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Hi

I need help

My Stilton (now about 3 weeks old) has developed 1 or 2 small cracks in the surface and looks a bit gooy inside.

Is this normal (well normal for cheese)



Help

Tim

What temperature has it been at ?

Dave

Looks like It went brie usualy too warm 45-50F max . tToo much salt? drying out.

I've kept it in a large tub in my seller on the floor. It's a stone floor and still very cool.

It is normal, but it's not right if you get my meaning. I've had cheeses do it without knowing why. too warm or too dry probably but I don't yet have the experience to pin it down. When I did cheese in a wine fridge at 16 deg C I had some like that, none since I got a dedicated fridge at 10 deg C. I would scoop out the runny bit and enjoy that now, it's probably not going to get better.

Dave

I had a cheese do something like that.

Only conclusion I came to was that I hadn't removed enough whey from the curd before molding it, and so the inside wasn't as dry as it should have been at the start.

Don't have enough experience to know if my conclusion is correct or not, just seemed like the right answer.

Hi Tim

If I remember rightly this cheese was made using Rik's collander method, which means it wasn't pressed. Yes? It would retain a lot of the whey normally removed by pressing, so the consistency will be softer.

I've made several of these and most of them split if they are left supporting their weight on a small base. Those I have left in the collander to mature have stayed in one piece. All of them, split or not, have tasted good, so don't give up, eat it and enjoy.

Cheers

Jen

Well I've just peeled it and put it in a tub in the fridge (it's in 3 pieces). It tastes amazing just like Stilton but with no blue veins.

I've already started another so I'll leave this on in the colander and see what happens

Tim