Second try to post this. The first time I hit the back button when trying to post photos, and it took me to the index. When I got back to where I started, all I had written was gone. So, that was a few days ago, and things have progressed from there.
I had a lot of extra milk and had to either use it or give it to the poultry, and I wasn’t willing to do that. So, feeling brave after my successful Camembert make, I decided to try Gorgonzola. I used a combination of
cheesemaking.com's recipe and one that I found on
Cookipedia.
I used 1 gallon of raw goat milk and 1-1/2 qts of raw Jersey cream
To that I added 1/4 tsp Flora Danica and a large pinch of P. rogueforti, which I had hydrated for 24 hours in 1/4 C water.
Then I let it culture for an hour.
After the hour, I added 9 drops of double strength vegetable rennet (diluted, of course), which brought the floc time to just about 13 minutes. I let it set for a factor of 2, or 26 minutes. The curds were very delicate, and next time I may try for a factor of 3, depending on how this make turns out.
I let them rest for 30 minutes, stirring a couple of times gently—mostly just shaking the spoon a bit to get some motion and encourage release of the whey. At the end of that time I ladled off as much whey as I could. I then carefully ladled the curds into a cheesecloth lined colander and let them drain, lifting the sides of the cheesecloth to aid in the drainage.
It actually took a bit of draining before I could get all of the curds into the colander. When they’d drained considerably, I ladled them into a 6” mold, which sat atop a plastic mat on top of a cookie sheet, which sat on a pan to catch the whey. I turned it at 15 minutes, 45 minutes, and then several times after that before I let it sit draining overnight.
The following afternoon, I removed the mold and salted the cheese. I repeated this every day for 4 days, then removed it to a plastic container in a location around 55° and turned it daily. A couple of days later I skewered it top and bottom to encourage blue mold formation.
The blue mold is developing as it should, but now there's white mold on it as well. Is this normal? Should I brush it off? Salt it?