First (approx) Stilton!

[Al Lewis]

Andreas, here's a picture of mine after a few days in the cave.  As you can see they turn every color under the sun.  Apart from the "elephant foot" it looks fine.  Also, the second picture is a shot of the first ones I did.  Tasted great!!

[AndreasMergner]

Al, thanks. I guess I just need to let it go and do its thing. I think I'll pierce it tomorrow unless it should wait 10 days after that.

[Al Lewis]

The recipe I use calls for the cheese to be pierced 5 weeks after making it.

[AndreasMergner]

Here it is tonight.  Looks like a lot of b. linens growth, some PR and very little geo.   I've been airing it out of the cave tonight to get it a little less sticky/damp on the outside.  I'm not too concerned though.  In a week or so I'll start piercing!

[sofusryge]

That's what a Stilton would look like if it was painted by Salvador Dali  ^-^ Nice colors!

[AndreasMergner]

Ha ha, yes this is a really bright orange in real life. I'm sure I couldn't duplicate it if I wanted to! I'm still airing it out for an hour or more every day and it is still a bit tacky. I'll just have to continue the process.

[AndreasMergner]

I can't get this thing dry.  Every time I pull it out it is sticky on the outside.  I have it in a slightly open container in the mini fridge....I'm a little leery of taking it out of the container because I don't want to infect my other new cheeses.  I can get it to dry out of the cave though.  I wonder if it is just the b linens or what?  I'm considering washing it off under the faucet because it just seems out of control.  Help!  :)

[Al Lewis]

Before I did that I would try scraping it off with the edge of a table knife.

[AndreasMergner]

Ok, I think I will try that instead.  :) 

[AndreasMergner]

I think that is going to work.  The sides were pretty dry, so they didn't scrape well, but on the ends where it was sticky and moist, I could scrape off the b linens pretty well.  It seems dry under the b linens so it should be ok.  It has been a little over a month so I pierced it.  It is nice and creamy inside and it tastes like a very mild blue cheese at this point so I think it is right on track.  Woo hoo!  I hope it works because I could use a success even if it is the form of an orange elephant foot!  :o

I'll take a pic when I pull it out again and get it all scraped.  Thanks again Al!

[AndreasMergner]

So I scraped it pretty well AFTER I pierced it.  That was dumb....should have done the reverse as I had to work around the holes and sometimes reopen them, but it looks better and is not slimy.  I was thinking it would be great if I could somehow reinnoculate the rind with PR and treat the rind so that it favors the PR.  Any ideas? 

The rind is not quite as orange as the pic suggests.

[Schnecken Slayer]

I saw another post where they made a fresh brine solution, added the PR to it and allowed it to dissolve for a while and then misted the outside.
They said this works because the PR is more salt tolerant than some other cultures.

[Tiarella]

Hmmm.  B. Linens is tenacious!  Ummm, I wonder if searching for a way to stop it would yield some ideas.  It does seem tricky though because of the variety of cheese being softer than most.  How long do you need to age this puppy out?  I wonder how salt tolerant B. Linens is.  Wonder about pH tolerance in case that's a way out.  Quite the interesting cheese!!!! DO keep updates coming!

[AndreasMergner]

Last night I made a morge out of some blue mold from a nice Cambozola.  I didn't have my other pure blue that I had before and I figured I'd be a cowboy and risk getting some PC on the cheese too.  The more molds, the merrier!

I brushed the morge all over the rind and in the middle of it thought, wow this is just like doing a washed rind where I try to promote b linens development.  :-/  I continued on and then let it dry for a couple hours.  Let's see what happens!

[AndreasMergner]

I have been keeping this out quite a bit after my linens overgrowth.  The rind has dried up nicely and the dominant smell is now PR instead of linens.  Yay!  I haven't gotten any PR growth on the outside like I was thinking I might, but I think that is ok.

I pierced it again.  The skewer goes in nice and easy.  You can see the creaminess of the cheese around the holes.  It tastes amazing.  I think it is a little early to eat yet at 6 weeks, but I don't want it to get too strong.  Should I take a core sample in a week or two...or both?  :)