Hi
Yesterday we opened my first blue cheese made on March 19 (60+ days). We followed a recipe based on info on this site and the 'famous' video molding the curds only when pretty dry, turned for 4-5 days at room temperature, smoothed the sides, and aged in an esky where temperature changed from 10-20 C daily.
The rind soon enough turned yellowish (after a blue/green bloom). The yellow was sticky as first but dried out at ~30 days. Many holes were made with a wooden BBQ skewer at ~30 days and reopened at 45 days. (see pictures below)
Result: nice closed paste, very little green mold inside in centre and a pretty strong taste. Paste has a grey/creme colour, not white. The holes filed with yellow (B Linens?) instead of green/blue.
Although there is a 'roquefort' taste in the background the main taste is from a strong smear-rind cheese. I am not familiar with 'Limburger', but we have a cheese here in Israel called 'Ofir', which fits the limburger description nicely :o
Is this 'normal' for Stilton (never tasted an official one), or did I get a bonus B Linens? As this happened unintentionally, how to avoid this for my next blue/roquefort?
BTW: I was very pleased with the taste, just not what I expected.
reactions welcome, Amnon
Good morning! I've never made a blue cheese, but have been reading up on it and contemplating, so I can't give much feedback. One thing strikes me, though - the wooden BBQ skewer that you used for piercing the cheese. Wood is so porous that it can be really difficult to sterilize and I'm wondering if you got some cross-contamination from that.
However, if it is something that you'd like to reproduce, I'd try using some of the current cheese to culture future ones. Sometimes mistakes make for some really good results.
ברוך הבא אמנון!
Although I am not an expert in "blues", I can guess that the inside color is a result of to late piercing and not enough piercing. The mould didn't had oxygen to develope correctly.
10-20 deg C is a too big fluctuation, what about humidity?
The "Ofir" is a goat's milk Camembert/Brie style cheese, nothing to do with a Limburger. It is more like a Crottin. Limburger is one of my favorit cheese I make it a lot.
Where from are you in Israel and where did you learn cheese making?
Hi
Concerning the piercing, officially it should not have been pierced till 6 weeks and aged till 12 weeks, but because of the Shavuot festival I decided to open it now
I was very much aware the big difference in temperature is not recommended, but besides the household fridge I have no other 'cave' yet. I kept humidity by putting damp cloth into the coolbox. As I have no meter I have no idea on RH%.
I learned by reading on internet and trial and error. I started simple w/o rennet using lemon juice. At second try I inoculated such curd with crumbs from a roquefort we bought and a second with the rind of a 'camembert'. Then I bought rennet and some CaCl, and picked up raw goat milk during a trip to the Golan, resulting in the Stilton. I hope to have some pictures later.
I am currently hunting for a second hand fridge, and will need measurement equipment for humidity and maybe pH. Little steps at the time though.
Alex, I am from Chashmonaim, a village next to Modiin. I am very much encouraged by the result forum members show, and hope to get to that level some time. At least for now we had 7 homemade cheeses last Wednesday: 3 types of Tsfatit, the 'Stilton', boursin-like creamcheese, Lebena and Feta. Lot's of good feedback, so this hobby will stay for a while....
Amnon
So, due to excellent taste I made another one to be eaten with the September holidays, which will allow 110 days of aging.
Would appreciate your feedback!
Ingredients:
5L storebought pasteurised 3% fat milk
200 ml sour cream 27% fat
5 tsp cultured buttermilk
1/4 tsp CaCl
5 drops maxiren (veg. rennet)
leftover crumbs of commercial Roquefort
piece of crust of previous cheese
Process
- Heat milk to 33C, add CaCl (diluted in little water) Cream & buttermilk, ripen for 50 minutes
- Add rennet, floc 15 min (measured with bowl), left for total of 50 min
- Cut curds 10-15 mm (very good set!), left 5 min to rest
- Stirred curds by hand , left 7 min to rest. and second stir + 7 min
- Drained curds in cloth (2 hours after adding starter). When dripping is almost finished (15 min), added 10 gr salt and molds (diluted in water) and left overnight 7.5 hours
- Broke curd in little pieces and added remaining salt (10 gr) in morning, dumped loosely in hoop (a 1L ex-juice metal can with top & bottom removed) - total time between starter and hoop: 9 hours 15 minutes
- Turned after 20 min. Left covered with cloth against flies etc and left home for work
Some comments:
- Yield seems the same as last time: 5L milk gives ~1L loosely hooped curds. Will slink coming days/week to 550 grams cheese (For the not-yet SI converted: 1.3 gallon milk, 34 oz curds, 1.2 lbs cheese)
- I would have preferred longer time to ripen for 60 min and cut after 60 min (as I did last time), but I started with a 1 hour delay and in a hurry to finish (to get some sleep as well)
- Although curds felt dry enough I wanted a drier curd as compared with last time (hoop 13.5 hours after starter), to see influence on veining of blue mold later on, but no time...
- Total of 150 gr fat in milk will result in 25-28% fat cheese
Amnon
I am no expert on blue cheese yet. Just had my first that I might consider successful. I did note that your curds seem to be tight, like a cheddar. It is the voids that the loose curd of the blue create that allows the veining in the cheese. I do not know, but perhaps that is what prevented the veins in your cheese? Did you press after milling the curds?
Hi Ben
No, we had quite dry curds after an evening draining, and broke those into little hazelnut size pieces. The crumbs were put into a hoop loosely and the only pressure they got was from the cheese its own weight (turning twice daily).
The cheese had a very open structure coming out of the hoop a few days later, and we had some work smoothing the sides. I can not imagine the insides would have been knitted together already then.
During the aging the cheese slinked, which I suppose is the reason the open structure disappeared inside. I do not understand the process enough to avoid it next time...
Amnon
Hi Amnon,
What kind of store bought milk do you use exactly? You have to add 38% cream, not sour cream.
Hi Alex
I use 'regular' 3% pasteurised milk that is sold here in 1L plastic bags (Tnuva or Tera). Concerning the cream, I could not find fresh (sweet) cream, only ultra pasteurised with many additives. So I though it would be healthier and more benificial to the cheese aging to use 'live' cream (Shamenet - live in a sense it has souring bacteria, not sure which strains)
Why would sour cream be a problem? Did you ever see *fresh* sweet cream in Israeli stores?
Amnon
Amnon,
I mean to use the regular cream not the "עמיד" kind (sorry guys for our local terminology).
As for the plastic bagged milk, use only the "Tnuva" brand, it's the only type pasteurized. All others, including "Tarra's" in plastic, are UHT (מפוסטר-על).
Hi
Alex, thanks for that info!
My new cheese based on the recipe described earlier in this thread is developing a general YELLOW color mold with only a few blue specks. It also has some darker grey almost purple spots which keep coming back after scraping...
The yellow is very probably from adding the crust of the previous batch, but there the yellow came only after the blueing.
Currently the cheese is in a plastic box with lid not completely closed, raised on a plastic grid allowing air on all sides in a household fridge at ~10C (50F). In the box I also keep a wet piece of cloth to get humidity.
HELP - What can I do to promote the blue mold and delay/stop the yellow (assuming it is B. Linens). Add/ Change: salt, vinegar, temperature, humidity???
Amnon