I made my first try at a Stilton about 8 weeks ago. While the make went well, I've run into serious humidity problems and would appreciate advice on what can be done.
The problems arise from trying to make this cheese in the desert in the summer, where our humidity typically runs below 20% outside. It's better inside, of course, all the way up to 40% most of the time.
After letting the cheese sit at room temp (about 76 F) for 2 days, it looked like it was drying out so I put a water tray under it, and left it for another 2 days. Plenty of mold growth, but it still seemed dry. Moved it to the cave (a wine refrigerator) at 55F, where I keep a water tray to try to keep the humidity up, but don't really know where it is. After about 4 weeks, mold growth seemed to stop and the cheese seemed really dry. At 6 weeks I put it in a Tupperware container with water on the bottom and cheese elevated, and covered it lightly. I've been turning it every 3 or 4 days.
At this point, 3 weeks later, it seems a little more moist, and after 2 weeks it developed a new white mold spot, so there's some good coming from the new treatment.
So, where do I go from here? I understand typical minimum aging time for Stilton is 3 months. Did drying it out cancel some of that time? Should I go longer? Anything else I can do that might help this out?
I'd appreciate any thoughts.
