Piercing of blue cheeses seems to be normal to allow the
Penicillium roqueforti and air to enter a cheese thus creating blue cheese's famous blue-green
pate.
There are many different types of blue cheeses, many different recipes, and of course many of us with different opinions, experiences, and ideas. So questions on this subject are:
- Tool(s) to pierce and why?
- Where to pierce and why?
- How to pierce and why?
- When to pierce and why?
I pierced my
Blue Cheese #1 vertically straight after pressing with a screwdriver as that was the understanding of the method back in the quieter old days of May-June 2008 in this forum, and ended up splitting it, not a good piercing tool
.
My Blue Cheese #2 was too moist with no voids expected in the
paste, so I don't think I pierced it at all.
Now we know better
! From
FXcuisine.com's article on Stilton you can see that the holes are very small diameter and close together, also, from
this post's second picture you can see the holes are again very small diameter but interestingly staggered in depth. And from
StiltonCheese.com Stilton's are pierced at 6 weeks, again at about 1"/2 cm spacing but strangely in both an upwards and downwards angle, not horizontal.
My
Blue Cheese #3 - Stilton Style is currently aging and I'd like your advice. I'm thinking of piercing around the perimeter to a range of ~3/4 to full radius with some sort of vary small tool at about 1"/2 cm spacings. But I've no idea what tool, and there
seems to be competing times when to pierce.
Appreciate your thoughts and advice and why . . .