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GENERAL CHEESE MAKING BOARDS (Specific Cheese Making in Boards above) => STANDARD METHODS - Aging Cheese => Topic started by: Little Creek Cheese on June 03, 2012, 12:01:19 PM

Title: Aging Together - Blues & Others
Post by: Little Creek Cheese on June 03, 2012, 12:01:19 PM
I have been told blue cheese needs it's own maturation room, "if you have a small piece of blue in a coolroom, everything's blue", Is this true?. I following boofer's post http://cheeseforum.org/forum/index.php/topic,9508.0/topicseen.html (http://cheeseforum.org/forum/index.php/topic,9508.0/topicseen.html) , he used a 'minicave' which appears to be a sealed rubbermaid ( or tupperware ) container, would this overcome the need for a seperate room? could I get a large ( aprox 20 litre or 5 gallon ) container and store a batch of blue, I have avoided making blues due to storage constraints. I would be probably making a subtle blue to start, maybe a camembert base. does anyone have any suggestions / do's or don't's / how to's. I would probably start with about 100 litres ( 25 gallons ) which should give me about 10 kg of cheese
Title: Re: Aging Together - Blues & Others
Post by: hoeklijn on June 03, 2012, 01:48:43 PM
Although my experience with blues are restricted to one try of Fourme d'Ambert (turned out to be far from FdA but tasted good) and some Cambozola, I'll try to answer this. Cambozola is a white mold cheese with blue in it. When the moulds are half filled, you add the dry PR on top op the curd and then fill the moulds completely. After piercing there was a bit blue on the outsite where it was pierced, but that disappeared, probably eaten by the PC.
The FdA created a real blue rind. At both occasions I had plastic coated cheeses in the cave, with the FdA also Brie (in separate container but not completely closed). I have not seen any cross contamination so far and I think with the Cambozola the change is small on blue contamination...
Title: Re: Aging Together - Blues & Others
Post by: Tomer1 on June 03, 2012, 03:59:07 PM
I'l try to keep them seperate somehow as PR is an agressive beast. 
Title: Re: Aging Together - Blues & Others
Post by: Boofer on June 03, 2012, 06:35:08 PM
I have been told blue cheese needs it's own maturation room, "if you have a small piece of blue in a coolroom, everything's blue", Is this true?. I following boofer's post [url]http://cheeseforum.org/forum/index.php/topic,9508.0/topicseen.html[/url] ([url]http://cheeseforum.org/forum/index.php/topic,9508.0/topicseen.html[/url]) , he used a 'minicave' which appears to be a sealed rubbermaid ( or tupperware ) container, would this overcome the need for a seperate room? could I get a large ( aprox 20 litre or 5 gallon ) container and store a batch of blue, I have avoided making blues due to storage constraints. I would be probably making a subtle blue to start, maybe a camembert base. does anyone have any suggestions / do's or don't's / how to's. I would probably start with about 100 litres ( 25 gallons ) which should give me about 10 kg of cheese
Do you have to make such a large volume of cheese initially? Why not start smaller, like 1/10 that volume, and try to see if that works for you. If it proceeds well, then upscale if you need to.

And yes, my "minicave" is merely a plastic box with a lid that can be adjusted to control the humidity inside the box. I started to use the word "minicave" because it conveys the meaning a little better for me and it does function as a tiny cave environment.

-Boofer-
Title: Re: Aging Together - Blues & Others
Post by: FRANCOIS on June 04, 2012, 10:12:37 PM
It depends on what you are aging them with and which strains are being used.  I wouldn't put blue, of any kind, in with yellows of any kind.  White moulds are fine with them, as are washed rind if you put down a coat of geo on them first.
Title: Re: Aging Together - Blues & Others
Post by: Little Creek Cheese on June 05, 2012, 01:42:36 PM
thanks for all the replies, it seems like I'll not be doing a blue just yet, I have yellows and whites in the maturation room, and while I could do a mini batch, I would need to upsize after that to make enough to be viable.