Author Topic: John's Cheese #033 - Blue Cheese #3 (Stilton Style)  (Read 17728 times)

Cheese Head

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John's Cheese #033 - Blue Cheese #3 (Stilton Style)
« on: January 30, 2009, 08:18:19 PM »
Today I start my third Blue Cheese with my Dad, Tom, a Stilton.

MAKING
  • Jan 30, 2009, 1:15PM: Started batch by warming milk and adding additives:
    • Poured 3.75 US gallon/14.3 litres of store bought pasteurized homogenized whole cow's milk from counter top where warming into stockpot on smallest gas burner ring on stove. Poured in 3/4 quart store bought ultra-pasteurized cow's whipping cream, stockpot full. Found milk trickling out of two of 8 riveted handles. Not impressed, bailed out 1/2 US gallon/1.9 litre to lower level to just below rivets, making it into a 3.0 US gallon/11.4 litre batch.
    • Turned gas on low and warmed and stirred milk to 88 F/31 C, turned off gas, measured pH at 6.0.
    • As milk pasteurized, to standardize, trickled in 3/4 teaspoon diluted CaCl2 and whisked for 1 minute.
    • Measured ~0.75 grams Danisco's Choozit Brand Mesophilic Starter Culture MM100 onto mini digital scale, tapped off onto top of milk and whisked in for 1 minute.
    • Measured ~1.5 ounces crumbled Amablu Brand Blue Cheese into bowl, added 1/2 cup of the warming milk, and stirred with spoon until blue cheese dissolved into milk. Poured into milk and whisked for 1 minute.
    • Measured ~0.75 gram CHR Hansen Brand powdered rennet onto mini digital scale, tapped off into 3/4 cup cool water, stirred to dilute, then trickled into milk while whisking and whisked in thoroughly for another 1 minute. Covered and set aside for culture to grow and curd to set @ 1:50PM.
  • Jan 30, 2009, 4:00PM: Checked for Clean Break, OK, not great, Cut Curds in 1 cm / 3/8" diamonds and left to rest.
  • Jan 30, 2009, 4:40PM: Curds sinking, measured pH at 5.82 and temp at 85F/29C, turned ring on low and started to warm.
  • Jan 30, 2009, 5:10PM: Temperature at 102 F/39 C, turned gas ring off, stirred gently.
  • Jan 30, 2009, 6:25PM: Measured pH of whey at 5.0, bailed whey off of curds, ladled curds into Camembert hoops on mats on draining board to gravity drain at room temperature overnight.
  • Jan 31, 2009, 7:30AM: Removed 4 cheeses from hoops, placed in large bowl, milled with pastry blender. Weighed and sprinkled on 1.5 ounces of dry salt. Mixed in, placed curds into 6 inch/15.2 cm diameter pressing hoop on mat on draining board.
  • Jan 31, 2009, 11:45AM: Turned Stilton in hoop, no whey drainage.
  • Jan 31, 2009, 3:30PM: Pushed down on top with follower a little by hand to compact and placed hoop and cheese in fridge to firm up, then on advice from others (see posts below), tried to turn cheese, would not drop, pushed down with 20-25 pounds/10 kg force, then placed in ~60F garage overnight.
  • Feb 1, 2009, 9:30AM: Removed Stilton from 6 inch diameter hoop, mess, see picture below, tasted like cream cheese, used icing spatula and water to smooth and "putty in" the wholes, not pretty, but worked, placed back in garage to mature.

AGING
  • Feb 2, 2009: Turned cheese and smoothed what was it's bum.
  • Feb 4, 2009: Turned cheese.
  • Feb 6, 2009: Cheese dry to touch, covered with inverted stainless steel mixing bowl to increase humidity.
  • Feb 7, 2009: As now moister as inside bowl, blue mold starting to appear on surface, as garage to warm, placed in plastic picnic cooler with ice block.
  • Feb 9-26, 2009: More bluing, turned cheese every 3 days, no browning.
  • Feb 26, 2009: Pierced the Stilton.
  • Mar 3, 2009: Wrapped in aluminium foil and placed in cold household fridge for longer aging.

NOTES
« Last Edit: March 04, 2009, 01:00:09 AM by John (Cheese Head) »

Cheese Head

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Re: John's Cheese #033 - Blue Cheese #3 (Stilton Style)
« Reply #1 on: January 30, 2009, 10:56:42 PM »
Pictures #2 . . .
« Last Edit: January 31, 2009, 01:26:15 AM by Cheese Head/John »

Cheese Head

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Re: John's Cheese #033 - Blue Cheese #3 (Stilton Style)
« Reply #2 on: January 30, 2009, 10:57:15 PM »
Pictures #3 . . .
« Last Edit: January 31, 2009, 09:24:15 PM by Cheese Head/John »

Cheese Head

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« Last Edit: February 01, 2009, 03:51:23 PM by Cheese Head/John »

Cheese Head

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« Last Edit: February 09, 2009, 11:53:04 PM by Cheese Head/John »

Offline Cartierusm

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Re: John's Cheese #033 - Blue Cheese #3 (Stilton Style)
« Reply #5 on: January 31, 2009, 09:29:32 AM »
Well you got most of the pics up so I can't say...

"Comment on Pics go here". But I guess I did anyway.

Sucks about the rivets though. I don't know if you read my posts to wayne about aluminum, but a lot of SS pots use aluminum rivets. Just thought I'd mention it.

Sounds as though everything went well. I'm glad I read this post before bed as I'm making a regular blue cheese on sunday and I forgot about the UHT cream, I figure one cup per gallon would work or is that too much? You want UHT right, not the other one I forget what it's called, remind me?

Cheese Head

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Re: John's Cheese #033 - Blue Cheese #3 (Stilton Style)
« Reply #6 on: January 31, 2009, 12:04:48 PM »
The better quality for cheese making is Ultra-Pasteurized, Ultra Heat Treated is really really dead, box of that doesn't even need to be in the fridge.

Sorry missed on aluminum rivets on handles, yep, that's what I get for buying cheapo stockpots, I'm going to post them leaking on Amazon.com USA where I bought them.

Offline Cartierusm

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Re: John's Cheese #033 - Blue Cheese #3 (Stilton Style)
« Reply #7 on: January 31, 2009, 08:41:57 PM »
Maybe you can return them.

How much UP cream should I use per gallon? It's not in the recipe but as per the Cheeselinks newsletter?

P.S. What's a pastry blender and why did you have to mill these curds, did you recipe tell you to do so?

Cheese Head

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Re: John's Cheese #033 - Blue Cheese #3 (Stilton Style)
« Reply #8 on: January 31, 2009, 09:02:14 PM »
Carter

I used 1 cup per US gallon of of cream as per Stilton Recipe on Schmidling.com.

I milled the curds using a pastry blender this morning as per Stilton making video on StiltonCheese.com.

Right now my curds are in a large hoop, quite sticky, I think too moist and not draining much. But they do taste good, I think the blue innoculum is already working! Thus I'm going to take out of hoop, place in fridge, to cool/stiffen, and then this evening try your smoothing with water dipped knife (I need to buy an icing spatula for next time) like you did on your last cheese.

Offline Cartierusm

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Re: John's Cheese #033 - Blue Cheese #3 (Stilton Style)
« Reply #9 on: January 31, 2009, 09:06:02 PM »
Sounds good, normally you don't use cream for blue cheese only stilton but I want to add some for an experiment such as the cheeselinks newsletter but I wonder how much I should add, if I add 1 cup per gallon I'll have stilton, maybe 1/2 cup per gallon?

P.S. I take back all I said I just remembered all the trusted sources of books I've read in the past day or two, 3 books, all say to use Homogenized/Past Milk and some of these books are text book and some 30-40 years old. So I'll stick with the regular milk.
« Last Edit: January 31, 2009, 09:14:55 PM by Cartierusm »

Tea

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Re: John's Cheese #033 - Blue Cheese #3 (Stilton Style)
« Reply #10 on: January 31, 2009, 09:20:35 PM »
Looking good CH hope this one turns out for you.  Keep the pics coming.

Likesspace

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Re: John's Cheese #033 - Blue Cheese #3 (Stilton Style)
« Reply #11 on: January 31, 2009, 09:32:57 PM »
John...
Not trying to sound like a "know-it-all" here (Lord knows I'm far from knowing anything, let alone everything) but all of the recipes for Stilton that I've seen say to flip the cheese end over end, several times a day, for several days (some 5 days, others 7 days).
Then, once this process is complete and most of the whey has drained, then smooth the surface of the cheese and move to the cave for aging.
Of course, you might have completely different plans with this cheese but I did want to make you aware of what I've read and done on all of my Stilton's.
If your method is something that has worked for you or something you want to try, just tell me to shut my mouth and mind my own business.  ;D
The cheese is looking great though, at this stage in the game.

Dave

Cheese Head

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Re: John's Cheese #033 - Blue Cheese #3 (Stilton Style)
« Reply #12 on: January 31, 2009, 09:48:42 PM »
Hi Tracey, just added latest pictures. I'm inventing this recipe as I go ;). Mostly using the the video linked above.

Problem is my curds aren't nearly as dry as those in video, and more sticky, presumably as higher fat content as I added the cream. When I just tasted the curds it is now similar in taste and consistency to cream cheese and as it's been out of the fridge for 27 hours I just 1) pushed down a little with a plastic follower (I'm using one of my pressing hoops), and 2) placed in fridge to stiffen. I'm worried that if I take out of hoop while warm it will sag.

In addition to my milled curds being too moist, in the video they aren't pressing as they are using ~ 24 pounds/11 kilos of salted curd, which I think presses the cheese by just it's own weight. I'm using ~ 5-6 pounds/2-2.5 kilos of salted curds, so much less of that effect. Thus the reason I just pushed down with a follower.

Likesspace/Dave, just saw your post/advice after placing in fridge. Thanks for help, sounds like I haven't done enough homework! OK I can turn for several days, but i) I'm already getting zero whey draining, and ii) I'm worried that it won't always drop. Were yours that sticky like cream cheese? Also, I am very uncomfortable with leaving this at 73F/21C room temperature for several days while turning as I think it will go off.

Appreciate further advice . . .
« Last Edit: January 31, 2009, 09:55:59 PM by Cheese Head/John »

Likesspace

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Re: John's Cheese #033 - Blue Cheese #3 (Stilton Style)
« Reply #13 on: January 31, 2009, 11:54:36 PM »
John..
I had one Stilton that had a problem with releasing whey. It actually took about two days before I started seeing any whey at all begin to come from the cheese. I still have no idea why this happened but the cheese itself did turn out great.
All of my Stilton's have been really sticky. I think this is the result of added cream to the make.
All of my Stiltons have been aged in an approx. 70 degree room for a minimum of 5 days. I've also let some of them go 7 days.
The way I look at it, I have swiss style cheeses that set at room temperature for up to 4 weeks, so why would a Stilton be any different?
I usually don't see any blue forming for the first 4 days and then on day 5 - 6 it really takes off. Once I see the blue forming on the surface of the cheese, that's when I smooth it and put it in the cave for further aging.
I'm really not saying that this is the only way to make this cheese, or even the best way.
It's simply the way I've always done it and I really have seen very good results with this particular variety.
Hope this helps.

Dave

Offline Cartierusm

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Re: John's Cheese #033 - Blue Cheese #3 (Stilton Style)
« Reply #14 on: February 01, 2009, 12:25:24 AM »
I wish I could help, but without actually feeling the wetness of the curds, but I would just flip at room temp for 4-6 days. I flip everytime I walk by. I don't remember but I do think the curds are sticky. There is always moisture on the mold sides and bottoms, it's alway expelling.

John don't be concerned with the cheese out in the open that's the point of cheese a portable stable food source where refigeration is not needed. I was concerned with this at first too but go over it as the cheese was just fine in the open.