Author Topic: Pics of my Stiltons.....My eldest and it's baby brother  (Read 11545 times)

Offline Cartierusm

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Re: Pics of my Stiltons.....My eldest and it's baby brother
« Reply #30 on: January 06, 2009, 03:56:24 AM »
Dave, where did you get your blue mold from, is it powder? How much power do you use per batch, what are your batch sizes? Thanks.

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Re: Pics of my Stiltons.....My eldest and it's baby brother
« Reply #31 on: January 06, 2009, 11:27:48 AM »
Carter

If you don't want to take the time to mail order some blue mold, you could just use some store bought blue cheese as an innoculant like I did in my Blue Cheese #1 & Blue Cheese #2.

Both of these had similar surface colors to Likesspace/Dave's, although I didn't get much inturnal blueing as my curds weren't cooked/stiff enough to give gaps in the cheese for the mold to grow in. But they still tasted good ;D.

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Re: Pics of my Stiltons.....My eldest and it's baby brother
« Reply #32 on: January 06, 2009, 05:44:57 PM »
I've been buying my blue mold from Leeners.com. The next batch will probably come from the Dairy Connection since I've pretty much switched to them for all of my supplies.
I've been using 1/8 tsp. per two gallon batch although I really think that is more than it needed. On my next one I might try cutting this in half and see how it works out.

Dave

Offline Cartierusm

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Re: Pics of my Stiltons.....My eldest and it's baby brother
« Reply #33 on: January 06, 2009, 07:15:06 PM »
I've been using the powder from thecheesemaker.com. Mine is 2.5 doses which is a different kind of dose than the cultures DCU. On Danlac's website he says 1-2 doses per 1000L/267 Gal. I took out my new scale and weight the contents plus what I had used before and divided it up. I went on the high side as I'd rather have too much then too little. Then I went to measure out a portion last night to rehydrate for today's batch and the scale would only read .07 grams. My scale goes to .01 grams, but it woudn't register until I hit .07-.09, so I took what I calculated out to be which was .02 for a 5 gallon batch and guessed at the amount on the scale. I then measured it and it came out to 1/16 tsp. So I will weigh cultures as they are heavier but the powder is just too light so I'll use tsp for that.

Offline Cartierusm

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Re: Pics of my Stiltons.....My eldest and it's baby brother
« Reply #34 on: January 06, 2009, 11:28:05 PM »
I just talked to someone is the lab at Clover Dairy and they Pasteurize their milk at 177-178 degrees for 15 seconds. She also said that by Law (don't know if she just meant Calfornia or USA) that the container MUST say if it's ultra pasteurized. Good to know.

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Re: Pics of my Stiltons.....My eldest and it's baby brother
« Reply #35 on: January 07, 2009, 03:30:37 AM »
Carter....
From what I've read, you should be good to go. I honestly don't know why you have been having problems getting a good curd set with this milk.
Do you use animal or vegetable rennet?
I've used the vegetable from the first and have had really good luck with it (well, except for one bottle that went bad very quickly).
In the past I have bought rennet from Leeners but did just purchase some from New England Cheese Making. I haven't tried this type as yet so I can't comment on the quality.
I'm sure you will figure out your curd set problem eventually. Regardless it looks to me like you are putting out some good quality final product. Maybe the addition of cream will help you find the curd you are looking for or maybe you will find something else. I get the feeling you won't give up until you do find the answer.

Dave

Offline Cartierusm

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Re: Pics of my Stiltons.....My eldest and it's baby brother
« Reply #36 on: January 07, 2009, 03:54:21 AM »
No I won't Dave, but the milk in the post above is not the milk I used. I used Safeway Cheap Out of State Lucerne. So it's probably pasteurized from hell and old. I will be trying out Clover Milk as they are from Sonoma Area and I used to live up there. Read my new post on Stilton #2 and read about the new curd.

Offline Cartierusm

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Re: Pics of my Stiltons.....My eldest and it's baby brother
« Reply #37 on: January 08, 2009, 02:38:57 AM »
The milk I've started with but stopped using becasue of the price is now repackaged at trader joes for a lot cheaper. Straus Creamery. They said they pasteurize at 170 F for 19 seconds, not bad.

Likesspace

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Re: Pics of my Stiltons.....My eldest and it's baby brother
« Reply #38 on: January 08, 2009, 03:24:29 AM »
Wow, I wish I had that milk available in Illinois. From what I've read, anything that is pasteurized under 171 degrees should not be harmed at all. I would definately give this milk another try!
According to the Schmidling website, the real problem with milk is the fact that it is homogonized. He claims that it is the reason for an unsavory texture. Honestly I've not noticed what he describes on his site (mainly the cheese sticking to your teeth).
On the other hand, our beloved Stiltons seem to love homogonized milk so at least that's good news.
I'll be looking forward to hearing how this particular brand of milk works out for you.

Dave

Offline Cartierusm

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Re: Pics of my Stiltons.....My eldest and it's baby brother
« Reply #39 on: January 08, 2009, 05:00:19 AM »
I haven't tried that milk in 8 years, but for a 15 gallon batch it's still going to cost me $100. Maybe I'll try local clover past/homo but fresh.

Offline Cartierusm

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Re: Pics of my Stiltons.....My eldest and it's baby brother
« Reply #40 on: January 12, 2009, 09:00:37 AM »
Dave, how do you get that brown rind on your stiltons? Is it natural? I know what my recipes says, it says every 30 days scrap off the mold, so what's your procedure?

Likesspace

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Re: Pics of my Stiltons.....My eldest and it's baby brother
« Reply #41 on: January 12, 2009, 11:32:22 AM »
Yes, the brown rind is completely natural. It comes as a result of smoothing the cheese as it comes out of the mold.
I don't think I've ever seen a Stilton recipe that calls for scraping the mold. I have seen this on traditional blues and on Rouqfort but not on a Stilton.
The brown rind starts out as wrinkled and then dries back to more of a smooth surface. At least that is what I'm seeing on the first one I've tried this on.
Right now I'm having trouble regulating temperature on the one I just pierced.
Now matter what I try I can't get the temp below 50 degrees in my wine fridge. I'm afraid that this is a little bit too high since I did noticed some inner softness when I pierced and I'm also getting a really strong smell from this cheese.
The Stiltons always stink a little while maturing, but this one is nearly overpowering when I open the fridge door. I'm afraid that this is a sign of ripening too quickly and I really need to find a way to get the temp cooler.
So far I've only been making minor adjustments to the thermostadt but this morning I'm going to go ahead and set it on the max setting. Hopefully this will drop me into the mid to high 40's which might slow things down a bit.

Dave

Offline Cartierusm

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Re: Pics of my Stiltons.....My eldest and it's baby brother
« Reply #42 on: January 12, 2009, 06:51:15 PM »
Dave, where did you get your recipe and can you post it? All the recipes I have say age at 50-55F, that's even a recipe from Danlac. What type of wine frig is it old style compressor based or Thermoelectric Cooler [TEC]? If it's the TEC then you should see if you can find a used wine frig with a compressor on craigslist. The TECs just suck, in more way than one, first off they are not efficient at all and they can't handle being on constantly. I've build custom unit before with them in it and they always fail. With a compressor based on you can have the compressor on a lot longer creating better cooling, but depending on how low the thermostat goes you might have to replace it. I always replace frig thermostats with a cheap Air Conditioning Thermostat form Honeywell. That way you don't need a temp gauge it there and it's digital so you know exactly what temp you have.

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Re: Pics of my Stiltons.....My eldest and it's baby brother
« Reply #43 on: January 13, 2009, 01:42:56 AM »
Carter, first off, thanks for the advice on the fridge. I do have a compressor style but the thermostat is really low grade. From the minimum to the maxium setting the temp change is only 3 degrees (from 48 to 51). Maybe that's simply how a wine fridge should operate but I would think that whites should be cooler than 48 degrees.
I'm going to give your idea some thought on putting a digital thermostat on one of these and see how it goes. Surely it can't be too hard to wire it in (yeah right....I'm totally incompetent when it comes to anything electrical).
As for my Stilton recipe, I got it off of http://www.schmidling.com.
Even though I use this recipe for making the Stilton I've done a lot of extra reading on the subject and have found that many people have had problems from aging their cheese at too high of a temp. On the Schmidling website he says to keep the cheese at 60 degrees F for the first month but when I tried that I got a completely overpowering ammonia smell which I've since found out comes from ripening way too quickly.
I've had my best luck at about 48 degrees which is what I finally got my fridge at as of today. This used to be the minimum setting on this fridge, but now all of a sudden it's turned into the maxium setting. I'm not sure what's going on with it.
Anyway, the schmidling recipe has been a good starting point for me but I keep playing with the aging to see if I can turn out a better quality. I think any of the recipes will make a good cheese, it's just refining the process to your own situation that will make a great cheese.
Btw....thanks for taking the time to talk to me tonight. You cleared up a lot of questions that I had on the press. I really appreciate it.

Dave

Offline Cartierusm

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Re: Pics of my Stiltons.....My eldest and it's baby brother
« Reply #44 on: January 13, 2009, 02:20:27 AM »
No Problem, Dave, I hope it wasn't too confusing, I tend to ramble. I couldn't find a cylinder on eaby so I'm going to make a universal mounting plate so you can use any cylinder. Then I'll send the one I have and if that is too short, you can work with it in the mean time, then I can find one on ebay as I continually search for them. I'll work on it tomorrow. I don't think it will be a problem. You'd have to block it up an inch or so and press, then for the next press add another 1 inch block and you'd be good to go. The only reason I'm guessing is the amount of unpressed curds for everyone and every batch is different.