My Blue Adventure

[Neil H]

I intend to cronicle my Blue adventures in this thread ....

The first blue that i attempted is now about 4 weeks old having been made on 25th of June, picture is below.

I followed a recipe from the shop where i bought the cheese kit from......  The cheese is made from full cream pasturized and homogonized milk.  the structure of the cheese is very open and as you can see the surface is very mouldy.... too mouldy ??

I can post the recipe if anyone is intyerested ?

the recipe i am using is supposed to be for a Roquefort cheese but does not call for piercing the cheese .... any comments on this

I am cvonverting an old fridge into a cheese cave and the blues should be in the cave this weekend !!!

More blue cheeses to follow !

 

[Neil H]

Does the size of a cheese determine its aging time?

[Tomer1]

Yes and no.
You can seperate the ripening of blue cheeses into two:
1)The PR veining and enzymatic process
2)The LAB ripening as it happens in regular aged cheeses.

You usually want both to peak at the same time so you get moderate veining and creamy melts in your mouth paste.

So with a small wheel you can see how the cheese in 90 days for example (which is a nice figure for stilton ripeness)  may be too veined and powerful.

[Neil H]

Thanks Tomer ...

I have not punched holes in this cheese yet, should I or does the fact that I didnt smooth the outside mean that it does not need holes in it ?

From here on I will refer to this cheese as Cheese # 2

[Neil H]

Introducing Cheese # 4

I found this recipe online, but am afraid i may have messed it up a little ......

The idea was to make a Gorgonzola style cheese.

I made the inside curds on day 1, culture, rennet and Penicillium Roqueforti were added and allowed to set

3 hrs later i cut the curds into 2cm cubes and left to sit for 30 mins

then i put the curds on a very gentle heat and got it up to about 36 degs over about 30mins HOWEVER i did not stir the curds and they became rather matted, is this a fatal flaw??? please comment?

i then drained the curds for 24hrs 

I repeated the curd making process on the second day but did not innoculate with Penicillium Roqueforti, this set of curds can be seen on the right of the attached pic.  I drained for about 3-4 hours

Both curds were then "milled" by hand seperately

the younger curds were then used to line the base and sides and top of the cheese with the older curds in the middle

the mold was very very lightly pressed by hand for a few seconds then flipped every 30 mins for 3 hours.... then every 12 hrs for 2 days

At this point the molds were removed and the sides and base smoothed, the cheese was left in the open for 12 hrs

then the top of the cheese was salted (that was last night)

Overall i love the look of the cheese and will be punching holes in it around the 12 to 14 day mark with an aium of letting it mature for 60 - 90 days although the original recipe calls for 60 days maturing time

I would love your comments on this attempt

[Neil H]

Cheese # 5

this was a fail from the left overs of cheese # 4 .....

the same curds were used but the younger curds were not enough to line the entire mold, only the top and bottom of the cheese has the younger curd on the outside.

the sides of the cheese were harder to smooth, and there are still one or two holes in it, it will be interesting to note the differences in the final product from this cheese and cheese # 4 .... the wheel is about two thirds of the height of the other so it may be a very interesting aging comparison !

any comments will be greatly appreciated !

[Neil H]

Last night I pierced holes in Cheese #3...

WOW ..... I hope I am not being too optimistic, it is my first blue afterall, but the glimpses i got of the cheese left on the piercing rod looked and smelled amazing, very soft and creamy interior ....

[mtncheesemaker]

Sounds like it is going well so far!

[Neil H]

An update on cheese 4 & 5

blue mould looking excellent in my opinion !

[Neil H]

Does anyone have an opinion on this blue cheese ....

it is about 6 weeks old now ..... pierced about 10 days ago...

doesnt smell bad but looks very very funky ....

[Neil H]

an updated pic of a gorgonzola attempt as well as my cheese cave contents ...

as always comments and advice greatly appreciated !!

[mtncheesemaker]

I think it looks like it's coming along nicely!

[Neil H]

Thanks !!

Got family arriving in 3 weeks and i think i will crack it open then !!

[Neil H]

so the results for blue #1 are contained in the following thread

http://cheeseforum.org/forum/index.php/topic,8083.0.html

as mentioned i was bitterly disappointed

however #4 looks much better, far from perfect but much better

i dont think my cave is optimal and next weekend i would like to rework a number of things chief among them the humidity device

i think that the #1 ammoniated

to be sure i think #4 was heading in that direction fast

#1 was about 8 weeks old where #4 was only 5

#4 was made in the gorgonzola style and the blue is very well developed.  it is not as creamy as i hoped or anticipated and the blue is not very sharpe at all ... there is also a funny yellow mould present ...

as always comments and advice most welcome

pics below are of #4

[JeffHamm]

That certainly looks like a success to me!  Nice looking cheese.  You've got the piercing down, with good viening throughout.  If it's a bit drier than you would like that's probably a result of temperatures during the make (too high a cooking temperature dries it out), how much you stirred (less for moister), curd size (again, smaller = drier), floc time for cutting, and all those other fun variables that affect the final moisture content.  Anyway, if you're close to what you want, then it's just a matter of tweaking your make to improve the aspects you want. 

Anyway, well done.

- Jeff