options" when you reply. Click the "browse..." and find the picture file under the "desktop" menu.

There is some debate here on the forum regarding smoothing Stilton. Personally, I like them smoothed once. Others will say that there is greater character in un-smoothed. It's really just a personal preference, unless you want to dry-salt the exterior to keep it clean. Then, I'd say smoothing would make it easier.

Unless the blue mold was heavy on the outside, it should be fine. I think the only concern I would have about it is if the curd used to smooth wouldn't stick because of a thick layer of blue mold. In that case, it would probably flake off as it dried. Then you'd just be left with the un-smoothed rind again.

I'm not sure exactly how long the blue spores will keep in the cheese, but really they will live much, much longer in an un-pierced cheese than you will probably need them to. I pierced my stilton at 6 weeks with no ill effects. Generally, they're pierced after just a few weeks, or until there is a thick blue bloom on the exterior.

[T-Bird]

I didn't use any new curd to smoothe the cheese, I juse scraped it smooth with a knife blade using the scraped off cheese paste as filler to the cracks. That is what I thought they were doing in the stilton making videos. Do you guys save some curd to smooth with, or make more? If so, I somehow missed that thread. I appreciate the help. The mold bloom on the outside was looking vigorous until I smoothed it, maybe when I pierce the interior will bloom as well.

[MarkShelton]

I've heard people do it each way. Well, not with new curd, but with curd reserved from the original batch just for the purpose of smoothing. I found it just as easy to scrape it with a knife as you did; it's one less container to clean, or risk contamination in, or whatever. I took mine out of the mould a day early, as it seemed firm enough so it may have been a little softer, but I don't imagine it was terribly different.

How long did yours stay in the mould?

[T-Bird]

I molded on 6/29 and smoothed on 7/4 so I removed on day 6. The past cheeses have been removed on day 4 or 5 I think.

[MarkShelton]

Ok. I don't think you'll have any problems from the smoothing then.

[T-Bird]

Turning blueish on the outside again so I think I'm ok. I'm told that my 20 yr old daughter knows how to post pictures, maybe she can get me into the 21st century. Thanks for the help Mark, maybe I'll post a nice Stilton in a couple of months.

[BigCheese]

maybe I'll post a nice Stilton in a couple of months.

Oh it shouldn't take that long to learn how to post pictures. 

[T-Bird]

I will get some hands on instruction from my daughter.