Pressing a Stilton Type Cheese - ??

[Divey]

Is it okay to slightly press a Stilton or is it a big no no?

[DeejayDebi]

I am not into Blues but from the recipes I have they are all "lightly pressed." Jack Schmidling's Siltn recipe states that he presses his curds in a curd bag with 10 pounds for 2 hours.

http://schmidling.com/cres.htm#stilton

Hope this helps.

[Divey]

I have the curds in a cheese cloth and am pressing them now with 10 lbs of weight. However, the recipe (Australian Book) say to leave over night and then break the curds up into small walnut size lumps and then salt. Then press the curds again in a press. I can do that but all other recipes I've seen suggest placing the curds in a hoop and invert the hoop every few hours.

I guess I could have a look at the curds in the hoop and see if they are not too open :-\

[Sailor Con Queso]

Stilton is an open textured cheese that is not pressed like a hard cheese. Yes, you should keep it in an open hoop overnight (flipping every couple of hours). The books say break into 1 inch or walnut sized pieces. I prefer curds half that size so the curds will meld together better. Salting those pieces pretty much stops the acidification process, but it also helps give the cheese an open texture.

HINT - Save about 1 cup of unsalted curds.

Most recipes call for no weight at all with just natural settling. However, the curds will not come together well, so it is tempting to apply a lot more pressure. I personally use 5 pounds for about 4 hours just to help close things up a bit. Then I take the unsalted curds that I saved, warm them to 100-105F and spread it on the surface of the cheese with a butter knife. The idea is to fill in as many surface holes as possible. I then put the "plastered" cheese back in the press for about an hour just to smooth things out.

[Divey]

Thanks Sailor....brilliant. :)

[driekus]

This may be a stupid question, but why do you need to smooth a blue cheese? How smooth do you need to get it?

[Sailor Con Queso]

Presentation mostly, but it also helps prevent unwanted molds and contamination.