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CHEESE TYPE BOARDS (for Cheese Lovers and Cheese Makers) => ADJUNCT - Blue Mold (Penicillium roqueforti) Ripened => Topic started by: Tropit on October 25, 2009, 05:00:28 PM
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I was reading an old copy of the Cheesemakers' Journal (double issue: Nov/Dec 83 & Jan/Feb 84) and I came across an article on how they make Stilton Cheese in England. After they take the mass out of the large hoops, the cheese ladies take a spatula and go over the whole thing with a coat of fresh curds. I assume this is done so that the end product looks uniform and also to help hold the mass together. Has anyone else ever tried this technique?
~Cindy
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No? No one? ???
Hummm...looks like it's time for some experimenting...Buuuahhahaa!
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Yes, this is standard for Stilton. It also works for similar cheeses that are lactic coagulated or use a high flocculation, and therefore have higher moisture content. You could not use fresh curds with a harder cheese like a cheddar because you couldn't spread the curds and get them to stick. For hard cheeses, you can use a spatula heated in hot water.
The reason for spreading fresh curds or for smoothing is for presentation, but more importantly for the rind. If there are a lot of cracks in the rind, the molds can get inside the cheese. And instead of forming a crust and then dying off, as happens with stilton, they would go inside and ruin the cheese. With a smoothed surface, the rind forms uniformly on the surface, mold grows, and then dies off.
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Muah! Muah! Thank you Linuxboy!
That's what I thought too. So, can I just make up a batch of simple lactic cheese curds and "frost" it on? I'm guessing so. I'm going to try it today. I have a blue that was actually taken out of the mold about a week ago, but it's still very soft and moist. I probably should have done it right when it came out, but that's water under the bridge.
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I'd use the same recipe for some curds as you did for the original cheese. A straight lactic cheese will spread almost like a cream cheese, and you don't want actual curd adhesion, not a straight spread coating.
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So...what are you saying? I should make up another batch of blue? Perhaps I can leave out the mold culture. I have been examining some blues and Stiltons and I notice that the outer perimeter doesn't have a lot of veining. I assume it's because the "coating curd," is not blue. Just a guess.
At what stage should the cheese be coated? Right out of the mold? A few days later? A couple of weeks later?
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You should smooth the surface with a cake spatula right out of the mold. You could also in theory use it as a filler if you get a crack in the cheese, but this is problematic because you'll likely be pushing mold into the cheese and contaminating it.
The edges if a cheese tend to be more tightly knit, so there's less oxygen, and therefore less veining.
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OK...Well, I'm going to try it the next time. I was going to experiment with my last cheese, but it's really too far along now. Thanks for all of the great info!