This is my second effort at making a Stilton-like cheese.
My first try used a gallon of raw milk and yielded one small cheese. That cheese is just beginning to show some color.
This make uses four gallons and will give me considerably greater potential product. Two big differences:
- raw vs. P&H
- morge from Royal Blue Stilton vs. Penicillin Roquerforti culture
July 2:4 gallons Darigold P&H whole milk
½ tsp Aroma B (meso)
¼ tsp P. Roquerforti
1 tsp CACL2 in distilled water
1/16 tsp dry calf rennet dissolved in cold distilled water
Calibrated ExStick to 7 & 4
Starting pH of milk = 6.83
5:40AM heated milk to 86F and stirred in cultures.
6:30AM pH 6.80
7:30AM pH 6.78 @ 86F
8:30AM pH 6.74
9:25AM pH 6.71 @ 86F
10:30AM pH 6.60 @ 86.2F
11:30AM pH 6.48 @ 86.5F . . . anyone counting hours?
6 hours!! stirred rennet into cold (52F) distilled water.
added CACL2 and rennet, stirring.
11:33AM finished adding and stirring.
Flocculation occurred in 15 minutes.
Using a factor of 4, time to cut will be in 60 minutes @ 12:30PM.
12:30PM pH 6.18 @ 83.8F
cut to 1 inch
rested 10 minutes
12:45PM cut to pea/acorn size with whisk, stirred.
allowed to rest.
1:50PM pH 5.88 drained whey.
2:00PM pH 5.46 tested acidity at various places in curd to reach consensus.
placed lid on pot and allowed curds to rest, looking for a pH 4.6-4.8.
During this rest period, continued to drain whey as it accumulated.
5:30PM pH 4.72
at 2 tsp salt per gallon, used 8 tsp salt to mix with and mill curds.
packed lightly into two camembert molds.
extra curds were packed into small Kadova mold creating a blue puck.
Over the next several hours, flipped all molds, placing a new, folded paper towel under the mat of the mold each time. This helped to wick away departing whey.
July 5:5:00AM removed molds and attempted to smooth surfaces. Since the rind surfaces were already fairly smooth, I didn’t try to make them perfectly smooth.
Placed into minicave and into the cave @ 55F for blue development.
I don’t enjoy waiting the entire morning for the point at which I can add my rennet. I need to do some studying about mother cultures and pitch at a greater density. Just like back when I was brewing, the greater pitch volume…the faster fermentation begins and completes. One thing is for sure: if I had been going by time alone and didn't have a pH meter, I would have been way off out in the weeds.
Okay, PR let’s see what you can do for me.
-Boofer-
