Aging Blue too dry, now what?

[dirigoma]

Hi All, first post but have learned ALOT on this forum.  My first blue (from RC plain blue cheese recipe) seems too dry but has white fuzzy mold.  My Camemberts have done fine with white mold covering just as it should, but did use closed containers and these are different.

Initial blue green mold was good (12/21/11), then grew dry and I increased humidity.  Have in a plastic box, lid ajar with water layer under plastic base, cheese mat under cheese in my basement (inside a mouse-proof zip up frame), 50 degrees, 84-88% humidity.

Had some black and some white furry mold, a tiny fly or two (1/2/12). So covered with cheesecloth, increased humidity and then scraped at 30 days (1/8/12).  Corners were quite soft and where the surface broke was oozy inside.  But tasted good! 

A week later (1/16/12), fuzzy mold grew back, one side is quite dry and the other pink smear. Today I scraped again, and applied salt/water with cheesecloth.

Questions:  how bad is white fuzzy mold, and if the exterior became too dry is it salvageable?  This recipe says 6 months to age?  And at what point would vacuum sealing be OK for remainder of time?

Thanks much.

[Cheese Head]

Welcome and great looking pictures/cheese! I've only made 3 (intentionally) blue cheeses so far so so take following with gain of salt . . . none of mine lasted 6 months .

Blues beneath surface should not be oozy (even if tastes good), this problem is often associated with slip skin on white mold bloomy cheeses. That said your pictures' white mold doesn't look like P candidum, so I'd keep rubbing it off.

From your worklog it sounds like your cheese is too moist for a blue, so I'd keep the humidity down a bit to try and keep the white mold at bay but not so much that the surface dries out to fast and you get surface cracks. I wouldn't vacuum seal a blue as it needs to breath, I'd keep doing what you've been doing.

Have you poked it yet to let the blue enter the voids inside the paste (if your cheese is too moist then you probably won't have any)?

Lastly, I'd ditch those bamboo sushi making mats after this make for plastic food grade ones as they cannot be fully cleaned and thus easily harbour unwanted molds and yeasts for your next batch.

Hope helps!

[dirigoma]

Hi John,

Thanks for the feedback.  I'm stumped by the humidity challenges -- since the fuzzy mold seems due to too moist, yet you can see the dried out rind as well.  I'm off the reed mats now, but the plastic ones seem to hold a lot of moisture too.

And that slippery skins is exactly what I experienced.

I pierced this cheese per the recipe at 10 days, is that what you meant?  Others have mentioned seeing the pierces staying open, which mine aren't. 

And by adding the salt rub I was concerned it would draw out too much moisture or add too much salt.

Will post back when something new grows on it!

J

[dirigoma]

Hi John and anyone else willing to weigh in ... here's some update photos of my blue cheese. 

Humidity is still at 76 percent ... 50 degrees.  Is the pink really bad (v. red smear)?  The crust?  Should a typical blue continue growing blue mold or take on a yellow hardness?  I used Ricki's plain "blue cheese" recipe that calls for 6 months of aging???

Thank you, this forum is such a help, but I couldn't find answers to these questions.

Jennifer