John's Cheese #033 - Blue Cheese #3 (Stilton Style)

[Cheese Head]

Dave and Carter, sorry, been over at neighbors for cheese & wine, .

Much appreciate the advice, OK, I'll meet you 1/2 way and put it in garage as winter here now and averages 65F vs house which averages 74F this time of year.

On my previous two blues the colouring also took off after a few days. Will post more pictures as relevant.

Thanks again, John.

[Cheese Head]

OK so took it back out the fridge, turned it, zero chance of dropping.

Managed to knock follower now on bottom off and placed on top and pushed with about 20-25 pounds/10 kg force and managed to push the cheese to the other end of the hoop. In doing so, extruded-left a bunch of cheese on wall of hoop. See additional picture above, (ignore Mardi Gras Cake).

Zero whey being released, will store in garage over night and then thinking do the putty knife-trowel thing to seal surface as this cheese.

[LadyLiberty]

Btw, that's a pretty cool video on Stilton, teaches a whole lot about how to test it and stuff.  Looks pretty sticky in terms of curd too, John.

Of course, we can't find special stilton moocows.

[Cartierusm]

Very weird John, all mine have been so leaky that when I flip the mold it, it slides down very fast. Could be how you cooked the curds maybe released too much whey?

If the cheese keeps it shape outside of the mold I would take it out and put it on a paper towel and see if it can wick out some moisture.

[Cheese Head]

L.L. In that video, I noticed that they don't add cream like I did, and their curds while sticky, were tossable, mine are more like cream cheese and definitely not tossable, next time I make Stilton I'll do it without adding cream.

Carter I think you are right, maybe I cooked the curds too much plus I used cram resulting in my sticky curds. When I drained the curds initially in Camembert hoops they also dropped easily.

[Cheese Head]

This morning, just extruded the cheese from the hoop, a mess, used icing spatula and water to smooth and putty in holes, see pictures above.

Not pretty but worked, will do again tonight if dryer.

[chilipepper]

John... nothing like polishing a turd!   That looked pretty rough out of the mold and you made that cheese look very good!  That is impressive stuff!

As this is my next cheese attempt in light of my recent 'more research required Provolone', I'm really watching your experience here closely!  Good luck and I hope this things molds over nicely for you. 

Ryan

[LadyLiberty]

This morning, just extruded the cheese from the hoop, a mess, used icing spatula and water to smooth and putty in holes, see pictures above.

Not pretty but worked, will do again tonight if dryer.

Isn't this the process they used in that video?  They smoothed it over with spatulas?  You may be on your way to the perfect swan of a stilton here, and many of them started as ugly ducklings!

[Tea]

Well John it certainly looks like your trying to make a silk purse out of a sow's ear with that one.  I must say that that last photo looks most encouraging.  I really hope that this one works out for you, after all the work, you deserve it too.

[Cheese Head]

Thanks L.L. & Tracey, fingers crossed, next time, no extra cream (like Stilton video)!

[Cartierusm]

John you can't necessarily not use cream. Remember that video is just for informational puposes and not for instruction. What I mean is you don't know the fat content of the milk, maybe they remove water to make it fattier? I'll check some of my text books and see if they give a fat percentage for Stilton and post it.

[LadyLiberty]

John you can't necessarily not use cream. Remember that video is just for informational puposes and not for instruction. What I mean is you don't know the fat content of the milk, maybe they remove water to make it fattier? I'll check some of my text books and see if they give a fat percentage for Stilton and post it.

Just looked up nutritional information on Stilton:
      

Blue Stilton     water: 38.6%     Fat: 35.5%     Protein: 22.7%     Sodium: 930mg per 100 g     calories per 100g: 411

That's the same site that made the video.

[Cartierusm]

Good to know but that's in it's final form I was wondering what the fat content of the milk was during the making. 3.5% would be regular milk and our recipes use that plus cream. Thanks for the legwork though.

[Likesspace]

John,
I just looked at your latest pics and I have to say that you have turned out the "stickest" looking Stilton curd I have ever seen.
I have no idea why it would have been this sticky since most I've seen lean toward the really wet side.
One thing that I didn't see you mention was pressing the curd (in a cheesecloth bag) in a board sandwich.
Not sure if the recipe you followed called for this but it's always been one of the most important parts of my Stilton making.
When I first remove the curd and start the draining process, my curd is not just moist, but WET.
I then hang it in a cheesecloth bag for 20 minutes and then put the bag between two boards and press with 10 lb. of weight for two hours.
After this pressing, the cheese curd is very very firm. In fact I lift it out of the cloth in one big piece and then mill it (breaking it into walnut size pieces) and add the salt.
By this point, I'm actually putting....ummmm....chunks of solid curd into my mold and like Carter said, I normally have a lot of whey issue from the curd over the next few days.
I made another Stilton Friday night (after the Parmesan) and I saw the same results as in the past.
For your next Stilton you might give the sandwich board method a try and see how it works out.
I will say that every Stilton recipe I've looked at, did call for the addition of cream, but that doesn't necessarily mean it's the right way of making it.
Hope this helps out and the cheese does look nice now that you've smoothed it.
Btw, the smoothing is what causes the classic wrinkled rind to form. You should begin to see that wrinkling begin within about 3 weeks.

Dave

[Tea]

How are you going to "spear" these? I would hate for them to fall apart again.