So, I have a blue, a stilton, which turned into a monster.
What am I looking at? In 10 weeks could I have something poisonous, a foul tasting cheese, or something unique and wonderful?
The two, two pound, lumps are well covered with something looking like sea fungus and white g./p. candidium. They smell like garbage or rotten seaside detritus. Very unusual. I'm willing to wait it out, but are there health problems I might be getting involved with when these mature to ripe bags of garbage?
Hmm
Pictures?
Creature from the black lagoon comes to mind.
:oI am very leary about taking chances with food. If it smells bad it probably is bad. You know what a blue cheese should smell like - if it doesn't smell like that I'd bag it and toss it.
The problem is when you try to create something you're not entirely sure about... I was very dubious about my first feta batch, which turned out great. Just yesterday I made some sour cucumbers, which I have never made before and I was very suspicious about the smell. It was bad. But what if it's supposed to be? You are basically trying to spoil a perfectly good batch of cucumber/cabbage/milk in a controlled way :)
Good cheese doesn't smell bad. If it looks rotten and smells rotten, then it probably is. Pitch it before you contaminate everything else.
I'm moving it outside into a tupperware so it can stew at 45-60ºF day and night without flies and things. Hopefully it work, but if it doesn't it will just sit away from everything else until I sample.
Have you ever made any bad cheese? Bad=stinky and rotten.
I'm making the Stilton over again by the end of the week, and I'll put it in a clean cave for blues alone. Well, I might put a cheddar in there too, since it has a tight exterior.
You really need a consistent temperature. Fluctuating from 45-60 or whatever isn't going to help.
Yeah, I gave up consistency because I could either...
a) lager them at 75ºF in my main rooms and put up with the stink
b) age them in the basement where it is cooler and even, but totally evil and filled with bugs, and the smell would probably waft about anyway.
c) put them out in one of my cheese caves and possibly doom future cheeses
d) put them in my garage back room I rarely use, but deal with fluctuation.
We'll see how it goes. So far that back room is holding temps fairly even through the days. Those two cheese caves plugged in and working actually keep the place warm enough that it remains around 55-65ºF through days and nights.
Do you have a cooler? Like those picnic coolers? Try that.
It's sitting in a big tupperware bin in that back room. I think it will be ok for the next 3 or 4 weeks. Maybe I'll chance putting it in the basement after that.
It's the bastard stepchild of my cheeses, and I am hiding it under any stairs I can find.
Hey, Halloween's coming up. So here's the Top 10 things to do with a stinky cheese:
1 - Wrap walnut sized pieces in cellophane and hand out as "treats".
2 - "Stinky Cheese" someone's car
3 - Smear some of it on tree limbs to attract bats
4 - Rub some on your neck to ward off vampires
5 - Use it as bait to catch rats. Hang rats in trees to scare kids
6 - Float it in a barrel of water and have kids bob for stinky cheese
7 - Insert twigs as legs and arms to make a stinky cheese monster
8 - Use a fan to blow stink all over for authentic smell of death
9 - Insert popsicle stick and make stinky cheese sticks as treats
10 - Dab a little on the forehead of every kid that comes around. That way you'll know if they come back around for seconds. AND you'll be REALLY popular on the hot car ride home.
I never realized the utility of bad cheese!!
It might be a good hunting cheese too: smear some on and the bucks will think it is a female in heat.
The smell is similar to seaside rot, so I could just wear a panama shirt, sandals, get out a beach chair, and a fan blowing the stink around, and pretend I am at the beach as the temps drop down to freezing. It's a cheap vacation in a cheese.
Hunting scent eh?
I think I willl try that.....
:)
Excellent Top Ten, Sailor.
You could also dress up the stinky cheese with a trenchcoat, hat, and dark sunglasses so no one could recognize it.
-Boofer-
Wayne - I've used skunk scent on my boots when deer hunting to mask human odor. So you might be onto something. Heck you could probably get $20 an ounces if you hyped it properly. ;D
So what happens to a Stilton in time if matured oddly?
Does it turn into a puddle or get harder?
We generally don't keep oddly maturing cheeses. ::)
Have have enough trouble with oddly maturing leftovers in my fridge - ;D
Baby Chee...
I realize this is an older post but I thought I would chime in anyway....
The biggest threat (at least in my experience) to a Stilton variety is the possibility of it becoming "liquid" from too much humidity.
I personally have never had this happen but I have read of it happening on a couple of different forums.
I have never had a Stilton style of cheese go bad and I will say that, in my opinion, they have a horrible smell while aging. Not a rotten smell, but certainly not pleasant or nice.
My wife and my kids will run shrieking from the room if I tell them I am about to open the Stilton cave. That's when I know I have a good one going. ;D
Oh, just to whet everyone's appetite on this Thanksgiving day.....
One other problem that I've read (more than once) concerning a Stilton style is that it is susceptible to maggot infestation. Doesn't that sound nice? :D
Okay, I've typed too much.
Dave
Ergh! I knew I didn't like blue cheese for a reason.
Hey LSpace,
Here's what happened....
(http://cityofclifford.com/Mon3.jpg)
It turned out tasty, but the crappy mold smelled like XXXX. Well, honestly, it smelled like rotting seaweed for a few weeks, then it smelled like rotting cabbage, then it smelled like a bag of 10 week old garbage left in the sun. The cheese inside: nice. Unfortunately it wasn't a blue cheese, but it was a blue cheese without the blue streaks.
The lesson: don't throw out bad cheese if it could be good.
I ignored the doomsayers and left it to mature. Sure, I'd rather have a proper stilton, but this was good and edible.
Baby Chee - You have strength of will and determination. :P I'm not sure I would have had the courage to go for that cheese. I tip my hat to you. 8)
-Boofer-
Yah, that looks pretty scary. You are one brave man!
Chee....
Thanks for the photos.
Although the rind does look a little...ummm..snake-like, the pate looks pretty nice to me.
It's a shame that you didn't get the bluing you were after but I'm sure that will come with future attempts.
Making blues is definitely not for the faint of heart. When I did my first one I was convinced (several times) that the cheese had gone south. Had I thrown that one away I would have missed out on a very tasty cheese.
Now I am reluctant to throw any cheese away without first giving it a taste but there have been a couple of times that I've listened to my heart instead.
Good luck with your future attempts.
Dave
Thanks, LSpace. It's good to know others have tried cheeses through dilemma as well.
The cheese did get awful and disgusting, but I figured the interior of the cheese was protected by the green skin in a similar way to blue skin. Though some vocal advice came through here to toss the cheese, I stuck it out and had a nice cheese.
(http://cityofclifford.com/Cripes!.jpg)
There is the original.
People should learn about my events in case they come into a similar experience.
I'm glad I was able to post this cheese through to the end.
My slipped skin crottins were the same way good inside but gross outside.