Goat Gorgonzola

[darius]

I started a Gorgonzola Dolce yesterday with goat milk, following this recipe:
https://cheeseforum.org/forum/index.php/topic,7855.msg55644.html#msg55644

First off, I only had 1.5 gallons of milk, not 2 gallons the recipe calls for, and the curds overfilled the recommended mold (New England Cheese Supply's M3) so be aware if you use that recipe AND mold. (I was afraid my berry-bucket mold would have made a too-thin round using only 1.5 gallons.)

This recipe takes a LOT of time in the make, before leaving it overnight in the mold... and mine was doing quite well until the last time I flipped it. I was asleep when the timer went off, and apparently didn't awaken enough to realize the cheese slipped in the mold so it turned out very funny-shaped. Reminded me of Jeff's lopsided cheese, only lots worse!

The weight this morning was 1073.2 grams, before I cut off the angled top. I know I shouldn't have cut it, but it looked more like a lopsided round obelisk. It looked so pitiful I didn't even take a photo, but here's one of the curds just ladled into the mold at 10 PM. (I started the make about 2 PM.) By the time of the third hourly flip, the curds had lost enough whey to be nearly 3/4 inch down from the top of the mold.

[JeffHamm]

Hi darius,

I've not yet ventured into blue cheeses.  In fact, I've not done any soft cheeses in almost a year.  Anyway, I recall my sad "Tam O Slanter".  I ended up putting it back in the mold with the slanted side down so that it sat on the "pointed edge".  After a day like that it helped to level it off.  I would think that with the softer curds of a blue that would work too, if it happens again.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to seeing how this one developes for you. 

- Jeff

[darius]

Thanks, Jeff. I thought about doing just as you did (I remembered!), but this was so tall and narrow... with a really acute angle on top.

[darius]

Here's a photo, after 2 days of salting/drying. You can see the misshapen wedge I cut off, and how the knit was better on the other end that wasn't hung up in the mold. (The cut end did seal nicely.)

I'd start another one but I'm out of p R.

[Jaspar]

  Just a thought, can't you take the sloped part, mill it, add it to a little warm whey to warm it up and add it to your curds on the next make to get P.R. into that cheese? Maybe it would not be enough to get it going?
                                              Jaspar


P.S. nice toad

[JeffHamm]

Jaspar's got a good idea there.  Let the slope bit develope and grow you a new supply of P.Roc.  It should bloom fairly quickly, as in a couple days I would think, and that would be enough to innoculate.  At least, in the opinion of someone who'se never made a blue cheese!

- Jeff

[Aris]

Its much better to propagate the blue mold on a bread and use the moldy crumbs to inoculate your milk. This is what Papillion do, fyi they are the second largest Roquefort cheese producer. Im using this method and its very effective and very cheap. You need to use plain bread. If you can bake, use any flour and use little salt. Using blue cheeses to inoculate your milk tends to have off flavor from my experience.

[darius]

Hmmm... interesting thoughts, Jaspar and Aris. (and Thanks to Jeff for the reinforcement!)

Since I'm out of P.R., I can only try Jaspar's idea after I get more milk next week. But when I do get more P.C. I will try inoculating bread. Heck, I might even bake some bread again!

[JeffHamm]

I think rye bread was commonly used for blue mold?  I seem to recall someone else tried to do this as well and it went wrong; but I think they were also trying to capture their own wild blue mold so that might have led to some issues. 

Anyway, Aris, so how do you get the blue mold on your bread?  Do you just smear some blue cheese on the bread, or do you put P.Roc mold in a warm water spray bottle and mist the bread?  Is there a risk of yeast contamination of the cheese (though I would think baking the bread should kill it all off)?  When you want to get your blue mold into the cheese for the make, I take it you don't just drop a sandwhich in, but do you scrap the mold off the bread?  How do you avoid crumbs?  I like the idea, just want to avoid the most obvious pitfalls. 

- Jeff

[Aris]

I smear my favorite blue cheese on the bread. I use just plain bread flour and i have no issues growing blue mold on the bread. To inoculate the cheese, you could scrape the mold from the bread on to the milk. Another method, grind the moldy bread into fine powder using a food processor or coffee grinder. Or you could dilute the chunks of bread in water for many hours then remove the bread, the water should be greenish or bluish before you use it. The bread should be fully covered with blue mold inside and out to be potent before you use it. It takes a long time, about 1 month for me but worth it in the long run.

Darius, you should wait for the mold  to grow on your cheese and scrape a little of it and put that on your bread. The bread should be in a plastic bag or in a tupperware, make sure it doesn't dry out or get wet by its moisture.

With this 32 day old blue cheese i used my own homemade blue mold culture.

[justsocat]

I found once it's pretty easy to raise blue mold using rye bread. It does work
https://cheeseforum.org/forum/index.php/topic,2618.0.html

[Tomer1]

It looks like a huge cambazola

[darius]

Pavel, I just re-read the thread/link you posted above. Now I wonder about blue development on this gorgonzola; the recipe called for adding salt to the surface 4 days in a row after removing from the mold, rather than to the curds before molding. Tomorrow it gets put in a humidity chamber and into the cave.

I only barely salted the wedge I cut off before deciding it was a waste of salt, but it is developing some traces of blue on the unsalted side.

[JeffHamm]

Thanks Aris!

And yes, I recall your blue mold raising Pavel.  thanks for the link.

Lots to try Darius.  Might be a good source of emergency P.Roc. 

- Jeff

[Aris]

Darius,
I think thats too much salt. I use 1 tablespoon of fine salt for every 4 litre batch of cow's milk. Dont worry about the blue mold not growing on the rind, Gorgonzola doesn't have a moldy rind, they even wash it with a salt and water solution to get a clean rind.

Tomer,
Yeah it looks like a Cambozola but it doesnt taste like one. The flavor is strong and spicy because it has a stronger strain of P roqueforti and has more mold than it looks once you cut it in small pieces.