Is this Stilton OK

[Oddley]

I thought I had better check if this cheese is ok. It smells a bit moldy. I have learnt a lot with this one, the next will be better. If it's ok I would like to taste my effort. So come on you cheesy experts...

[Rik vonTrense]

Oddley...it is getting too dry you must up the humidity and put it in an enclosed plastic box opf some kind but still turn it daily.

I tis looking okay so don't be put off by the mold on the outside, pierce it if you haven't done already but be careful of it splitting so go gently with it.

for a taster you can run your finger down your needle that will give you enough to taste it by.

Best leave it until it is at least six weeks old.

If you want to cut it to see what is happening inside then cut it with a cheesewire have qa look and put the two halves together again and press it nicely with your hand. and turn it over. If you are careful you can take a scraping with a knife from the middle to taste but close it up afterwards.



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[Oddley]

Thanks for the reply Rik. The splitting was caused at the beginning, I took it out of the mold at three days and it was slumping so I left it to dry out without a box over it. That's when the cracks appeared, it is now under a box at about 75% humidity.

As I said, I have learnt a lot on this one. Next time I'll leave it in the mold a couple of days longer. I haven't pieced it yet, but on your advice will do so. Cheers!

[jenny_haddow]

Hi Oddley,

It looks the same colour as the collander cheeses I made, I thought they smelled of mushrooms rather than mouldy, any way they have now gone the way of all good cheese! My stilton truckle turned more orange and brown, and had a grey/white mould on it. It kept its shape pretty well and the whey had drained well. The collander cheeses are quite soft and wet for a long time, so perhaps a wetter cheese encourages this kind of mould growth. Its not unpleasant to eat.
My grandad used to scrape this kind of mould off cheese if he had a cut etc that had festered. He would put it on the wound and bind it, said country people had done it for centuries. Alexander Fleming - who's he?!

Jen

[Rik vonTrense]

On my cheeses I have had all colours of the rainbow but the best ones are the B linens the are a deep red down to a bright orange....

I use to add a touch of candidum to my stiltons to make it a white mold on the outside and I used to get some B Linnens come through and make somne nice orange hues.


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[Oddley]

Yep! Penicillium Roqueforti, the wisdom of tradition. I actually only live round the corner from St Mary's hospital, where Fleming discovered Penicillin. The first person to ever receive it was a policeman with blood poisoning. He died because they could not produce enough, they even recycled his urine to recover any he had passed, then gave that to him. It was the Americans who found out how to culture it in large quantities. I believe it was on corn syrup but don't quote me.

Anyway, you can see from the images there is a white powder as well as the green mould. I spiked the cheese tonight and it still seems quite soft, I think this is because the curds were soft as I said in another post. It does taste quite creamy though from the little I managed to get from the spike.