Diagnosing an attempt at Stilton...delicious, but no Stilton.

[coroto]

Late last September I started on a Stilton-type cheese attempt (my first) using the "Stilton Approximation Howto" (http://www.wacheese.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=71:stilton-approximation-howto&catid=38:bloomy-rind-and-blue&Itemid=58).  Over the Christmas holidays we cut and ate some of the cheese, which though delicious, did not really come out as Stilton-esque as I had hoped.  The flavor was delicious, but it was too hard and dry for a Stilton.

My goal is to figure out what factors most contributed to this, and adjust the make and affinage to improve the cheese for next time.

I used 3.75 gallons of regular supermarket whole milk and a quart of half & half, with Aroma B culture and vegetarian rennet.  Trying to match the pH markers in the Howto, I found the acidification took longer than anticipated, but everything went fairly smoothly and eventually the curds landed in an 8-inch diameter mold.  In the end, the cheese ended up being just over two inches high, which is a long ways from proper Stilton proportions (Stiltons are taller than they are across) but that's what I had to work with.  I pierced radially with a stainless skewer dipped in vinegar at about 4 weeks.  I aged at about 54 degrees F in a small dorm fridge with a small fan inside for air circulation.

I was never able to achieve the 90% RH in that little fridge, despite spraying the walls with water, two open pans of water and the little fan inside the fridge blowing across a draped cloth with its ends stuck in a water pan.  Instead, I think I aged the cheese in the 75-80% range; at least, that's according to the instrument I had (I'm not sure I trust it).

Would a too-dry aging (for ~3 months) result in the cheese being too hard and dry (parts were almost flaky/crumbly like an old cheddar)?? I'm  trying to sort out whether something in the make or in the aging or both were responsible for the final texture.

Looks like I still have lots to learn, but I'm encouraged that everyone liked the cheese and yes, we ate the rind!

[Tomer1]

Some things I can point out to -
The cheese looks rather flat, stilton is made in a fairly tall manner.

Humidity is too low, you need to rise your RH to 90% to prevent drying out the mold-   you should try using a closed container.

Getting the right moisture level at the end of the make is important to getting the creamy paste which is the trade mark of stilton.

[linuxboy]

Some ideas:
- Change form factor to reduce evaporative surface area (ie use another mold, taller)
- Wait a little longer before adding rennet. The paste looks a bit too firm even with the moisture issue.
- As for the moisture issue, with stilton, it's usually hard to get the moisture down enough for it to work well. If yours is too low, then it's draining too much, floc is too low, or humidity isn't high enough. Maybe try using a small aging box?