Well, I pressed the curd and it came out like rubber, so I dumped it. I started a second batch and included all the right ingredients. It still needs to be salted later this afternoon when I return home and placed into the molds, but I believe everything is going well at this time.
I ended up being distracted because I was making a homebrew beer at the same time as cheese making and never added the starter culture. This will never happen again as I will never make beer and cheese at the same time. I may eat cheese and drink beer at the same time, but never, never make them together.
Here is the recipe I used for my
Blue Cheese:
Ingredients
1 gallon whole cow’s milk (not ultrapasteurized)
1 cup (1/2 pint) heavy whipping cream (not ultrapasteurized)
1/16 tsp. Penicillium roqueforti culture powder
1/8 tsp. MA 4001 “Farmhouse” direct-set mesophilic culture
¼ tsp. calcium chloride solution, dissolved in ¼ cup water
¼ tsp. liquid rennet, dissolved in ¼ cup water
1 Tbsp. Kosher salt or flaked cheese salt (plus more for sprinkling)
Method
1. Mix milk and cream in double boiler, sprinkle on Penicillium roqueforti and stir.
2. Warm to 86° F, stirring gently. Sprinkle on and stir in MA 4001 culture. Cover and
hold at 86° F for 30 minutes.
3. Add calcium chloride and stir, then rennet and stir with 20 top-bottom strokes.
Cover and hold at 86° F for 90 minutes.
4. Line colander with doubled sterilized cheesecloth (an 18” square, two layers of
cloth). Place colander completely in a deep bowl.
5. Using a slotted spoon or ladle, transfer curd to lined colander. This may take a few
minutes as whey runs out into the bowl and curd settles in the colander. The curd
should be resting in whey.
6. Place the bowl and colander back into the 86° F water bath (if your bowl and
colander will not fit in your pot, run two or three inches of water at 88-90° F into
your kitchen sink and set the bowl in that). Cover and hold for 90 minutes.
7. Tie corners of cheesecloth together and hang curd ball over a deep pot. (You can
empty your water bath pot and use it for this, placing a wooden spoon across the top
to hang the ball from.) Drain 30 minutes.
8. Place curd, still in cloth, between plastic or plastic-covered cheeseboards. Arrange to
drain into sink by placing a wooden spoon under one end. Weight with 5 pounds (a
couple of cookbooks will work). Press overnight at room temperature.
9. Sanitize 4 soft cheese molds (the extra one is for turning).
10. Remove the curd from the cheesecloth. In a bowl, break into ½” pieces. Gently
blend in 1 Tbsp. salt with your fingers.
11. Gently pack curd into three molds. Use the bottom of the fourth mold to gently
compact the three cheeses. Rest on draining tray in ripening box. Cover loosely with
wax paper.
12. After 20 minutes, turn one cheese in to the spare mold, flipping the cake of cheese.
Using that mold, do the next, and so on. Flip every 20 minutes for two hours. Press
gently into mold with each turning.
13. At the end of two hours, turn the cheeses out onto a draining mat on the draining
tray in the ripening box. Let stand, loosely covered, overnight.
14. Turn the cheeses 3 times a day for the next three or four days at room temperature,
loosely covered. You will know this step is complete when a light, downy bloom of
blue-green appears on the cheeses.
15. Sanitize the knitting needle. Pierce each cheese 15 times, turn over, and pierce 15
more times.
16. Place the cheeses in the ripening box in a location with 90% humidity at 55° F.
17. Turn the cheeses once a day for 3 days. Sprinkle both sides with kosher salt at the
end of three days.
18. Reduce humidity to 85%, maintaining 55° F. Age up to 30 days, turning twice a
week.
19. When flavor and mold development are satisfactory, wrap and refrigerate finished
cheeses (or eat them!).
Salute!
