I love the blues and enjoy making them.
This is another batch of sort of roquefort types, made with cow's milk and the new dry calf's rennet.
Almost from the beginning, they had a mind of their own....
It started by my accidentally heating the milk to 95F after adding the cultures. Ack. I decided to ripen for a shorter time because of this, but it was just a guess. No pH meter (that works anyway).
After adding the rennet and letting it sit, the curd was very nice. After cutting, 'it' decided to hang onto the whey with a passion. I had to quickly set up a second draining set-up because the volume of wet curds was too much for the first. Draining was slow and would never fit into the molds, so I went to plan B ... treat it like a Stilton, drain the curds much longer in tied cheese cloth, and then press the curds with a 10 pound weight for about an hour. They were looking pretty good.
Then I milled them through a half inch grid, and put them into the 3 molds. They fit perfectly. These molds are plastic rubbermaid food containers, about 4 inches wide, and 4 inches tall. Holes were put in the bottom. (I love the rounded edges on both ends of the cheeses.)
After a couple days of draining and turning, I removed the molds and brined them. (instead of rubbing on loose salt as with the last batch of 'roqueforts'). I dried them in a large container (the oven) kept moist and in the low 60's with ice. Blue began to form after a few days in the nooks and crannies, and grew from there.
I pierced and put them into a smaller, mostly covered container and moved them into the cheese cave in the lower 50'sF. Here they are 11 days after the original make. Yesterday the blue was vibrant, today it's really dulled down. Not sure what's happened in the past 24 hours. Maybe it's just natural progression.
