Great Mold for Blues?

[Al Lewis]

Me too!!  Although I don't think it will be as good as I would like it to be.  Next one though....

[Danbo]

8 pounds?? It's going to take over the world! ;-)

[LoftyNotions]

Cut it! Cut it! Cut it! Cut it! Cut it!

Larry

[Al Lewis]

Houston, we have Stilton! LOL  Can't describe the taste of this well enough to do it justice.  It's creamy with that awesome roquefort taste but not too harsh.  Just a nice level of blue background to accentuate the creamy taste of the paste.  It's really good!!! Ribeyes here we come!!!

[LoftyNotions]

YAY! 

Beautiful, Al. AC4U

Larry

[OzzieCheese]

Not only a CHeese 'master Hacker' but Blue master as well.  How could I not award a cheese for this.  I expect it tastes as good as it looks.

Well done.

--Mal

[Kern]

Al, I figure that I can drive from Enumclaw to Port Orchard in about 90 minutes.  See you soon.  In the meantime enjoy a cheese from me.   

[Danbo]

It looks just fabulous! A cheese for you... :-)

[Al Lewis]

Thanks guys!!  At 6 weeks I thought it might be a little early but the tang of the PR in this is in perfect balance to the creamy, buttery flavor of the body.  I really like this one.  I think the strange piercing technique I used is what gave it the blue throughout.

[H-K-J]

Wow Al
That looks very good, if it wouldn't take 18 hours to get there I would come up on steak day
Have another cheese buddy 

[John@PC]

A cheese for you as well Al .  Are going to gobble it all up or set some aside to develop?  I just cut one myself and want to get more flavor development so trying to figure out which way to go.

[LoftyNotions]

A cheese for you as well Al .  Are going to gobble it all up or set some aside to develop?  I just cut one myself and want to get more flavor development so trying to figure out which way to go.

John, I've found that mine still get sharper even when vacuum bagged. Completely cutting off O2 seems to prevent ammoniation and further mold propagation, but doesn't inhibit lypolisis.

Larry

[John@PC]

Thanks Larry.  I can vacuum bag but was worried that it will distort the cheese and create surface wrinkles.  Between foil, plastic stretch wrap, etc. what would you recommend?

[LoftyNotions]

John, I vacuum bag everything I've cut and want to save for a while. I haven't noticed any significant shape distortion. Are you concerned about bag wrinkles or the pattern caused by the air evacuation channels in edge seal bags? I can't address the second issue, since my bags don't have the evac channels.

My concern with both foil and stretch wrap, especially with moldy cheese, is that it might allow just enough O2 in to maintain mold propagation, but not enough to vent the resultant ammonia.

An additional concern with foil is continual contact between an acidic medium and Aluminum. I'm not sure that's a real issue though, because several commercial blues are wrapped in foil.

And then again, I could be delusional.

Larry

[Al Lewis]

Thanks guys!  I've wrapped this one in plastic wrap in eight segments.  It won't last long enough to do any more aging.