Gorgonzola One (Notchy)

[Al Lewis]

I love a good gorgonzola for chef's salads, bleu cheese dressing, and a bleu cheese steak sauce I make but have never tried making one.  That's because I also love Stilton. LOL  Maybe next blue I'll try gorgonzola or maytag.  Yours looks great!!

[Frodage]

Thanks for your advice and support! Here is a photo of the developing blue. I brought it onto the counter to warm up for 1 hour and set it back in the meat crisper upside down. I will check out the hygrometer calibration threads.

[LoftyNotions]

Looking good, Jim.

Larry

[Danbo]

Looks very nice! :-)

[Frodage]

Humidity in the low to mid 90s would probably be a good thing for blue development. 60% is probably too low. The blue won't develop and the rind on your cheese will dry out really fast.

The rind is rather hard, the blue colour hasn't developed much more, it crumbled a bit, and I'm getting worried. In an attempt to raise the humidity, I've placed four cups full of water with paper towels to try to more effectively evaporate the water.

Any other suggestions, please?

[LoftyNotions]

Jim, are you putting a lid on it?

With my Gorgonzola, without any dishes of water in the box with it, with the lid skewed off by about 1 inch I get humidity in the low 80s. With the lid covering the box, but not tightly, humidity runs in the mid to high 80s. With the lid on tight, humidity runs in the low 90s. I'm assuming your refrigerator is a frost free model? That might be drying you out if the box isn't covered pretty well. How big is your box compared to the cheese? A tight fit would provide more humidity, assuming a box that has little air exchange, but that can lead to amoniation if done for too long.

Some cheeses get really blue on the outside and some don't. For me it's what's on the inside that counts.

At some point, the only additional advice I'll be able to give you is... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-diB65scQU

Larry

[Frodage]

Thanks Larry. The waiting is the hardest part.

[Frodage]

Notchy is fully blue on the outside. To keep moisture in I wrapped it in cheese polythene (à la Malembert). Today it is fully blue on the outside.

The unwrapped ones are from my second go - and they are turning blue right on schedule. These I won't pierce until next week.

Tomorrow the whole thing goes into the fridge.

Almost bought a wine cooler as a cave during the Target liquidation sale. Does anyone else use a Sunbeam wine cooler as a cave?

[Danbo]

Looks good...

[LoftyNotions]

Jim, I don't have a Sunbeam, but I do use a wine cooler as one of my caves. It's a good starter cave, but I'm now looking for something bigger. This wine chiller has its cooling plate in the back, which does cause thermal gradients from front to back. I had to make some shelves to replace the wire racks that hold wine bottles. The plus side of having the cooling plate in the back vs. on top is that nothing drips on the cheese. Temperature control on mine is good, and does cover the range we need for cheeses.

For my next cave, I'm looking for a frost free upright freezer and will get an external controller for temperature and humidity. I think Al has a freezer with coils running under the shelves and he doesn't need any external humidity control. Hopefully he'll weigh in on the benefits of his cave.

The first 2 photos here are of the outside of my wine cooler. The second 2 are of the inside. Notice the chiller plate in the back with ice on it. 

If the Sunbeam is a thermo-electric cooler I think I'd avoid it. Consensus from articles I've read is that they aren't very reliable. The old-fashion compressor styles seem to be more reliable.

There is a lot of cave related information here: https://cheeseforum.org/forum/index.php/board,181.0.html

Especially on this thread: https://cheeseforum.org/forum/index.php/topic,10288.0.html

Larry

[John@PC]

For my next cave, I'm looking for a frost free upright freezer and will get an external controller for temperature and humidity. I think Al has a freezer with coils running under the shelves and he doesn't need any external humidity control. Hopefully he'll weigh in on the benefits of his cave.
Larry

Larry, IMO a frost-free upright freezer is a very good choice for a cave.   When you have an environment that is 55F and 85% RH the dew point is only a few degrees lower (maybe 51F or so) which means if you have exposed coils (whether in the back in your cave or in the shelves) you will indeed have condensation and icing on these very cold surfaces.  This will happen with any refrigerated enclosure and frost free isn't an exception.  But I think the advantage of FF is that (1) it does de-ice when needed and the condensate is routed somewhere other than the top of your cheeses and (2) the airflow helps prevent temperature stratification. 

And by the way, your comments on helping to make blue cheeses earns you a cheese.  Thanks.

[Frodage]

Here are my three blues as of 14Feb2015 (Notchy in the back, big and little from make #2 on the right and left, respectively). They are above my new cave - a Rona special wine cooler. Thanks to LoftyNotions I got a refridgerater style instead of Peltier cooled.

The second photo shows them from above for colour comparison. Notchy is at 5 o'clock, little at 9 o'clock and big at 1 o'clock. Notchy has some yellow on this side, while the younger ones are blue and white.

I am loving this hobby. And can't resist eating them! Thanks to Danbo, I only have to wait two more weeks! 

[Al Lewis]

Beautiful cheeses!!!  AC4U Jim!!  John, mines not frost free but I wipe the droplets off of the coils whenever I tend my cheeses and keep the vacuum packed ones on the top shelf with the most moisture.  The bags catch the water.  You can see the droplets on this pic.  BTW  Those droplets help keep that thing at 85% RH all on its own. 

[LoftyNotions]

Excellent, Jim! They're all really looking good.

Larry

[John@PC]

John, mines not frost free but I wipe the droplets off of the coils whenever I tend my cheeses and keep the vacuum packed ones on the top shelf with the most moisture.  The bags catch the water.  You can see the droplets on this pic.  BTW  Those droplets help keep that thing at 85% RH all on its own. 

My first cave was a 2 cu. ft. "dorm" fridge with coils on top and I had the same problem with "rain".  I fixed it by cutting a rectangular piece of 3/4" foam polyurethane (the pink stuff) to fit under the top coils and angled to direct condensation to the back and it worked very well.  I first used a pan but then the moisture would condense on the cold pan bottom  and "rain" as well .

By the way, I noticed a stash of brewskes'  in the lower left of your picture.  Cheers !