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Mycelium- it’s alive!
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A new blue
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A new blue on the way with lovely white mold slowly turning blue green
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I made two small blues about 200 g each , they got really moody and stinky, so I washed with vinegar and scraped off most of the mold with a butter knife and LO and behold a few days later, they smell just like real blue and taste like it too!
The bottom photo is what they looked like before washing and scraping, the top two are after
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My blue is ready and came out so so, very mild more like a Camembert but still good
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Ok I learned that using a fan at room temp may not be the best idea. However my bagged cheeses with what seems to be b.linens. Is doing well and possibly even recovering.
It doesn’t make a perfect vacuum seal btw, but a pretty good one. The pump is packed with (and can be re packed )petroleum jelly on the impeller, so long as I rotate it in the proper direction it’s good to go.
It seems my first made cheese has some b.linens growing on it and it’s starting to get a funky smell, hope it dries fast so I can vacuum seal it! Gave both cheeses a very light brine and vinegar wipe and pat dry.
Pretty much as described here. http://cheeseforum.org/forum/index.php?topic=12053.0
Not the end of the world it seems.I’ve got the fan going on low and intermittent so as not to over do it, a rind is starting to form finally, seeing some yellow, and still smells good. They’re not dripping anymore but when I turn them the bottom side is damp to wet. It must be the insufficient weight of my “press” if I can call it that.
DIY is not big here either though there are some decent “home center” hardware stores, mostly catering to tradesmen and the occasional DIYer. Here too most people won’t even change wiper blades or paint a door themselves, things like that. I think some of it is people have limited experience, they have the same job from age 18 or 22 forever and that’s it.
One more thing, I wonder if using a small fan to circulate air would be helpful or harmful? I read commercial operations blow cold air on theirs.
I hear you on the utility usage , ouch. Thanks for the tip on curd size, now I think part of my problem is inconsistent curd size and insufficient pressing weight due to my lack of a real press. Doing small 3 liter size cheeses I will end up with something like a supermarket Camembert size . I’m afraid to put 30 kg or I’ll end up with a pancake. I read on this site I think, how making smaller cheeses you can reduce weight by 1/4, but I’m still under that figure. I’ve been using much less, like 7 kg or so. I know I should either buy a real press or make a better one, but can’t do it right now. Next I want to try a 4 liter, I think that is the largest I can handle right now. Still a few more days on drying to go though. Thanks again for your help.
Wow 9000 won per liter, is that what you used or did you use regular milk? I won’t complain about 300 yen / 3$ per quart anymore. I’m really want to make a bleu cheese next as well, love the stuff. I’m going to try using a bit of storebought bleu as the inoculum. I hope you don’t mind if I ask you some questions about Korea in the future? Thanks, John.
I guess time will tell, but if it isn’t broke, don’t fix it I guess, no dripping that is.
Love your setup and those big rounds look fantastic! I take it they are 10 liter size batches or so?
Eventually I’ll go with a fridge cave, but my veggie drawer is holding at 10c so I’ll use that for now, also making small cheeses, 3L size so storage is not a problem….yet.This is how I’m air drying now in the fish/veggie dryer I think your aware of. My cheeses have come out of my Tupperware made press quite wet and are still quite wet after a few days. Out summer weather has broke early this year so our humidity and temps have dropped significantly thankfully, we get the same temps and humidity as you it seems, no A/C in our house but lots of fans.
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