>:( HELP! Trying to help a friend troubleshoot a cheese making process. This is a commercial operation he's purchase and he has a recipe and process he's received. His main complaint is the blue cheese is WAY to dry. He has some aging room is in rough shape with some issues. He's aging the blue cheese at 58 F and having a hard time getting to his target humidity of 95%. He at best is hitting 70%. It's also not molding enough he says.
I guess the my question is how much will that much difference in humidity effect the dryness of the cheese?
and
What other potential things that could be done different to make the cheese moister, a lot moister?
Any troubleshooting tips would be greatly appreciated. Perhaps the humidity would have much less effect on the final product then I think. Maybe it's in the process.
His recipe was based on 100% Jersey cow milk. At this time he is unable to acquire that same Jersey milk. From what I know about Jersey milk is the fat content is much higher. So if he can get non-jersey milk, how might he alter the aging or process to fix this "drying" problem.
Thank you SOOOO very much for any advise. I will include pictures of the current final product.
I don't have a commercial operation but I age my blues at 54° F and 85% RH and have to air them out an hour a day to keep them from getting too wet.
Thanks for the reply Al.
If you had to guess what would contribute to really dry blue, what do you think it would be:
a. the raw milk (jersey or not)
b. something in the process (handling of the curds or over acidification?)
c. the environment (currently 57-58 F humidity around 82%)
Thanks for your input.
BB
Impossible to help you without details of your make.
Quote from: BerzerkerBlue on October 06, 2016, 03:47:46 PM
If you had to guess what would contribute to really dry blue, what do you think it would be:
a. the raw milk (jersey or not)
b. something in the process (handling of the curds or over acidification?)
c. the environment (currently 57-58 F humidity around 82%)
Yes.
:)
To offer a more helpful word ... certainly the process could be a factor - the more stirring and/or cooking of the curds, the drier the outcome. I wouldn't think over acidification would be a factor -- that's just my guess, based on the fact that the recipe I follow pretty much lets the curd pH bottom out. (I'm thinking it is a bit like the camemberts and bries, that the action of the mold reverses some of the pH, but again I'm going on fuzzy memory at best.)
In a home context, one way to raise the humidity of the environment is to put the cheese in a ripening container. For my gorgonzola makes, using 6 gallons of milk, I use an old tupperware cake carrier as the ripening container. Daily I open it to air out, and wipe out any condensation or collected moisture. Seems to work well ... but I have no idea whether something like this is feasible in a commercial operation.
Thanks again for your responses
I'm going to get more detail in the coming days, I'll post more details then...
It would appear from the photo you posted that your curds may have been too wet when molded. I can't see very many of the cracks and crevices present in blues where the blue resides. Without knowing your process, a pure guess would be that the weight of the curds may have expelled too much liquid. In the Stilton process the creameries leave the curd to drain overnight before cutting and hooping them. Again, just a pure guess.
The photo shows severe drying from the rind inwards to me. Not enough humidity in my opinion.