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Hi All,

First post on the forums so please pardon any mistakes in etiquette that come up?

We did a cheese class a few weeks back and as part of the course we made and brought home 2 small blue cheeses. These went into our cave for a few weeks and developed a fantastic blue mould covering.

We pierced the cheese using a spoke and allowed the mould to continue to develop. After what we thought was enough time we split down the cheese and vacuum sealed it. At this point there was a tiny bit of blue through the cheese however the flavour and texture was fantastic.

So 2 questions....

1. We didn't see a lot of blue inside the cheese. So how do we get more blue through the cheese?

2. When we looked at the vacuum sealed cheeses a few weeks later we noticed that the blue mould on the outside of tghe cheese was now totally gone and the cheese was now slimy and smelt rancid. We ended up getting rid of almost all the remaining blue. What had we done wrong? Did we not get enough moisture or air out?

1.  The blue mold will grow through the cheese, but without oxygen it can't bloom.  It's the bloom of the blue mold that is blue.  What your normally do is make a cheese that has a very "open" structure.  Often you don't press it at all and the curds are basically just loosly stuck together.  This leaves a lot of air gaps inside the cheese. As the cheese ages, it tends to compress a bit, so it's best to have it as open as you can possibly get it.  This will leave a network of cracks all through the cheese, which is where the mold will bloom.  When you pierce the cheese, what you are doing is giving air a pathway into the inner cracks.

2. Blues don't vacuum pack particularly well IMHO.  Because the mold needs oxygen to bloom, it just goes brown and looks pretty awful.  Also, blues tend to be very wet cheeses.  When you vacuum pack, it pulls whey out of the cheese and so you can get the cheese swimming in brown, yucky whey.  To be honest, frequently I see vacuum packed commercial cheese that's in that state.

The other thing about blues is that the blue mold increases the pH of the cheese (reduces the acidity).  Take a look at this picture of a Stilton cheese (that I randomly linked to from the internet):


Do you see how the outside is orange?  That's from a bacteria called brevibacteria linens growing on the outside.  It's the same bacteria that turns up in washed rinds (stinky cheeses).  Because the cheese is a high pH and very wet, often this bacteria grows on the outside after the blue gets established.  Usually the idea is to then dry off the cheese as much as possible because almost nothing grows on top of that orange rind (not even blue).  You can easily age it as long as you want without it going totally moldy.

I'm just speculating, but it's possible that your vacuum packed blue was already starting down that path and so the smell you are getting is from the b. linens.  Together with the blue, you'll pick up lots of ammonia smells, gym socks, etc, etc.  Likely your cheese was fine to eat.  I can understand why you wouldn't want to try it though ;-)

I personally think that blues are pretty tricky to age well because of the rind.  It's easy for the blue to take over and turn your cheese to mush.  So you need a plan, which takes some experience.  It's not actually that hard, but it's not obvious either.  I'm glad to hear that you got over the first steps with your course, though.  You are well on your way!

Thank you for this info. We have spent the last few days looking at a variety of blue cheese in every place we have been going into and see what you mean. We have seen the orange mould from BL growing on some varieties and others with no mould on the exterior at all. We have also been looking and thinking about how these cheeses are being presented for sale. Some were vacuumed and had no blue on the exterior while others were waxed.

So, next question. What is the best way to store a blue and for how long? Do you think this is a short term (less than a couple of months) cheese or can it be store for months?

 

It *really* depends.  There are many different kinds of blue cheeses.  You can make long aged ones or short aged ones.  Generally speaking, if you want to make one that ages for a long time, you'll want to make if fairly large.  Otherwise, though, the makes are just completely different.

I personally like the b. linens rinds on blue cheeses the best.  I've only done it once (very recently), but it turned out extremely well.  The only downside is that once you cut the cheese, it's a bit of a time bomb because the b. linens will start working its way through the paste.  So you only have a couple of weeks to eat it up before it gets fairly ripe tasting.  The main advantages are that you have a pretty rind, it's relatively easy to work with (it's dry) and it actually tastes amazing together with the blue.  The down sides are that it can get into the center of the cheese and ruin it and it takes some practice to know how to control the humidity on a cheese like that.  I don't really recommend it until you have some experience doing natural rinds, including washed rinds.

Another common way to deal with blues is to wrap the cheese in aluminum foil.  This keeps the air out and kills the blue on the outside.  The idea is that there is enough air trapped on the inside to keep that blue blooming.  If you get it right, you have a rindless cheese.  If you get it wrong, you can get a mess :-)  I've never done it, but I've seen pictures of both successes and failures on reddit.  Frequently commercial producers use a paint on "cream wax" (which is really a PVA coating).  It's mixed with a natural fungicide, which kills the blue on the outside.  Basically same benefits.  If you dial in your process well, this is probably the least work.

Like I said, though, blues are kind of tricky.  I'd get some experience with other cheeses and then move on to blues.  The make is crucial and you need to have an understanding of what you are trying to achieve.  Having said that, I've made a number of accidental blues that were delicious :-)  If you are lucky enough to have a yummy wild blue mold, you may have the same good fortune.  However, making a blue that looks and tastes like a particular commercial blue takes some planning and experience.