First Blue

[Turgid]

Made the Stilton Approximation recipe, so far so good!  4 days in the mould and then unmoulded at room temp for 5 days.  Into the cave at 55 degrees and 90-92% humidity inside a plastic container with the lid adjusted to maintain the humidity level.

Here is just after moving into the cave on 4/25 and progress as of 5/1.

[Tomer1]

The tower of blue!

[Cheese Head]

Looks good, next time if wanted you could smooth the surfaces to seal the cheese before later piercing like they do in the Stilton videos.

[Turgid]

That's actually as good as I could get it.  The sides smoothed decent but the ends were pretty dry and crumbly.  Hot & wet knife would dislodge chunks if I tried to work it.  The sides are pretty good though.   

[george]

Isn't it just so cool when you go to look at them and suddenly they've got all that pretty blue all over them, and you just say "WOW!  I did it right!  It's so PURTY!"   

[Boofer]

That's the height I wanted for my Fourme d'Ambert. Looks good so far.

Feels like you need a cheese for encouragement. 

-Boofer-

[SarahV63]

Isn't it just so cool when you go to look at them and suddenly they've got all that pretty blue all over them, and you just say "WOW!  I did it right!  It's so PURTY!"   

You are SOOO rite! I made my first using Fankhauser's simple blue cheese recipe with store bought as the inoculum. I don't have anything but my regular refrigerator either YET, so its been longer than ten days. Anyhow, yesterday it was just white. I just looked cuz I smelled something new and it has Blue growing all over it!!! I'm jumped up and down and dragged my neighbor over here... she already knows I'm nuts. What a sense of satisfaction cheese making gives you. (=

[SarahV63]

Made the Stilton Approximation recipe, so far so good!  4 days in the mould and then unmoulded at room temp for 5 days.  Into the cave at 55 degrees and 90-92% humidity inside a plastic container with the lid adjusted to maintain the humidity level.

Here is just after moving into the cave on 4/25 and progress as of 5/1.

Its very beautiful. Congratulations!

[Turgid]

Thanks everyone!

The cheese is covered in a nice even layer of blue.  Now I see there is a white fuzz mold covering it.  I think my RH has been too high.  If I lower the RH will the white fuzz go away on its own?  Or do I need to wipe/scrape??  I don't want it to turn into mushy cheese!

[Turgid]

Actually I think the white fuzz is okay, its not as bad as I thought upon closer inspection.

I do have another worry though!!  The cheese is starting to slump to one side.  I peirced a couple days ago and the bottom holes are filled with white cheese ooze.  I really dont want this to turn into a gooey cheese!!

Should I reduce humidity for a few days?  Lower temp??  Im at 54F and between 89 and 95% RH depending on how I have the container lid propped open.

[Turgid]

Just to clarify - the piercing holes that were facing down are filled with white creamy paste, but not dripping out. 

[Boofer]

Do you flip?

-Boofer-

[Tomer1]

Cant the white mold ammoniate the cheese?

[Caseus]

It's true confession time.  While I love to eat blue cheeses, I'm used to the way they look when packaged for retail sale.  The veins of blue mold inside the cheeses look very appealing to me, but the furry blue coat on the outside of most of the blue cheeses I see on this forum just looks downright scary to me.  The commercially packaged blue cheeses that I buy generally look pretty clean on the outside edges.  They may have visible lines of blue mold in cracks and crevices, but they aren't furry looking.   Are you supposed to just cut off the outer rind on these kinds of cheeses?

[H-K-J]

welcome to blue veined cheese very scary when you make them at home for the first time, but MMMMmmmMMMMmmmmMMM 
cut off the rind if it's scary or as Sailor say;s

A moldy Stilton is a thing of beauty. Yes, you eat the rind

.  (if it is done right)