Buttermilk blue blues

[Lancer99]

Not stuttering . . . and if I post about my cheesy successes (mostly), it's only fair to post about my cheesy failures, and hope for some advice.

This is the inspiring pic from Mary Karlin's book, don't sue me please!:


I followed the recipe from the book, and it went into two 4" molds, first week of November. Last month into the fridge, and now . . . they don't look anything at all like the pic in the book:





More space than curd on the inside:





In no way am I faulting Ms. Karlin for the recipe.  Another blue cheese I made at the same time was successful. This was really bad, and no matter where I took a sample of the cheese, it tasted horrible and I spat it out. Keep in mind that I'm more of a swallow guy.

I'm worried because another of my blue cheeses that just I've just tried and is less than spectacular has the same *red* instead of *blue green* around the holes.



Any advice?

Thanks,
-Lance

[mikekchar]

A couple of things stand out, although I'm not entirely sure how to fix the situation.  There are a few obvious problems:

• The cheese is dried out -- at least at the outside
• The blue is dead possibly as a result of the b. linens
• The paste has rotted and turned brown probably as a result of b. linens

The first problem is slightly easy to fix.  Age your cheese in a ripening box.  For a 4" cheese, something just over a quart in size will be perfect (1.1 qt would be ideal, I think, but you can probably go up to 1.25 qt with no problems).  You can control the humidity by keeping the lid on and wiping out the box daily.  One day I'll write a blog post about this, because it's pretty interesting, but you have quite a lot of control with a ripening box.

The next two are actually a bit tricky.  From the photo, it seems that the original recipe calls for a washed rind.  It's orange with cracks of blue peeking through.  This is a traditional rind treatment for Stilton and probably some other blues.  However, I think it is key that if you do it, the rind needs to be closed.  In Stilton, they achieve this by making a cheese with an open rind, waiting for the blue to grow, piercing it and then spackling over the rind to close it.  So you smear the outside of the rind so that the inside is completely closed off.  Then they engage in a washed rind.

I think what's happened in your case is that you've washed the rind (or it got the b. linens without your intervention) and the b. linens has gone all through the paste.  This will *definitely* kill the blue.  However, I've noticed another thing with b. linens.  If you take a washed rind cheese, cut it and then put it in the fridge for 2 weeks or so, the exposed face of the paste will rot, turning brown.  It also tastes absolutely horrible (in a way that I think you are now familiar with ;-) ).  Once the b. linens gets into the paste, it's really game over and I've had that happen to a couple of my washed rinds.

So ironically, the times it has happened for me is when I've had the humidity too high -- or if the moisture content of my cheese is too high.  A good rind never really forms and the b. linens gets right in.  Here is an example of a tomme that got away from me:


Unfortunately, I don't have a picture of the paste, but essentially the outside 1/2 cm had turned brown and was pretty awful.  Eventually, the ammonia got out of it and I ended up finding a way to enjoy it, but if that brown gets all the way through, I think you are sunk.

In your case, I think it's likely that probably you got the b. linens going while the rind was still open and it just rotted everything from the inside out. Controlling the humidity I think is the real trick.  I've had a couple of Caerphillys that had their rind turn orange on me.  I moved quickly and reduced the humidity so that the b. linens didn't take over.  This resulted in a *really* delightful rind.  However, it's playing with fire :-)  With that kind of rind, you need to dry off the b. linens, but once you've done that, you need to maintain good humidity so that the cheese doesn't dry out.

[DrChile]

I agree with mikekchar - looks like B Linens went crazy.

The recipe i posted as a pic cause - well - cause I'm too lazy to type it out...  sorry.  Not a washed rind here.  I've made this a few times and had it come out great each time.  To be fair - mine look nothing like the picture in the book at all... 

Trent

[Lancer99]

So, one thing I learned recently is that the hygrometer I took as a reference SUCKED and I've been keeping everything at about 8% RH lower than I thought, now fixing that everywhere  *sigh*

Ms. Karlin's Buttermilk Blue isn't like a Stilton recipe, it's basically just curds into the mold, so no spackling or anything like that.  B. linens is a possibility, but I only introduced it deliberately after making this cheese . . . maybe I should have worn socks when making it though 

Trent, what do your BBs look like?

-R

[DrChile]

So post under this one for a pic of my most recent Buttermilk blue.

Here are some others that I've made in the past: 
Not as wrinkly as Mary's pic... 

[Lancer99]

Those are beautiful, make mine look like (excuse my language) turds, and nicer-looking than Ms. Karlin's.

L

[Boofer]

Oh Lance, you've got a classic there! Here's your link.

-Boofer-

[mikekchar]

I really *do* need to document my failures better...  I've got lovely pictures of all my yummy cheeses and *no* pictures of the ones that really didn't turn out (so far only threw out one, though... fingers crossed! But having said that, I'd due for my regular reblochon attempt :-P)