I have made a lot of cheeses, but have never had much interest in doing a blue cheese for some reason. Doing surface ripened (bloomy) semi-lactic type cheeses are the ones I really like to make and work the best for my life schedule.
I came across an article with a recipe in the latest Culture magazine for chevre that is a surface ripened blue. The idea immediately got my attention as something new to try. I didn't really use the recipe as published, but more as a guide (I also think the recipe has an error for the salt amount). I used 1 gal. of raw goat's milk to make chevre using my normal recipe. Since I don't have any PR culture, I did follow the magazine article guidelines for harvesting blue from an already made blue cheese. The recommendation was to use a fresh domestically produced blue so that the blue mold is fresher and more likely viable. I harvested the blue mold I could from a local cheese called Whatcom Blue. I mixed the harvested blue with a small amount of the goat's milk and added it to the rest of the goat's milk when it was at temperature (85 deg F).
I drained the resulting curd for 24 hours, salted with 1 tablespoon of salt, then shaped into 4 log shapes. The cheese logs were allowed to dry at room temperature for about three days, then placed in my cave at 50-53 degrees F.
I was a little nervous that the harvested blue might not work. Here is what happened in a week ^-^
(http://i63.tinypic.com/2zdn5g0.jpg)
The recommendation of the article is to age 1-3 weeks.
Susan
Looks like it worked!! ;D I'm curious how the taste comes out
I too have been thinking about latic blues , I wait with baited breath .
Quote from: DoctorCheese on March 20, 2017, 10:20:57 PM
Looks like it worked!! ;D I'm curious how the taste comes out
Me too :P. According to the magazine article it gets a funky flavor as it ages longer. The picture of the cheese showed it oozing around the edge and firmer in the center. This seems to be what mine is doing.
Susan
Remember blue is very aggressive , so keep your eye on them and expect to open one a little earlier than the recipe callls for just so you know for sure the timing .
Yes, I check them and flip them daily. Today opened one to check on the flavor/texture. It is getting the nice ooziness under the rind. The center is more chalk-like that is typical of well drained chevre. The flavor is good, but not a lot of blue, just a touch. Has some goaty flavor, so not quite as mild as a fresh chevre. Overall is very tasty for about 1 1/2 weeks ripening. I think I will continue ripening awhile longer to see what happens ;D.
(http://i63.tinypic.com/24eq0ya.jpg)
Susan
You might want to try piercing one of them , I suspect that this will speed up the blue flavoring in the center curd .
Looking good so far .
I thought of doing that, but have concerns that the small diameter and brittleness of the paste would result in the cheese breaking apart. Also, I'm not sure if the intention of this recipe is to get a strong "blue" flavor. If I try this in the future I might experiment with a different shape.
Susan
Looks good. My first cheese was a lactic blue that came out creamy like a gorgonzola, v. good. I found the article, will try.
This looks like a great style of cheese. Thanks for sharing. AC4U.