why so different

[broombank]

I made a Hebridean blue in April and matured it on a plastic board under a plastic dome at around 14C  80% humidity. It was excellent with an intense blue disseminated through the cheese ( I used 50G of Hebridean blue pulverised with milk instead of Roquefortii ) So in July I decided to make another but this time for practical reasons I put the cheese in a plastic box only slightly larger than the cheese. It sweated a lot in the very humid box and has absolutely failed to develop blue mould despite an identical recipe. Why?  How important is ventilation to the development of blue mould? Both cheeses were pierced at 2 weeks. A podcast I was listening to said only two elements are important - humidity and ventilation. They almost sound like opposites. I know oxygen is an essential element in the development of the blue mould so I can only assume I have starved the cheese of oxygen. Could this be right?

[Aris]

No blue veining inside the cheese? From experience a blue cheese can have minimal blue outside but can have lots of blue mold inside. My blue cheese is also aging in a plastic container that is slightly larger and blue mold is growing on the outside. I am not sure if there is blue veining though. I will know in 40+ days. Can you post a picture of the cheese in the container? I doubt you starved the cheese of oxygen unless you vacuum packed it.

[mikekchar]

Blue will grow fine in the absence of oxygen.  It will not *bloom* in the absence of oxygen, though.  In order to have internal veining, you must have cracks with air in them.  Sometimes you'll see that the blue only grows where the cheese has been pierced.  Sometimes, because the cheese has softened after you pierce it, the holes that you pierced close and you don't even get blue there.  However, you'll get great blue flavour, because once the blue gets into the paste, it can grow right the way through the cheese.

To make a blue with great veining, you want a cheese that has an open structure.  Remember that the curds will knit more easily if the pH is high.  So one of the tricks is to get the cheese into the mold late (lower pH), don't press it, and then let it acidify to the point where it will hold its structure pretty well as it ages.  This keeps the structure of the cheese open as it ages.  However, it's a double edged sword.  The lower the pH before you salt it, the less calcium in the curd and the *higher* the pH will go as it ages.  This will soften the paste and it may well close all of those holes.  So there is quite a lot of strategy involved in making a great blue.

Interestingly for me, Jim Wallace's Stilton recipe (which is apparently based on a pre-war farmhouse Stilton recipe) goes into the mold at a very high pH, which is pretty tricky to work with.  When I made that cheese, I stupidly pressed the cheese "a little bit" and lost most of the veining (only the very center of the cheese survived).  Great cheese, though.  I'm definitely making it again when the weather cools down.  I seem to remember that Aris's recent impressive blue was left to acidify for quite a long time before salting.  That's probably one of the keys to their success.

[broombank]

thanks for the very interesting replies. I will think about them. The strange thing about this is there is not a hint of blue mould either on the outside or inside. Neither is there a blue flavour to the cheese. The texture is right but without the blue. Its almost as if I forgot to put in any starter mould. In this case I made a milk/cheese slurry with Hebridean blue and added that instead of the P. Roquefortii. I think my conclusion is that making blues is inherently unpredictable - one of the reasons I like it. I certainly think the paste has softened so any holes I made will have closed up. However that doesn't explain why there is no mould on the outside either. Regrettably I can't post pictures as I have cut it up. My instinct tells me it was too humid with insufficient ventilation. My brother in Australia who has been making cheese for 40 years told me it would be the affianage that would try me. He was right!

[Aris]

thanks for the very interesting replies. I will think about them. The strange thing about this is there is not a hint of blue mould either on the outside or inside. Neither is there a blue flavour to the cheese. The texture is right but without the blue. Its almost as if I forgot to put in any starter mould. In this case I made a milk/cheese slurry with Hebridean blue and added that instead of the P. Roquefortii. I think my conclusion is that making blues is inherently unpredictable - one of the reasons I like it. I certainly think the paste has softened so any holes I made will have closed up. However that doesn't explain why there is no mould on the outside either. Regrettably I can't post pictures as I have cut it up. My instinct tells me it was too humid with insufficient ventilation. My brother in Australia who has been making cheese for 40 years told me it would be the affianage that would try me. He was right!

Did your cheese become slimy or sticky? The cheese should be elevated with sushi mat, plastic mat, grill or wooden board so it dries evenly and there is air circulation below. I prefer to use cedar planks over sushi mat because it is so easy to clean, very little mold grows on it, it is thick and wicks away excess moisture from the cheese. Yeah blue cheeses are unpredictable but the more I make it the less unpredictable it is.
My 26 days old blue cheese below is still dry to the touch and I check on it everyday to remove condensation and to flip it.

[broombank]

yes it was slimy but not ammoniacal.  It was elevated on a silicone mat but in a container only slightly bigger than the cheese. Where do you get cedar planks ? Do you sterilise them?

[Aris]

yes it was slimy but not ammoniacal.  It was elevated on a silicone mat but in a container only slightly bigger than the cheese. Where do you get cedar planks ? Do you sterilise them?

Blue cheeses get B. linens quickly because of the high pH on the rind thanks to the blue mold. But yours got B.linens before blue mold could grow. You have to be careful not to get it wet or damp from too much humidity and no air circulation. I learned it here that blue mold doesn't like its feet wet. I also sanitize my hands with a food safe acid based sanitizer before touching them. So far no B. linens contamination with my 4 blue cheeses. The cedar planks I use is actually meant for grilling Salmon. I bought it from a hardware depot. Before I used it, I boiled it for several minutes. If I am going to age a new blue cheese on that cedar plank and container. I will not sterilize it because it already contains blue mold which will quickly grow on the new blue cheese.