[Cheese] Still Another Cheese result

[dean crabtree]

  JOHN MURREN wrote:  "Greetings Cheesers,  . . . .Has anyone else had a similar poor internal mold experience with blues?"
   
  John,
   
  That blue cheese of yours sounds just delicious, and I do like it when it is spreadable like that.  Maytag Blue often only shows the skewer marks, with just some more blue here and there.  (and sometimes it is loaded with pockets of blue that don't hardly seem connected at all.)  Here's a pic of Maytag Blue:
   
  
  If you get your email through a text-only reader, the site for that pic is http://www.foodsubs.com/Photos/maytagblue.jpg
   
  The flavor is not absolutely dependent upon how much blueing is evident.  The first blue I made, and also using Fankhauser's proceedure, gave me a cheese with very limited marbling of mold.  Someone told me it was like a jack with blue.  It was quite tasty, as I quickly "sampled" that cheese into non-existance.
   
  To help de-wet the curds before putting in the hoop, follow Jack's (and Ricki's) step of pressing the curd mass between boards for a period of time.  (I press between inverted Pyrex pie plates.)  Then mill the mass to walnut sized pieces, salt, and load the hoop. 
   
  The key to ribbons and marbling of the blue is a light pressing, and then plenty of skewering.  I skewer mine at six weeks and again at seven weeks.  Commercial outfits can make logs of cheese, or stack multiple wheel hoops so that the cheese itself provides the weight.  Our little hobby cheeses need just a bit of help, weight-wise.   I help with a follower and a pint jar with water.  I have also increased with a quart jar & water, but the jury's still out on which I prefer.  The ones with the final weight of a quart have much less marbling.
   
  I now am flipping my 4" PVC hoop twice daily for five days, in the mold sandwich, before dehooping the cheese and smoothing the outside.  That works well for me, as I can "make" a blue on a Sunday and flip throughout the week until after work on Friday.  That gives my family a Saturday that I am not cheese-ey -- and I can decide if I'm going to make another cheese on Sunday.
   
  BTW, we had a thread awhile back about adding wine to cheese.  I went to Whole Foods and got a wedge of a red wine/cheddar and, uhm, I'm not convinced my "market" of family and friends would "appreciate" the effort.  I'm not convinced I "appreciate" the effort, either.
   
  Wasn't it Wallace, upon eating the last of his Stilton and bemoaning that "there's no more cheese in the house" then looked up to the moon and said to Grommit "Everyone knows the moon is made of (green) cheese!" (palms out and fingers curled, and tapping thumbs together with delight)
   
  All the best,
   
  Dean C.

		
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