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CHEESE TYPE BOARDS (for Cheese Lovers and Cheese Makers) => ADJUNCT - Blue Mold (Penicillium roqueforti) Ripened => Topic started by: george on August 02, 2012, 02:33:02 PM
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Sometime late last year or early this year, I swore off making blue cheeses. I decided it was easier to just buy what I needed since I generally don't use that much myself.
As with all resolutions, that one didn't last long.
Made Stilton #8 on 5/15/12 with beautiful spring Jersey milk. Determined to stop over-aging the blues (one of the reasons I'd sworn them off), I opened it at 6 weeks. ALMOST perfect. Probably should have tried it at 5 weeks, but this is the closest I've ever gotten, so I'm calling it a success. (Like Boofer and a bunch of other people, I prefer my blues not to bite me back - sorry, HKJ!) ;)
Anyway, again, no pictures of the make, but a couple of it opened up. Basically just some gratuitous cheese porn. Again.
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(Like Boofer and a bunch of other people, I prefer my blues not to bite me back - sorry, HKJ!)
that being said it is still a very nice looking cheese and I would have no problem helping you devour it.
a cheese to you for a beautiful effort ;D
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Thank you, sir! (For the cheese and the compliment both)
It's nice having the advantage of not having to wait as long for the aging on these - patience is definitely not my strong point. I commend you on yours, waiting 90 and 120 days!
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Very nice looking blue! A cheese to you. I must try again once my lecturing is over.
- Jeff
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Boy, you save up all these cheese makes and then...shotgun...BAM!! :D
Looks good, george. Lots of blue veining. Yeah, 5 weeks sounds pretty good.
-Boofer-
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Thanks, Jeff! (And what are we lecturing on? - Caerphilly Extraordinaire?) :)
Hah, Boofer, I always MEAN to post the makes when I do them, but apparently I'm too lazy to download the pics, sort them out, rename 'em, compress 'em, then rename 'em again and kill the old huge files. But when I turn it into a morning's project, WELL then, that's easier!
I think I might need to do another one of these sooner than I though - realized I needed to start thinking about holiday present cheeses, and there are a couple of people that absolutely adore blues.
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Yep, that's what I've been targeting...holiday gifts. Now's a great time to be starting and aging for that purpose.
-Boofer-
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Me to Boofer :)
Will be starting a five gallon batch (I hope this weekend) if this works out I will be doing a few more just for the holidays ^-^
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VERY nice! bet it was delicious! I am going to cut my next cheese at 8 instead of 9 wks. I also think mine are going just a tad too long. was yours a 1gal?
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Nope, it was a 2+ gallon - with the + being the extra cream (2 cups maybe?).
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george (MaryJ)
what was the size of your mold (diameter/height)Just curious :)
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It was hard to tell from the scale of the pics how big the whole cheese was. When did you pierce?
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HKJ, I used this mold: http://www.cheesemaking.com/store/p/45-Hard-Cheese-Mold-Small-1.html (http://www.cheesemaking.com/store/p/45-Hard-Cheese-Mold-Small-1.html)
The curds pretty much filled it up (actually, I always have a few extra that I can't fit in there - I usually just toss them into a bowl, let 'em get all blue, then throw the bowl in the fridge for a while, stirring them up every once in a while, till they taste good. Add sour cream, and VOILA! Instant blue cheese dip!!)
T-Bird, I pierced a day or so shy of 3 weeks - I'd meant to do it at 2 weeks but I got distracted and forgot all about it. And now that I've just typed that, I'm remembering that that's why I didn't open it till 6 weeks - I wanted it to have time for the piercing to do its work. Had I remembered to pierce at 2 weeks, I would have opened it at 5 and it would have been perfect (not that it wasn't good anyway!). Lesson learned for moi. :)
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Looks very nice the way you did it! Like I said, I think I'm going to open my next cheese (this fall ) earlier than I have in the past. I think these smaller cheeses don't need to sit for the 12 weeks that we see in the Stilton videos or anywhere near it. I pierce at 4 -5 weeks, I may open at 7 now.