Hey all,
I am about ready to make my first blue cheese and I am super excited but I have a couple questions first...
1. I have tried searching everywhere but I can't find anything concrete on how to make a starter culture. Anyone have a link they could share?
2. What type of milk works best for blue cheese? I do not have easy access to whole milk. Would 2% or homogenized work? Would it affect the flavour of the cheese?
3. What is the best way to inoculate the cheese? paint the culture on or mix it in?
Thanks for all of your help!
I found a link... https://cheeseforum.org/forum/index.php?topic=15.0 (https://cheeseforum.org/forum/index.php?topic=15.0)
Do you have to add the penicilium to the milk when you put it in cubes?
. What type of milk works best for blue cheese? I do not have easy access to whole milk. Would 2% or homogenized work? Would it affect the flavour of the cheese?
Homogenized is fine as long as its not ultra pasteurized, I would add some heavy cream to increase fat % of the final cheese.
Tomer, you always confuse me, hit the "quote" button when you quote!
Quote from: Tomer1 on November 03, 2011, 12:40:32 AM
. What type of milk works best for blue cheese? I do not have easy access to whole milk. Would 2% or homogenized work? Would it affect the flavour of the cheese?
Homogenized is fine as long as its not ultra pasteurized, I would add some heavy cream to increase fat % of the final cheese.
Fantastical - congrats and welcome to the forum! It is very exciting indeed. Have you made any cheese before? Do you have moulds? Rennet? Have you decided which recipe to go for? Blue cheese is a very generic term to what could be hundreds of different recipes. If you can share the recipe you are using people here will be able to help better. If you don't have one, I am sure everyone here would love to give you some of theirs!
For starter culture, you can use cultured buttermilk if your recipe call for heating the milk below 95°F or so. For higher temperatures use yogurt.
For milk, 2% homogenized will work, but it's not ideal. You will have less yield than non-homogenized milk and the texture will be more homogenized and dense. Naturally such milk is stripped out of some of its character and that translates to flatter tasting cheese as well. It is also missing some of its essential calcium (even if it says "calcium added") so to keep a firm enough curd you will need to use Calcium Chloride (basically putting the lost calcium from the milk back in it). On this forum it is often referred to as CalCl2
Thanks for your replies!
Yes I have made a few mozzarella cheeses before and they have turned out great!
I have the moulds, molds, rennet, cheesecloth, milk. Everything I think I will need! However, as you correctly assumed, I do not have a solid recipe.
If anyone has one that they would like to share I would be extremely appreciative!
Matt
Is there a particular flavor or texture you are after?
Also, do you have any blue mold? If not, perhaps you should get some P.Roqueforti and at the same time get a bag of mesophilic starter too; MM100, MA4000 and Flora Danica would be sufficient for most cheeses. This will give you higher quality results, less chance of failure and very predictable behavior if comparing with buttermilk.
I agree , The move to DVI was a revelation so many choices and different flavours and aromas.
Its easy to get carried away and build a culture bank :)
Yes I have some P.Roqueforti as well as some meso starter.
I should have everything I need I am just unsure of how to go about putting it all together.
Here are three blue cheese recipes, i hope this helps.
http://www.cheesemaking.com/store/pg/31-Gorgonzola-Classic-Picante-.html (http://www.cheesemaking.com/store/pg/31-Gorgonzola-Classic-Picante-.html)
http://www.cheesemaking.com/GorgDolce.html (http://www.cheesemaking.com/GorgDolce.html)
http://www.cheesemaking.com/store/pg/26-Stilton.html (http://www.cheesemaking.com/store/pg/26-Stilton.html)