Page 1 of 1

Baby Oxford Blue

PostPosted: Wed Mar 28, 2007 10:54 am
by saucisson
It seems appropriate for me to try recreate the Oxford Blue Cheese from The Oxford Cheese Company. Oxford Blue is a soft blue cheese originally made for the refectory of Magdalen College Oxford. I don't know where it was originally made but it is now made in Derbyshire by Dairy Crest :roll:

I started with a small piece of Oxford blue made to a paste in a litre of full fat milk and incubated it at 30 deg C for a few hours, added a splash of calcium and Rennet and left it to set for 3 hours in an insulated container. I cut the curds and left another 2 hours. I drained off the extra whey and poured the whole lot onto a fine sieve and let it drain overnight before moulding into a ball by hand and putting it in the fridge (9 deg C) to dry and drain on a piece of greaseproof paper. Once it had stopped weeping I shaped it into a cylinder using a tin can. It's about 10 days old now and blueing up nicely:

Image

Dave

PostPosted: Wed Mar 28, 2007 3:14 pm
by Spuddy
Nice one Dave, looks good.
What's the reason for not moulding it straight away?

PostPosted: Wed Mar 28, 2007 3:59 pm
by BlueCheese
Looks nice, got a blue going right now myself will post later. usualy leaving it a day befor molding is to increase the acid content.

PostPosted: Wed Mar 28, 2007 4:03 pm
by saucisson
I originally planned to leave it as a hand moulded ball but on a whim late last night I decided it would look better that shape. Having said that I think it drained better and shaped better in the mould after resting first, but I can't pretend there was a rational reason for doing it :)

Dave

Edit: I just read Blue Cheese's post which he posted while I was writing mine so apparently there was a good reason for doing what I did :lol:

PostPosted: Wed Mar 28, 2007 4:44 pm
by BBQer
Looks terrific! What's in the background of the pic? Brie with chocolate powder coating? :shock:

PostPosted: Wed Mar 28, 2007 5:24 pm
by BlueCheese
Looks like cheesecake with chocolate :lol: or one of those wagon wheel thingies.

PostPosted: Wed Mar 28, 2007 5:36 pm
by saucisson
You don't really want to know do you? :D

It's a cheese between two corrugated cardboard formers, with grease proof paper between the cheese and the cardboard. It's an experimental semi-permeable layer I'm playing with, you got an early peek before Iknow whether it works :)

Dave

PostPosted: Wed Mar 28, 2007 5:53 pm
by BlueCheese
LOL -conv-

PostPosted: Thu Mar 29, 2007 10:23 pm
by saucisson
Looks like Oxford Blue is back in Oxford:

This is a day later:

Image

Dave

PostPosted: Thu Mar 29, 2007 10:36 pm
by jenny_haddow
That looks absolutely fantastic! A masterwork!

Jen

PostPosted: Thu Mar 29, 2007 10:54 pm
by saucisson
My jaw dropped when I looked at it tonight, I was totally stunned.

But I need to make another one before I start celebrating...

Dave

PostPosted: Fri Mar 30, 2007 12:17 am
by BlueCheese
Hope its not too warm and turn into cambozola ;)

PostPosted: Fri Mar 30, 2007 12:26 am
by saucisson
9.4 deg Centigrade :D

It's biggest problem is I might eat it, all of it :wink:

PostPosted: Sat Mar 31, 2007 12:01 am
by saucisson
I had an idea :roll:
Junior is looking very healthy, so I thought I'd teach him to swim. I let him sink or swim in a pint of milk for 2 hours before letting him back in the fridge. That pint has now gone on to make a new cheese. If this works I'm self sustaining on the cheese front :D

When it doesn't work you can all have a good laugh at my expense :wink:

Dave