Saturday I made a Bleu d'Armand.

[hoeklijn]

a WHAT? A Bleu d'Armand, which is French for something like "Herman's blue". It's a sort of TOOKAS (The Original Officially Known As Stilton), but since that has a POD I can't called it by that name. Officially.
For the make I used just over 6 gallons of fresh raw and still warm milk, fresh from the cow, with a fat percentage of 4.5% according to the farmer.
I followed LinuxBoy's recipe on wacheese.com and used a culture that has 2/3 Lactococcus Cremoris and Lactococcus Lactis and 1/3 aroma forming cultures Lactococcus Diacetilactis and Leuconostoc Cremoris. For the PR I used Sigma 17 which is adviced by my supplier for less sharp results like in Fourme d'Ambert.
I started early which resulted that around 8PM I was able to mill the curd and fill the mould.
The mould I'm using is 16cm in diameter and 26 cm high and was completely filled at first.
I must say, it's quite an adventure to flip something like that... But I managed and have been flipping the whole night.
Today also several times and from tomorrow on twice a day. Top and bottom are nicely formed, but I've got some curd in the fridge for when I am going to smoothen the outside Tuesday night. The bit of whey that's still dripping down is smelling nice and buttery.
Tuesday I will make pictures. I still don't know if I'm going to allow the rind to develop like a TOOKAS of that I give it a more Booferish treat like he does with his Fourme d'Ambert....

[Tiarella]

Wow, Herman!!  That sounds very cool!!  I do want to watch it ripen so do post lots of photos please.   :)

[hoeklijn]

Tonight I removed the cheese from it's mould. It's about 2750 gram at the moment, but probably it will loose some wheight while maturing.
It's quite a big cheese, to compare I made 1 picture with a 0.33 ltr beer bottle.
I filled the biggest cracks and craters with some warmed up curd that I had saved in the fridge and then it was ready to be moved into its container for the cave. So far I'am happy  :D...

[Tiarella]

That is BEAUTIFUL!!!!!  Ummm, I hope you like this cheese a LOT because that is a LOT of cheese!  it does have a very cool name.   ;D. Does your box have a raised lid or will you have to drape plastic over the top with this very tall cheese?  It's nice to see you cheesing and posting again! 

[hoeklijn]

I like the cheese and I like to share. My box doesn't have a lid as the moment, the cheese is too tall, but I'm trying to raise the RH in the cave. At the moment it's about 80% as I noticed when I  flipped the cheese early this morning. And yes, I hope I can pick up the pace again with cheesing and posting...

[Boofer]

Yea!! Herman's back!!  :D

...and he's expanding our cheese lexicon: Bleu d'Armand...TOOKAS.

Wow, 6 gallons of warm raw milk. That's a big cheese. Looks really good so far. I'm looking forward to watching its development. With the cultures and blue mold you put into this cheese, it really is your cheese. That's nice.

-Boofer-

[hoeklijn]

Thanks Boofer! I'm still in doubt how I'm going to treat the rind, but at the moment regular cleaning with salt water = 60%, creating a real TOOKAS-rind = 40%...

[hoeklijn]

Today is discovered the first blue, together with some white mould (Geo? PC? Not added to the milk, so some other contamination). After seeing the white I decided to go for a regular maintenance of the rind with salt water, so it received it's first treatment right away.



After that is was time for the first piercing of the cheese.
Fun part of piercing is that small crumbles of cheese will come on top of the cheese, so you can TASTE how it is developing and yes, I'm still happy!



cheers,
Herman

[hoeklijn]

Update on the development of my "Bleu d'Armand":
It's 2 weeks old now and I'm still pretty pleased. Some Geo is developing in the lower parts of the rind and I'm cleaning the rind once a week with a water and salt solution. The other days I let the cheese out of the cave for about an hour and rub the rind with a clean dry cloth.
Because the holes I pierced last week are closed with PR, I pierced the cheese again with a knitting needle of 4 mm I bought for this purpose.
I promised myself to let it age for at least 3 month but I already expect that won't be easy....

[H-K-J]

Looks Like it has come along nicely Herman (Yuummmm :P)

[Boofer]

Oooh, I like that rind treatment you have going, Herman. Looking good!

Kind of looks like a strange type of radio with that antenna sticking up there. :P

-Boofer-

[hoeklijn]

Kind of looks like a strange type of radio with that antenna sticking up there. :P

-Boofer-

Yeah, somehow the antenna is only receiving blues  O0

[Boofer]

Kind of looks like a strange type of radio with that antenna sticking up there. :P

-Boofer-

Yeah, somehow the antenna is only receiving blues  O0

ROFL  ;D

I set that up really good for you. :)

-Boofer-

[CWREBEL]

Yeah, you served a softball for him Boofer, and Herman hit over the fence!  ;D

[hoeklijn]

Well, to be honest, when posting that picture I already suspected some reaction from some members  ;D