Gorgonzola Picante #4 Start January 21, 2015

[Danbo]

It's progressing nicely...

[LoftyNotions]

This Gorgonzola definitely has more going on with its exterior than my last one. I've intentionally manhandled it when I flip it and generally kept the cave humidity higher. I'm bringing humidity down at this point. besides the blue, there is some Geo and B. linens. Definitely has a slight funk to it.

This is day 26. About 2 weeks until I chop it open.

Larry

[Al Lewis]

That's great!! My best rinds have started out exactly like that!!!

[Danbo]

Funky fellow! :-)

[LoftyNotions]

Well, today was cutting day. It has been about 6-1/2 weeks since the make and a little over 4 weeks since the first piercing.

It's a nice mild blue at this point. I've vacuum sealed most of it for further aging.

Larry

[LoftyNotions]

And a couple more photos, including the bags.

Larry

[H-K-J]

What can I say a cheese for you

[bratrules1]

Wow that looks amazing!!! Have a cheese!!!!

[OzzieCheese]

and from me ... It's a work of art...

just wonderful !!

[awakephd]

Gorgeous! I wanna make one ... how many gallons of milk did you use?

AC4U!

[LoftyNotions]

This is a 4 gallon cheese, with 2 gallons the first day for the hard interior curd and 2 gallons the second day for the softer exterior.

Larry

[Al Lewis]

An amazing success Larry!!! AC4U

[LoftyNotions]

Thanks everyone. We compared this cheese to the Gorgonzola I made in November. It's amazing how much sharper these get, even sealed in a vacuum bag. The 4 month cheese has a really nice P. roqueforti bite. The 6 week cheese has the flavor, but is very mild. My wife prefers the younger one slightly, and I prefer the aged.

Here are a couple comparison photos. Old on the left, young on the right. This also shows how well this cheese survives vacuum bagging.

Larry

[Danbo]

Niiiiiice! :-)

[awakephd]

Larry,

I decided to try my hand at a Gorgonzola Picante this weekend, and in the process noticed a couple of interesting differences / questions -- when I checked Jim Wallace's recipe on www.cheesemaking.com, I noticed that he called for thermo (yoghurt) rather than meso -- but all other recipes used meso, including your use of FD. I decided to use a 4:2:1 combination of MA011, MD088, and TA061 -- essentially something like FD + a dash of thermo. We'll see how it comes out ...

I also noticed that you used 1/3 of the first day's curd on bottom and top, and 1/3 on the sides. For my make, it worked better to use 1/4 on bottom and top, and 1/2 on sides -- may be just a difference in the shape of my mold, which was a bit more squat than I would have liked. (It looks like the cheese will be about 2/3 as tall as it is wide.)

In any case, I hope my results will be half as good as yours!