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I’ve made Stilton with about the same amount of cream, and it has turned out well. On the soft curd: for that amount of milk and cream it should be 1/4 teaspoon or equivalent of rennet, so if it was less than that, there would be the problem. Maintaining the 86f for 1.5 hours usually gives a clean break, though the curd is soft. If there was a clean break then Rennet isn’t the problem, and maybe you cut the curds to big.
I use the Artisan Cheesemaking at Home method
I cut into 1/2 inch slabs, into a cheesecloth in a colander, sitting in whey in a bowl for another hour and half at 86, and this is where the curd starts to loose firm a little. Then the cheesecloth gets tied and hung to drain for 30 minutes, or until the whey stops dripping. This gets the curd to firm more. Then the whole package goes under press at 8 pounds overnight, and by the morning the curds should be a firm block. If it wasn’t firm here, this could be the problem.I break the curd block up, put it into the mould, put in a sprinkle of p. Roqueforti as I fill, and there is already P. Roqueforti in the curd. The open texture in this method allows the air to get in the cracks and the p.Roqueforti grows easily inside the cheese. There is a lot of flipping at this point to drain the curd and get it to come together, albeit loosely. That is all done at room temp, and that is when the blue starts to form, though you may not see it for a few days.
It’s hard to know where your Stilton went wrong, but all I would do is let it mature, drain daily, keep a high humidity in the cave (I suspend a plastic bag with damp paper towel and a small opening from the side of the container) and see if the blue grows. If it doesn’t grow, I would call it White Stilton and. eat it with pleasure.
Hi Cleo
I saw that you and Rachael and I are expats. I hope you don’t mind that I copy my response to Rachael into yours to save time!
I’m an English expat, I live in Northern Minnesota in the Us and miss the cheeses of England and France. I also make raw milk cheeses. I drive an 80 mile round trip to get my raw milk from Amish farmers. Here in the US the sale of raw milk is not illegal, and yet farmers who sell openly are being prosecuted. http://www.realrawmilkfacts.com/raw-milk-regulations/state/minnesota The cows that supply my milk are milked by hand, and I get a mix of Jersey and Holstein, so the cream is pretty good. I’ve noticed a big difference in flavour from winter to summer milk, mainly because we are under snow from November to March or later, and the cows are indoors and fed hay. The winter milk is creamier, the summer milk grassier. I have started making goat cheeses this year from a friends two lovely goats, and now I have serious goat envy. It’s nice to meet you!Hi Rachael,
I’m an English expat, I live in Northern Minnesota in the Us and miss the cheeses of England and France. I also make raw milk cheeses. I drive an 80 mile round trip to get my raw milk from Amish farmers. Here in the US the sale of raw milk is not illegal, and yet farmers who sell openly are being prosecuted. http://www.realrawmilkfacts.com/raw-milk-regulations/state/minnesota The cows that supply my milk are milked by hand, and I get a mix of Jersey and Holstein, so the cream is pretty good. I’ve noticed a big difference in flavour from winter to summer milk, mainly because we are under snow from November to March or later, and the cows are indoors and fed hay. The winter milk is creamier, the summer milk grassier. I have started making goat cheeses this year from a friends two lovely goats, and now I have serious goat envy. It’s nice to meet you!
