KING BLUE STILTON........

Recipes and techniques for soft cheese.

Postby jenny_haddow » Mon Apr 24, 2006 2:31 pm

Hi Kevin,

I bought the largest tin of fruit fromTesco/ Morrisons, fruit salad probably. Put the contents in the compost and used the tin for the stilton recipe. It is about the perfect size to make a truckle of stilton. I put the two ends into a plastic sandwich bag for a follower, left the ends of the bag sticking out so I could get the follower out to turn the cheese.

It looks like it's going to be a goodun'

Cheers

Jen
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Postby Rik vonTrense » Mon Apr 24, 2006 4:40 pm

Another little tip for equipment.....

In Tesco kitchenware bit they sell white cutting boards for �1.97 the are called cut and pour boards and they are a small board with a built in spout and it's ideal for standing your cheese on a cheesmat to drain and the spout over the sink so the whey can drip straight down into the sink.

If you want to make Riccotto cheese then save the whey as it is 100% protein and if you boil up the whey you will find it precipitates the protein out
of the whey and you get riccotto cheese....you do not get a great deal though but about a quarter a pound per gallon.


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Postby Wohoki » Mon Apr 24, 2006 5:10 pm

When I make paneer I use the whey as the basis for the stock to cook the other curries. It adds a depth to a vegetarian dish that you might otherwise use water for. (Check for salt levels, though!)
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Postby Rik vonTrense » Mon Apr 24, 2006 9:34 pm

There should not be any salt in the whey as the salt is added after the curds are cooked and pitched.

I use the whey for bread making it is good as it's all protein just as good as using milk for your bread.

If you flavour it with cordial it makes a nice summer drink for the kids well chilled.

Cheesemakers usually feed it to the livestock.

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Postby markh » Tue Apr 25, 2006 8:53 pm

I am really looking forward to giving cheesemaking a try, however like WW I am finding it difficult to source Rennet - looking forward to being able to get kit from Franco.

Rik,
I am finding it difficult to visualise how big a cheese 1 gallon of milk would make. Could you add a ruler or some sort of scale to your next Pic's? or some idea of dimensions for a cylindrical cheese?

Would the frame from the Vertical Stuffer (I seem to remember you have one) be suitable for a cheese press with an appropriate mould & follower?
Before the Roman came to Rye or out to Severn strode, the rolling English Drunkard made the rolling English road... G.K.Chesterton
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Postby Rik vonTrense » Tue Apr 25, 2006 9:53 pm

Here is a piccy of some moulds.............

a gallon of milk makes a pound of hard cheese and the size of truckle would be the size of your finished stilton but could weigh up to 2 lbs.

Using two truckle moulds taped together would do for the curds whilst dispelling the whey and it would finish up as a single sized truckle.

As far as the verticle stuffer frame...you could use this to press the whey out of your cheese but a cheese under pressure need a constant pressure and you would not get that with the wind down system. you could set it so that the handle was at the top of it's arc and fix a weight to this so that it automatically wound down but you would have to repeat the process when it reached the bottom of the arc but then you would not know at what pressure you were pressing which is important with some hard cheeses as they mature at different pressured and time of pressure.

UPDATE....I did try using the stuffer harness but it is too powerful and strains the curds through the cheesecloth you could use it with a closed mould though and soak up the excess whey with a cheesecloth.




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Image


.This truckle mould is 4.5 x 4.5 inches and your finished cheese would be about 4 inches high.
Last edited by Rik vonTrense on Mon May 01, 2006 9:22 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Postby markh » Tue Apr 25, 2006 11:40 pm

Thanks for that, for 1lb it was larger than I expected, assume cheddar is more compacted
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Postby Wohoki » Wed Apr 26, 2006 3:10 pm

Rik, well done mate: you've inspired me to start making cheese. I'm going to start a stilton on Saturday.


(No mean feat, as I've had to part with some cash :D )


Anyone know when Franco intends starting to sell requisits?
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Postby Rik vonTrense » Sun Apr 30, 2006 6:27 pm

There are some fresh pictures on the Tutorial thread to show how it is going
I shall update every week with photos.

http://forum.sausagemaking.org/viewtopic.php?t=1541


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STILTON TRUCKLE 2lb CHEESE.

Postby Rik vonTrense » Mon May 01, 2006 9:38 am

For Mark as a guidance to the size of cheeses.

This Stilton truckle weighs in at 1lb 15ozs. and was made on Friday 28th april
it was made from 4 ltrs of whole milk and half a carton of Danone yoghurt and half a carton of buttermilk and a pint of double cream.

When I press the curds I tape two of the moulds together so I can compress all the curds in one go.

I use the weights from a dumbell on the shaft of the follower and a cheeseclothe folded in four and put over the follower first then the weights and the the CD cut to size so that goes on the shaft last to keep the follower upright....otherwise they sometimes keel over and you get a wonky cheese.



Image


In the close up you will notice the outside of the cheese is slightly uneven .... this is because I have buttered the outside with a stainless steel butter knife and closed the cracks in the cheese's surface otherwise being a small cheese it may dry out too quickly. This is normal practice with stiltons and is called the ironing process.

Image

This cheese when matured at 20 weeks would be worth about �20. commercially.


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Postby markh » Mon May 01, 2006 11:26 am

That is very helpful Rik, Thanks a lot.
I had hoped that my Ascott order would arrive to have a try over the Bank Holiday - alas it has not.

Incidently, Asda have milk on offer at the moment, at �2 a gallon you not only have the fun of making the cheese, but save a bomb as well!

For the buttering, I assume you put aside some of the curd before the pressing stage - before or after it is salted or does it not matter?
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Postby Rik vonTrense » Mon May 01, 2006 2:10 pm

With a bigger cheese I put some away before pressing but I didn't with this one as there were not many cracks in this cheese.

You will find that it is still soft enough to spread if you do it gently. Just use the knife like you were spreading butter.


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Postby somerset lad » Mon May 01, 2006 10:02 pm

I use penicillen roqufortii, from Ascot. to make Stilton. makes a good cheese, and p. candidum, for Brie or Camembeart. Also use Natural yogurt as a starter for normal hard cheeses. I love home made cheeses. You make them to suit your taste's :wink: :lol: 8) :wink:
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Postby Rik vonTrense » Wed May 03, 2006 7:01 am

Somerset lad...

there are several cultures that one can spray onto the finished cheese to get a crust that is edible and there are variations on the Pen Candidums as well.

Some cheeses have a wine washed rind which is a daily chore, of course they absorbe some of the wine over a period of time. Spices are also used and the monastery Monks were well known for their spiced wine washed cheeses.

A hard cheese is one that is subjected to heavy weights of more that 50lbs over a period to compress the curd block such as cheddar and the like.

Stilton is classed as a soft cheese as it is only subjected to pressing to extract whey and not to compress the curd very much and the weights involved are no more than 20lbs.

All cheeses except the fresh soft cheeses have to be turned periodically to maintain a balance within the cheese whilst they are maturing.

Maybe when Franco gets organised with the cheese forum he can rearrange the hard and soft cheeses.


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Postby piglet » Sun May 07, 2006 2:40 pm

Rik

I have been waiting for ages for the cheesemaking site and am very excited about my first attempt at your stilton recipe, however, I have got the Ascott dutch press and your recipe says 'You now have to find a weight to place on this to press down on the curd block for several days' I have had the press for months and don't really know how to use it properly (didn't come with instructions), do I need to hang extra weights to the end of it, if so what type of thing could I use.

thanks in anticipation

Liz
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