Christmas Stilton

[jenny_haddow]

Sorry to mention that time of year so soon, but if you are wanting to make a nice piece of stilton for Christmas now's a good time to get it started.

Just thought I'd mention it.

Cheers

Jen

[vinner]

Hi, Jen, and welcome back. I have missed this forum.and your input.

I have bought the supplies I need for cheese making, but haven't given it a go yet. Can you tell me if it is more or less diffcult than curing meats, making sausage, etc.? I just want to know what I am gettting into. And what do I need for storage in terms of space/temps etc?

Thanks,

Tim

[Fallow Buck]

Hi Jenny,

I've been thinking about this recently myself. I bought a double coke fridge for hanging game in and ow I have a dilemour as to where to put cheese!!!

I was in a shop last week and I bought a very creamy gorgonzola with a light veining and I thought I would have a crack at aking some for Xmas. Even with the recipe that I found I still feel a bit nervous but I suppose I should just get on with it!!

The other thing was that I looked for some moulds and the 20cm moulds and followers are quite expensive. Does anyone know how much a cheese in one of these would weigh?

Thanks,
FB

[Gail]

Hi Jenny
I made two using the colander method last week. They are looking really good but they do pong!

Do yours go through a really pongy stage and then it settles down to a just normal stilton/blue cheese smell?

Gail

[saucisson]

I started a Stilton for Christmas a couple of weeks back and it just smells like a Stilton, but it's probably the first one that I've made that will be a Stilton. My previous attempts haven't faired too well

Jen, however, seems to have got it cracked so I will defer to her to become the new cheese mentor ( Sorry Jen )

[jpj]

FB: if full and not overly pressed i'd say about 3 to 4k+. i use moulds that size, but press under large weight. anyhow point being cheese comes out of said mould at approx 1.5k and is about a third the height of the cylinder. and 3G/13.6L worth of curd sits in comfortably.
blues will weigh differently to hards though

[saucisson]

jpj has obviously been hiding under a bushel and I now demote myself several rungs further down the ladder

Dave

[Fallow Buck]

JPJ,

Thanks for that. It makes it a lot easier for me to get an idea of what I need to be making when I know I'll have 3-4kgs of cheese at the end of it!!

Rgds,
FB

[jpj]

good luck with it.

[Gail]

Things are not going well with my cheesemaking

I made 2 of the colander stiltons 3 weeks ago and they were looking great until yesterday when they seemed to be collapsing.

I took them out and they seem to have gone soft on one side. The only way I can describe it is if you took a camembert out of the fridge and kept it at room temperature all day it would go runny in the centre. Well thats what seems to have happened to my stiltons. the crust has cracked and the insides are going runny. It is only on one side of the cheese as far as I can see.

I have today pierced them with a skewer and placed them in the fridge as it is obviously cooler than the place I had them stored before. The other thing is that they smell awful. There is a smell of blue cheese about them but there is also an undertone of something dead.I have taken some pics and hopefully will put them on here later so you can see what they are doing.

I hate to throw them away as they took nearly 25 litres of milk and some of the cheeses that I see here in France do stink terrible. The smaller stiltons I made about 2 months ago did go through this smelly stage but afterwards the smell died down and now they just smell of blue cheese. I havent been brave enough to eat one yet though

What do you think? Should I throw them away and throw in the towel? Perhaps you just cant make blue cheeses with goats milk?

I am fed up now.. All my cheeses keep going wrong.

Gail x

[saucisson]

Sorry to hear that, can we see pictures before passing comment? What temperature were they maturing at before they got to the fridge?

Dave

[Gail]

These are the pics of the stilton. As you can see I have cut it open and the camembert like texture is only on the surface and inside it is a lovely crumbly texture.

It was kept in the utility room which is about 15 degrees, maybe a little warmer in the day and a little cooler at night.

The smell from them is like rotting meat and they are now in the fridge and when you open the door it smells as though something is rotting in there. When you get them out of the fridge they dont smell so bad and then when you get your nose right up close all you can smell is a lovely blue cheese smell.
They were in plastic bags which were sealed although now they are not wrapped in anything.

Hubby had a little taste of the inside of the cheese and it tastes nice and white stiltonish as the blueing hasnt gone all the way through. I only pierced them yesterday.

What do you think? In the pig bucket? or back in the fridge?

I am going to buy some cows milk today and try it with that and see if there is a difference, the only trouble is that pastuerised cows milk is expensive here.

Gail x

[jenny_haddow]

If you look on Fankhauser's site Gail, I'll post the address in a minute, I notice he makes most of his cheese from goats milk. He also has an e-mail address and may be able to offer you some expert advice, especially if you mail him these pictures.

The goats cheese I made was a considerably smaller quantity and I used the Camembert recipe. It stunk to high heaven, turned all the colours of the rainbow then grew a nice white coat. It was good to eat, strong flavoured and very runny. I froze half if it, and used that piece a little while ago, it froze well. If I had allowed my nose to rule I would have binned it while it was maturing, but it didn't grow any adverse moulds, ie black, so I stuck with it. I kept it at around 10 degrees in a fridge to mature.

I can only surmise that, given the nature and amount of the fat in goats milk, the size of the cheeses you are making and the temperature they are maturing at, may be contributing to the problems you are having.

The people at Ascott can be very helpful too, you could try e-mailing them. Sorry not to be more helpful.

Cheers

Jen

http://biology.clc.uc.edu/Fankhauser/Cheese/Cheese.html