KING BLUE STILTON........

[jenny_haddow]

I've been making up spray bottles of bleach dilute for years, I ran out of kitchen cleaner one day so made up my own which works better and costs pennies instead of pounds. I've used this with my cheese bucket etc., and before I set off a new batch I've been giving everything a good blast with my steam cleaner just to zap any lurking nasties.

Interesting what you say about ecoli in the tap water, I was warned off bottled water because of nitrates leaching into the natural springs. We seem to be beset on all sides!

I'm looking forward to doing some French cheeses, it's a good job we eat a lot of cheese, because we going to have to.

Cheers

Jen

[Rik vonTrense]

Camembert is not a difficult cheese but it is fussy. you really need a camembert mould as this is essential.

The make for a camembert and a brie are exactly the same it is just that a brie is bigger and is not so fussy as a camembert...you can make a blue brie called Bresse Bleu...this is very nice and more runny than a stilton.

I see you do your home work as diluted bleach is the best surface cleaner deoderiser there is and it is best to let it dry naturally rather than wipe it dry it is also very good for sausage making equipment to kill any nasties that may be lurking.......and it cost pennies rhather than a couple of quid for commercial cleaners.

Another one is food grade Bi Carbonate of soda I buy mine in the chinese supermarket where it is virtually pennies for a kilo of the stuff.

Of course white vinegar is another essential ingredient to home produce makers.


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[jenny_haddow]

I had a lucky find in B&Q today, half a box of tiles reduced to �2. "So what", I hear you say, well these have deep grooves impressed in them to produce a grid pattern, spaced about half inch apart. They are pure white, shiny glazed, and I think they'll be excellent for standing maturing cheeses on as the grooves will help to drain, no need for a cheese mat. They will also sterilize easily. Do you think I'm barking up the wrong tree here Rik, or will they work?

Jen

[Rik vonTrense]

Hi Jen.....

You can try them but it is possible that the curds may sink into the groves and defeat the object.

With a cheese mat the holes are a special shape to allow drainage there is an inside and an outside it is not the same both sides.

They will definitely work okay when the curds have firmed up.

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[welsh wizard]

Hi All

I was just wondering if as someone progressed through the cheese making stages if they could post pictures of each stage or possibly a video stream similar to that of Pauls.

As someone who has mild dyslexia (and I had to look that one up in the dictionary) I someties do not read instructions as they are written, and pictorial instruction I find (and I am sure I would not be the only one) to be most benificial.

Cheers WW

[Rik vonTrense]

It is so unfortunate that I had all of these tutorial pictures of a stilton in the making but Boomspeed in their wisdom decided to change the structure of their freebee webspace and I lost the lot but the sad thing is I do not remember what codes I used to access the site.

There will be one when I have got this current one underway and I will make another.

Looking at the recipe there is one thing that I should have included as a tip and that is

I ALWAYS WRAP THE FOLLOWER IN A CHEESECLOTH LEAVING THE FOUR CORNERS TO GRAB HOLD OF AND HAUL IT OUT OF THE MOULD IT ALSO SOAKES UP SOME WHEY SO YOU HAVE TO CHANGE IT EVERYTIME.

If and when you order some materials you need at least four cheeseclothes so you can wash them out and dry them as they soak up a lot of whey.

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[jenny_haddow]

Hi WW,

I'm planning another cheese soon, so I will take photographs of each stage. I work according to Rik's instructions and so far so good.

Given that I am probably more suited to living in the age of the carrier pigeon, I'll have to get himself to post the photos.

Cheers

Jen

[welsh wizard]

Thanks Rik and Jen, most helpful and I am pleased to see that I am not the only one on the site at this time in the morning, I wonder what time other members arrise? I expect early as we all seem to be a busy crowd.

Anyway Rik, and please bear with me, I read in the introduction about kepping the temp at 88 whilst mixing etc. is this done by keeping the bucket in the basin of warm water? and as I can get milk straight from the farm can I warm it up in the bucket rather than in the carton and then placing into the bucket? if you see what I mean....

Cheers WW

[Rik vonTrense]

Any supermarket sells it as vegeren it is for making junket in the home baking section.

Jen....

Easy to put photos up .

Take your photo and reduce it to size pixels 342 x 273.
Host it on boomspeded or photobucket (free sites)
then just hit the IMG at the top of this page you are typing.
put your URL after it and the hit IMG again

Then it comes up like this......



This is a stilton I did a make on two days ago. It is alread formed and will
be out of it's cage tomorrow for maturing.
#

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[Rik vonTrense]

WW....

Yes you can it doesn't matter how you warm it as long as you keep it at the right temperature...... different cheeses have different cooking temperatures and if you vary it you can get a different cheese with different charateristics.

I use the sink for any cheeses up to two gallons but if I am making a cheddar I use a plastic dusbin as a water jacket with another inside to hold the milk then when I have the required temperature I wrap a duvet round the whole lot this keeps it at that temp for a couple of hours.

If your temperature starts to drop just remove some of the water and replace it with hotter water.

Remember a gallon of milk makes about a pound of cheese..... if it's good milk it will make more. ...also a soft cheese makes more as there is not so much whey extraction.


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[Rik vonTrense]

My new Stilton has just come out of the mould......



No it's not a late easter egg it is the shape from the collanders
and a very pleasing shape it is too.



In the one below this you can see the cheese mats that are still necessary for drainage until the crust is well formed. I tend to keep my cheeses on mats as it allows air circulation all around the cheese.











Middle of next week as soon as a crust has appeared I will needle it and
see what happens.


My three day old stilton is already showing signs of the Pen Roqueforti


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This one should be well veined I have needle it today as well.


This is now a four day crust and I have needled it ........








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[jenny_haddow]

Rik, that looks a treat. Mine is a similar shape but the blue isn't so pronounced and widespread, maybe because I used a piece of stilton for the culture.
Good to see this section up and running, you have obviously put in a lot of effort for us all, many thanks for that.

Cheers

Jen

[KevinR]

Rik

Possibly stupid question time! I made a Stilton yesterday and it went into the mould 9.30 pm last night. All is OK (I hope) except I had no idea what size a 2lb cake tin looked like. (I do now that my wife has shown me ) The one I used was around twice the diameter it should have been. However, I thought that it would come out about the thickness of the one Franco posted a picture of. Not so, it is quite thin. The question is, could I �re-crumble� it into a new and more suitable mould or am I too late? I think I would like to try to do so as it is going to have a lot of crust for the amount of cheese but if it is too late so be it.

What ever, it was a lot of fun trying and strangely nerve racking�was that really a clean break as you described and the turning of the curds was strangely therapeutic. Thanks for all your cheese posts.

Kevin

[Rik vonTrense]

Hi Kev....

Yes you can re-mould it.

You have to breakl up the curd and salt it before the final shaping so use something smaller that all the curds will fit into.

As long as whatever you use has open ends and the cheese is free to slide back and forth as you invert it,

You want to wait until your handling five gallons of curd and your are in them up to your armpits.......it's not only theraputic it is downright sensual.


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[KevinR]

Rick

Thanks for that, my first job when I get back this evening.

I originally typed sensuous but changed it therapeutic before I got too many strange looks!

Kevin