Finally Making My 6 Gallon Stilton

[Al Lewis]

Well I used the recipe from New England Cheese Making as it was the one I used for my first small stilton's seen here  As I did not use raw milk this time I added one pint of heavy cream to each two gallons of milk.  You can find the recipe here. I actually did this in two pots, one two gallon and one four gallon, as I didn't have a pot big enough to do it in one.  The most difficult thing was getting both pots, two different sizes, to the right temperature at the same time.  I watched both thermometers during initial warming and calculated the heat necessary for each to arrive at 86 F at the same time.  With that done the next step of removing the whey into the colanders was done in steps spooning out the small pot first.  Although both showed a clean break, this gave the larger pot a bit more time to set just in case.  All I can say at this point is "man that's a lot of curd!"

[Al Lewis]

Well if anyone ever wondered how much 6 gallons of milk curd will fill up a 8" diameter by 7.5" high cylinder mold here it is.  Should be a pretty nice hunk of cheese by the time it settles down. After the first flip it was 5.5" high. ;D

[bbracken677]

That's a lotta curd!  Little Miss Muffett would be pleased!   :)

[H-K-J]

Looks nice Al, got to get me another one going :)

[Al Lewis]

Thanks BB and H-K-J!  All that weight is really dressing the faces of this thing.  I should hardly have to do any smoothing at all!  Figure in four days I'll pull the mold.  Then we'll see how well the blue comes out. :D

[sofusryge]

Looks cool - The Tower of Power  8)

Looking forward to see it ripening.

[Al Lewis]

Woke up to this this morning when I flipped it.  I keep rotating the mats 90 degrees each time I flip it and spin the mold a bit to stop those little bumps from forming.  Not a lot of whey in the pan this morning.  Expected more but this thing is still very heavy with whey and the mold is still tight.  May take a week before this one comes out of the mold.  Still the key word in cheese making is patience.  Keep telling myself that enough and maybe I'll get it one day. LOL

[mjr522]

Looking good--I like big cheeses.  I'm limited to 4 gallons right now, but sometime I'll make myself a bigger vat.  What do you use for your 6 gallons?

:-[ Never mind, I get so caught up in pictures that I don't read very well sometimes...

[H-K-J]

That looks great Al :P
I would love to get me a 32 to 34 qt vat, don't see it in the to near future :-\

[Al Lewis]

Well I found that the cheap place to get them is at home brewery stores and web sites.  Apparently they use the same stuff we do. :o

[Al Lewis]

Well I'm still flipping this thing and it's still tight in the mold so I'm estimating, at this point, it will be in the mold for a week.

[bbracken677]

Cool...you should be seeing some blue then before caving it! 

[Al Lewis]

Sure hope so.  Once I can remove it from the mold it will sit for 5 days before going into the cave.   Here's the regimen I use from the recipe although I may not bandage it if it is solid enough to support it's weight at the sides. 

Turn several times in mold first hour then 2x@day for next few days.
After 3-5 days @ 70F remove mold and wrap in cloth for the next 5 days.
Then remove cloth and move to aging room 54-60F 85%RH

[Al Lewis]

BB you must be physic! LOL  Went downstairs to tend the cheese this morning and got a very pleasant surprise when I flipped the stilton.  This turned up overnight. Now that's a gorgeous color of blue.  ;D

[bbracken677]

haha!  If the conditions are right, the blue doesn't take long to show up!