I wanted to see what would happen if I developed blue in an already developed cheddar. So I took a hunk of lancashire and smeared some blue cheese on it. After a few days I poked holes and continued to rub the rind every few days. Just for fun, when the blue seemed developed enough I decided to add some PC to the mix. After 5 days or so I was puzzled that I still couldn't see or smell PC. This morning I did my rounds with special needs cheeses and opened my experimental cheese's box. As always I inhaled and was surprised to smell... B Linens! I brought the container into better lighting and sure enough, B Linens was well underway! Apparently I grabbed the wrong vial and rubbed linens on my cheese instead of PC. :-[
As I see it, I have 3 choices:
1) let it develop
2) hot dip it and develop PC as originally intended
3) eat it quick before it gets weird!
My imagination just can't guess what cheddar, blue and B linens will taste like in combo!
What to do??? :)
Baron von Frankencheese...very interesting. It is nice to see that someone is working outside of the box.
There was only one way to decide the fate of this cheese... a taste test! I sliced a piece and was happy to see plenty of blue veins. The blue added a lovely flavor without dominating the cheddar. The B linens was a voice to be heard and though quite tasty, will dominate the flavor if I let it develop, as would the blue if I gave it time to develop longer.
I count this experiment a success! 8) You can develop blue after aging a cheddar. This allows for a cheese where cheddar is still the dominate flavor. I will repeat this experiment, but with blue following by PC or PC alone and see what happens. Now I know how to develop the blue in the Wensleydale I made two weeks ago. ^-^
Hi Zenith1,
Yes, I believe it did cross my thoughts... what have I created? Surely not a monster! ;D
Thanks for posting this! what a good idea.
I have a Lancashire that I just quartered in preparation for vacuum packing it. Perhaps I will follow your lead with one of the quarters.
How long did you let it go between poking the holes and your taste test?
Awesome, anut! I had a similar "accident" that promised well, and didn't deliver. Yours looks wonderful, wish I could try it.
(mine was a last remnant of Beaufort, a wedge from a recent trip over the holidays up north. My wife's fam gobbled most of it, for some reason I had sliced off this wedge...and forgot about it, in my coat pocket. ;D Discovered only a week or so ago, it was heavily veined with blue, and smelled incredibly good - butter and nuttiness of the Beaufort, with a nice, subtle piquancy from the blue. After some encouragement from a friend here to just eat the thing....will remain anonymous, in case I kick, yet, from some delayed LSD reaction.....well, nice try, but it blew, big time, despite the promising aroma. Glad yours was a success...it looks incredible).
Hi MrsKK,
I developed the blue for 2 weeks, and I think another 2 weeks should be fine, as the blue was still mild. This will be fun to play with. My only complaint of blue is that it gets too strong or salty and therefor not something I would cut a wedge and eat by itself. Now I can have a mild blue something anytime I want. ^-^
Hi ArnaudForestier,
Thank you for your nice words. I'm curious, why can't you try it?
You mean, the accident? I did try it - ate it. Bitter and nasty, to my disappointment, since the aroma was fantastic. As to trying for a deliberate thing this way - you bet, keyed to do just that. A "blue beaufort," with a proper blue strain. Yours is an inspiration, truly - the pic really brought a smile of, "cool!"
Edit: Oh, I get it - when I said, "wish I could try it," I meant your cheese - the pics alone made me very hungry for a bite, and with your further description, well...salivating. Not a cheddar guy - meaning, maker. I love good cheddar, and I'm getting a bit curious on blues in cheddaring process, too...may leave the continent (I'm really stuck in the Savoie, in my makes and intensity of interest), and go home, to "the sceptered isle....."
Oh, I understand now. Thank you! I wish you success in your efforts. Yes, salvating on your keyboard is a problem with this site--I'm surprised mine is still working. ;)
I think I'll go with two weeks, as I prefer a mild blue taste. Thanks again!
I just finished the last of my Blacksticks Blue (a commercial cheese (http://www.igourmet.com/shoppe/prodview.aspx?cat=Cheese+by+Type&subcat=Blue+Cheese&prod=1913S&name=Butlers+Blacksticks+Blue&cf=usp_ListProducts_Sel&cprod=)).
Soft, creamy, slightly tangy...very nice. Looked to be in the cheddar family with mild bluing. It's made in Lancashire.
-Boofer-
A cheddar blue. That would be interesting. I have had success with the Leyden (Gouda with Cumin seeds). I was thinking of doing this with the Gouda.
I opened a 4 oz. piece of Stilton that I made 12/16/......2010! It was delicious. If you didn't know you were eating cheese you'd swear it was a Granny Smith apple.
I am wondering, and I see the picture of your Blacksticks did too, what makes these blues go from white/yellow to butterscotch brown?
Hi Boofer,
You have access to all sort of interesting cheeses--I'm totally envying you! Every now and again I try the ones at a store near me and except for an aged gouda they all have hit the trash. I don't know if they were stored wrong or what?
Hi steampwr8,
Granny Smith Apple? I might have to hide a wedge for a year. Tomer1 was asking about the color change too. I can't think of what would do it?
Anut:
Do you have a Whole Foods in your area? If so give them a shot. Ours has a full time Cheese Monger and a HUGE cheese section. They carry several DOB type cheeses and many you wouldn't find elsewhere.
100 lb + wheels of Parm and Cheddar on display. Every Thursday the have a wine and cheese tasting. It's crazy but there are one or two couples who bring their own glasses and meet every week.
That sounds fun! We do have a few places, but I'm a chicken when it comes to driving in traffic--I have panic attacks. I have to sniff around the edges of town on the back roads. Limits my choices a little. :-[ The Rogue Vally Creamery has good stuff and is outside bustle, but at $20 -$30 dollars a pound it's too pricey for me. That's one of the reasons I decided to make cheese for myself! :)
Sometimes a picture says it all! :o
Quote from: anutcanfly on January 16, 2012, 06:01:58 PM
Hi Boofer,
You have access to all sort of interesting cheeses--I'm totally envying you! Every now and again I try the ones at a store near me and except for an aged gouda they all have hit the trash. I don't know if they were stored wrong or what?
In 2011 I decided I needed to invest a little into some commercial cheeses so that I would have a better idea what a cheese was intended to taste, smell, and feel like. I happened across iGourmet.com (http://www.igourmet.com/shoppe/cheese.asp) and tried them out once (https://cheeseforum.org/forum/index.php/topic,6274.0.html), twice (https://cheeseforum.org/forum/index.php/topic,6497.0.html), maybe three (https://cheeseforum.org/forum/index.php/topic,7649.0.html) times. They were consistently high quality, relatively inexpensive, and quick to deliver. It gave me a better sense of what I was doing and, in some specific cases, where I totally wrong-headed. I have consequently tweaked a couple of my makes as a result of tasting a commercial product. Granted, some of the commercial types fell short of where I expected them to be. This could have been the result of an overly-mature or underripe cheese. If you have no idea at all what the named cheese style purports to be...IMHO, you're operating in a vacuum...in the dark...no clue.
I have also been helped to visualize different cheeses with The Cheese Bible (https://cheeseforum.org/forum/index.php/topic,5837.0.html) I received last Christmas.
Quote from: anutcanfly on January 16, 2012, 06:01:58 PM
Tomer1 was asking about the color change too. I can't think of what would do it?
I'm sure linuxboy or one of the other more informed members can offer an opinion on this, but I just opened a 12-month-old Beaufort. It was butterscotch-colored and prone to flake/chunk when cut. It wasn't acidic which might account for that characteristic. It was merely
aged. The flavor was complex and pleasing. I bought a piece of 5-year-old Gouda that had similar character. Other of my cheeses, while young were lighter (yellow or white) paste, but darkened as they acquired some age. I wouldn't say it's a bad thing...just something that happens to cheese as it ages.
-Boofer-
Boof, I may be wrong, but Beaufort and gruyere variants shouldn't develop a kind of cheddar-like crumbliness, if calcium/elasticity targets are met in the original make. They will develop some fine, horizontal cracks in the paste with extended aging, but overall, they will still retain a certain creaminess in mouthfeel, and elasticity of the paste. If you got this "chunking", and you're not tasting what seems like an overly acid-tang, I'd wonder what your calcium retention was like. E.g., renneting and drain pHs - do you have those?
Thank you Boofer. That's a good idea, and thank you for the referral. I'll check into IGourmet.com. I have the Cheese Bible too, got for $4.00 included shipping from Amazon. Is that crazy or what? :) That helps with the visual, and there are lots of sites that describe cheeses, but it's hard to truly describe taste. There just is no substitute for a taste test. The Stilton I just made is very distinctive in taste, but I would be unable to really describe how it was different from other blues.
Quote from: ArnaudForestier on January 17, 2012, 01:09:52 AM
Boof, I may be wrong, but Beaufort and gruyere variants shouldn't develop a kind of cheddar-like crumbliness, if calcium/elasticity targets are met in the original make. They will develop some fine, horizontal cracks in the paste with extended aging, but overall, they will still retain a certain creaminess in mouthfeel, and elasticity of the paste. If you got this "chunking", and you're not tasting what seems like an overly acid-tang, I'd wonder what your calcium retention was like. E.g., renneting and drain pHs - do you have those?
Rennet pH: 6.65, drain pH: 6.54
Yes, I was somewhat disappointed in the end result. I did not expect the dryness that the paste had, but it did seem overall hard and dry from early on. Something to polish. The flavor was good. The rind was good (and quite edible). The paste flexibility was not there.
My more recent Tomme #4 and Tilsit #1 were far better in all departments. I have Tomme #5 and Tilsit #2 that I made in the first week of this year that I'm tending to now. We'll see how they turn out. I just found another recipe for Tilsit so I might be pursuing that again soon. That recipe offers a great deal of promise. It uses Alp D and PLA.
-Boofer-
Sorry, Boof, can't be of much help - targets seem fine, as you know, I'm sure. I don't know what shifted in my makes because I, too, was hitting targets and getting a nice tasting, but wrongly textured, cheese. The last several have been, really, everything I was shooting for in taste and texture - and the story can't be told by "critical stage" pH's, which haven't varied, really, since first trying these alpines. Hopefully Pav or one of the others will be able to share some insight.