My first moldy cheese

[Propercocker]

I did a Valancay style, using raw milk from my goat, following the recipe from 200 Easy Cheeses.
I just finished the last of this last night, it was nicely gooey at the end!

[Cheese Head]

Great looking cheese! I've bought some ash, just need to take the jump into using it.

[iratherfly]

Very nice. Very heavy on the ash though - be careful because it could end up a bit gritty and paint the teeth of those eating it. The ash should be merely a dusting and the PC should peak through it and eventually cover it lightly -but in a way that it no longer smudges on your hands when you touch the cheese because of it.

How long did you age it?  Looks rather fresh.

Overall, nice fabrication for these semi-lactics. I really love this type and I find them the most useful and versatile casual table cheese anyone could make at home

[Propercocker]

Ira--The first picture was when they were at about 7-9 days old, and the second was at about 15 days. I didn't get a picture of them when they were older, I was too busy eating!

Good to know about the ash, I tried to just sprinkle it on, then smear it a bit with my hands when I was turning/patting the cheese. I know the little guys had a bit too much, but I thought I was doing ok on the larger ones. But maybe not. I didn't get any ash on my hands once the cheeses were at the 2+ week mark. This is what they looked like when I first ashed them:

[iratherfly]

Hmmm... actually in this photo the ash density looks perfect.

What I do now is actually mix my salt with ash and I get this black salt. I salt the cheese with it and it coats it nicely with ash.

I just remember the first time I did an ash cheese looking at friends who tasted it getting black teeth and dealing with grit... I was horrified!  Nowadays some of my best cheeses are with ash

[Propercocker]

Ooh. Pretty!!

Photos are so tricky, I am bad with the digital camera, so who knows which picture is more representative...Anyway, I'm excited to learn what the others on this board have to share, so I will definitely make an effort to do more pictures next time.

I'm debating about doing this one again this weekend, or trying a lactic blue...decisions, decisions...

[dthelmers]

What I do now is actually mix my salt with ash and I get this black salt. I salt the cheese with it and it coats it nicely with ash.

That's brilliant! What proportion do you use?

[iratherfly]

Thanks Dave! Not my invention though... hundreds of years before me

I kind of eyeball the proportions. Basically only the salt is really important for the cheese so I take up the amount of salt I need and then I toss enough ash into it until it is blackaned but not to the point that using it will be too ashy on the cheese. It takes very little ash to make the salt black. Maybe a ration of 5-6 parts salt to 1 part ash? You just color it until you like what you see. Do it one or twice and you will be like: "oh yea, I see, there's really nothing to it!"

[iratherfly]

Dave - I happened to be making some cheese that required salted ash tonight and remembered this post so I measured the proportion for you when mixing!  This ash spreads in the air so much, I think I breathed enough to contract the Black Lung disease! Now that's sacrifice!

The mixing proportion was 4% ash to 96% salt. You can do +/- 1% depends on how dense your ash is and how blackened you want the cheese to be. I used Activated Charcoal (by NewLifestyle Health Products brand) and coarse Kosher Salt (Diamond brand).  Here's what it looks like: