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This is my fourth or fifth blue and having experienced issues with each one  I really wanted to get serious about doing what's needed to get a "really good" Roquefort-type blue.  The recipe is from Caldwell's "rindless blue cheese" and I tried hard to hit all the marks. 

Milk:  4 gal. creamline whole milk from Hickory Hill Dairy + 1 pt. heavy cream
Culture:  1/4 tsp. MM100; 1/16 tsp. P. roqueforti rehydrated in 1/4 cup room temp milk
Additives & coagulants*:  1/8 tsp. Lipase; 1 tsp. CaCl; 3/8 tsp. single strength rennet
  *diluted in 1/4 cup non-chlorinated cool water

1.  Pre-heated milk in water bath
2.  Transferred to full-size pan on electric griddle; warmed milk to 89F
3.  Sprinkled cultures on milk, waited 5 min. and stirred a couple of minutes
4.  Held 89F for 30 min. to ripen
5.  Added lipase, then CaCl; waited 5 min.
6.  Added rennet and stirred 1 min.
7.  Clean break was after 1 hr. 15 min. (recipe's goal time was 2 hr. so a bit short here)
8.  Cut curds in 3/4" cubes; let rest 5 min.
9.  Stirred gently every 5 min. or so maintaining 89F for 60 min.
10.  Let curds settle (about 15 min)
11.  Drained whey to level of curds; transferred curds to cloth lined colander. 
note:  there were too many curds for my colander so I drained balance of whey from the pan and put all curds back into the pan to salt.
12.  Added 1.5 tsp. salt and mixed gently (recipe calls for 1 tsp. but I added a bit more because of some residual whey in pan).
13.  Transferred curd to 6" dia x 10" tall clear cylindrical mold; placed follower on top
14.  Drained in mold at room temperature 3 days, flipping each day and checking pH
15.  Removed from mold (pH was 4.5, target was 4.8 so was a bit off here)
16.  Kept at room temp. for 2 days, rubbing with salt every day.
17.  Moved to minicave shooting for 55F / 90% RH

I was very happy with the nooks and crannys the cheese had, but after 5 days there were no signs of blue.  Even after 10 days blue is here and there (see picture) but I still went ahead and pierced.  The Pr I used was a bit dated so that may have been a problem but we'll have to see.  I even thought about getting some good danish blue and trying to inoculate post-facto but I've never heard or seen this done??  Curious what the thoughts are about slow / late blue development and if I should worry or not?

I'll cross my fingers... :-)

Hi John,

That looks really good to me. I know you have access to good humidity controllers, so no problems there. 

How much dry salt got rubbed on the outside for the first couple days? I think the dry salting is why my Gorgonzola Picantes don't develop much of a fur coat. Since this is a rindless recipe maybe that's exactly how it should look right now?

My P.roq. is at least 2 years old, and I'm getting reasonable growth in my cheeses.

Larry

Quote from: John@PC on January 21, 2015, 04:45:10 PM
I even thought about getting some good danish blue and trying to inoculate post-facto but I've never heard or seen this done??

I wondered about that too. What if you split the wheel open and spread some other blue on with a knife. Then try to seal up the two halves of the wheel. Would it re-knit? Or were you thinking to just spread the established blue cheese on the rind of your wheel?

Hey Jon
Leave it alone, you got blue, it will come

Quote from: LoftyNotions on January 21, 2015, 05:53:18 PM
How much dry salt got rubbed on the outside for the first couple days? I think the dry salting is why my Gorgonzola Picantes don't develop much of a fur coat. Since this is a rindless recipe maybe that's exactly how it should look right now?
Larry

I used maybe a tsp. or less of salt two or three times but what you say makes sense.  It seems to be progressing (on the inside) so I'll just wait and be patient.  Thanks for your comment on the Pr - that makes me feel better .

Looking great Jon but what's with the Lipase?

Quote from: Al Lewis on January 24, 2015, 12:34:17 AM
Looking great Jon but what's with the Lipase?

Hi Al.  Yeah, that surprised me too.  Caldwell adds it as optional to "help duplicate original Roquefort, which is made with rennet paste (contains lipase)."  Personally I love the tang lipase gives, but does a "serious" blue need more tang?  I guess I'll find out sometime this summer or fall .  Thanks for the other suggestions - I'll let it ride as is and do another peircing in a couple of weeks.

Back from a weeklong trip and having my neighbor turning this daily.  Pulled it out this morning and it has some "serious" red mold development on the ends (I've nicknamed it "carrot top" ).  Sides looked great as did the core sample so I decided to scrape some off the top and bottom, re-inoculate surface by brushing on light PR/water solution then re-pierce.  This was supposed to be a rindless blue but I've decided to take it full term (2 mo. before first cut) in it's minicave @ 90% RH and let the rind develop as it wants to. 

Seriously good lookin' Cheese.

--Mal

Very nice cheese! :-)

Nice!!

Looks really good John.  By 10 days my recent blue was a moldy mess... and I think mine was a very similar cheese (although mine are much smaller).  I wonder why the differences.  I added my salt into the cut curds and did not wash the outside with for the first 2 weeks.  So maybe the blue has not formed on the surface because of the salt you rubbed there.  Anyway, it's the inside that counts

Thanks all.  I still think my P. roqueforti was not as virile as it should have been and "slow to grow".  I hydrated some and  brushed it onto a slice of bread and it was also very slow to develop (took about a week).  Next time I'm going to extract some mold from our favorite local blue cheese (Clemson Blue Cheese) and use the sourdough method described here in the forum.

Well... Still looks like it's going to be great... :-)