Stilton Blue Cheese: Success, it smells like foot rot!

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Joined
Apr 23, 2009
Messages
37,024
Reaction score
17,721
Location
☀️ Clearwater, FL ☀️
It's a perfect, stinky, blue cheese. Might be my best cheese to date.

Penicillium roqueforti, the green/blue mold you have probably seen grow on old bread, was added to the milk to provide the characteristic flavor and aroma.

I drained the curds overnight, during which time they formed into a hard slab. Then I cut them into 1" cubes and put them into 4" moulds. I did not press this at all. That way a bunch of air pockets were left inside the cheese.

After 5 days at room temperature the outside of the cheese (still in the moulds) started to show a lot of green mold. I removed them from the moulds and put them into the fridge for a couple of weeks.

By this time they looked pretty awesome / gross. I used a brine-soaked cheesecloth to wipe off the outside and smooth the outside of the cheeses. Then I pierced them with a olive fork to let some air inside (you might noticed the areas in the picture where the piercing holes filled with mold). Then a couple more weeks in the fridge.

_mg_9448-64817.jpg


_mg_9523-64818.jpg


_mg_9529-64819.jpg
 
Last edited:
Looks great. How does it taste compared to the commercial. I can buy some here from trader Joes but it always has that slight almost acidic gone off taste. The standard English stuff is very creamy and doesn't taste like the one I buy here even though its imported, don't think it does well wrapped in plastic for so long.
 
Looks awesome and has me curious. Do you have a for source the Penicillium roqueforti, or do you actually harvest it from old bread?
Love me some bleu cheese..................
 
Looks awesome and has me curious. Do you have a for source the Penicillium roqueforti, or do you actually harvest it from old bread?
Love me some bleu cheese..................

I bought some powdered mold from www.cheesemaking.com for this cheese. I've also harvested and grown it from a slice of stilton I bought. The stuff grows GREAT, so you can easily harvest yourself.
 
Looks great. How does it taste compared to the commercial. I can buy some here from trader Joes but it always has that slight almost acidic gone off taste. The standard English stuff is very creamy and doesn't taste like the one I buy here even though its imported, don't think it does well wrapped in plastic for so long.

I occasionally buy true Stilton. This cheese has the exact same taste. The Stilton I get is usually a bit dryer / more crumbly than mine. Mine is about as good as I could have expected. I have zero complaints (maybe I could have smoothed the outside better). The only thing I'll change next time is to make a huge one.

Check this out. Some info on how Stiltons are made by the 8 true makers in England. Note that those cheeses are shipped before they are done fermenting.

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=unVdU4MgRAA[/ame]
 
How tough was it to do the rubbing after it set up? it must be hard to work with small rounds. And can you tell us a little more about the timeline regarding what happened when?
 
How tough was it to do the rubbing after it set up? it must be hard to work with small rounds. And can you tell us a little more about the timeline regarding what happened when?

It's probably a good idea to smooth the surface early, right when it comes out of the mold. That way you don't have a bunch of external holes for unwanted mold etc to grow in. Once the intended molds get a good foothold, the cheese is pierced. I left mine all craggly as you can see and got lucky I guess.

The rubbing to smooth the surface was pretty easy after the blue started forming. The cheese got creamier over time. I think a spatula or paint scraper or such is usually used, but I just wiped repeatedly with a brine cloth to more-or-less smooth it. Worked fine.

I used the Stilton Blue recipe (ingredients and process) out of Artisan Cheese Making at Home. Here's the basic timeline. The entire process is a lot more involved, so either get the book or google it and you'll probably find tons of info. Or ask me for more detail.

Stilton Blue - 04JAN15

2g Whole milk (generic supermarket P/H)
2c heavy cream (UHTP)
1/4 tsp p. Roqueforti
1/2 tsp MM100
8 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp CaCl
1/8 tsp powdered calf rennet

After draining curds overnight, I cut them into 1" cubes and set them into two camembert molds. I got nice blue showing after about 5 days at room temperature. Then into cave for 2 weeks, then piercing and smoothing the outside with brine-soaked cheesecloth, then a couple more weeks.

I'm letting it sit at room temp now to dry out the rind a bit, then vac-bagging one of them.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Looks amazing! I've been wanting to try cheese making for some time. I think you just sold me on it!
 
PP, did you pierce the cheese, I assumed you did, what did you use?

And yes, I am salivating!

Yea, I pierced it after a couple of weeks. You might be able to see some unusually straight lines in that cheese there. I might again pierce my second cheese.

I used some random olive fork thing we have. Most people use a knitting needle or a meat thermometer. It doesn't really matter, just try to leave a hole there. Jab the crap out of it. Try not to go all the way through the cheese though as you might end up with a chunky exit wound on the opposite side.
 
Can you explain what you did to the Stilton cheese to get the mold to grow, and how you used it?
Was it just as easy as leaving it out and picking off the mold?
 
Can you explain what you did to the Stilton cheese to get the mold to grow, and how you used it?
Was it just as easy as leaving it out and picking off the mold?

I assume you're talking about the penicillium roqueforti (PC). The PC is added to the milk before the curds are formed. So, it exists through the inside of the cheese. After a week, it will begin to cover the outside of the cheese, but the inside stays white until you pierce the cheese throughout. PC needs oxygen to create its color and flavor. For this reason, you don't press it, but instead leave the curds loose, encouraging air pockets in the body of the cheese.

I didn't pick any mold off of it. I just used a piece of cheesecloth saturated with saltwater to rub the outsides of the cheese. This both smooths it and removes unwanted mold growth. Not hard at all.

There is another mold (can't remember which one I used) that is added that significantly reduces the pH of this cheese while it's aging. That process of fermenting and lowering pH results in a very creamy cheese. Stilton is fairly creamy, at least the couple I've made. I'll probably make some more this weekend. I'm almost out (I've got a wedge in the fridge still).

BTW, I have a packet of PC that I bought, but you can easily grow it yourself. In fact, put a bit of store-bought blue cheese in a paper bag with a piece of bread and wait a week or two you'll have enough PC to make a 100 cheeses. The blue/green mold spots on the bread you throw away IS PC.
 
Thanks for that.
Yes, I was wondering about growing the PC on a slice of existing blue cheese. Seems like a better way than buying $33 worth of it.
How many cheeses do you get from a $33 1/2 oz package? I have no idea how much 1/2 oz makes.

I'm definitely going to have to grab that book.
 
Thanks for that.
Yes, I was wondering about growing the PC on a slice of existing blue cheese. Seems like a better way than buying $33 worth of it.
How many cheeses do you get from a $33 1/2 oz package? I have no idea how much 1/2 oz makes.

I'm definitely going to have to grab that book.


A lot. Just takes a pinch of that mold.
 
Thanks for that.
Yes, I was wondering about growing the PC on a slice of existing blue cheese. Seems like a better way than buying $33 worth of it.
How many cheeses do you get from a $33 1/2 oz package? I have no idea how much 1/2 oz makes.

I'm definitely going to have to grab that book.

I did experiment with growing PC on plates. Just a quick dip with the innoculation loop and the plates exploded with PC growth. This only took a few days if I remember correctly. I think I made those plates with agar agar and lactose.

_mg_9060-64189.jpg


_mg_9084-64190.jpg
 
Last edited:
Thanks for that.
Yes, I was wondering about growing the PC on a slice of existing blue cheese. Seems like a better way than buying $33 worth of it.
How many cheeses do you get from a $33 1/2 oz package? I have no idea how much 1/2 oz makes.

I'm definitely going to have to grab that book.

I saw on the cheesemaker site that 1/4 oz is enough for over 1,000 gallons of milk.

I've ordered some last week and am waiting for it to come in.
 
I read that I have to smooth out the cracks. There in no way this will happen, too many and too big. I have seen some where it appeared the cracks were left in it. Can I leave it as is? If I am going to poke holes thru it anyway so does this really hurt.
HELP
 
I read that I have to smooth out the cracks. There in no way this will happen, too many and too big. I have seen some where it appeared the cracks were left in it. Can I leave it as is? If I am going to poke holes thru it anyway so does this really hurt.
HELP

I just rubbed down 3 of them about 15 minutes ago. This is a fairly creamy cheese. What I do is use my bare hands and a bowl of saltwater. Get your hands nice and wet, cup the cheese in both hands, and smooth with your palms and thumbs. I've tried using utensils like rubber spatulas, but the bare hand method works best (if the cheese is 4" like mine).

Do you have to fix the cracks and valleys? No, but those areas will likely start to grow the kind of mold you don't want. With smooth sides, you can take a piece of brine-saturated cheesecloth and wipe down the sides every couple of days (you should be flipping them that often anyway, at least for a couple of weeks). If the sides aren't smooth, it's going to be hard to clean off bad mold.

After rubbing it down, I poked holes in it with a turkey carving fork. Then, to keep the humidity up, I put them in plastic containers with false bottoms that I made. Works perfectly.

Before/After:

_mg_1198-66468.jpg

_mg_1208-66469.jpg
 
Last edited:
are these pictures of the same cheese? If so were you rubbing out cracks after formation of blue mold?
 
Stilton Blue - 04JAN15

2g Whole milk (generic supermarket P/H)
2c heavy cream (UHTP)
1/4 tsp p. Roqueforti
1/2 tsp MM100
8 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp CaCl
1/8 tsp powdered calf rennet

After draining curds overnight, I cut them into 1" cubes and set them into two camembert molds. I got nice blue showing after about 5 days at room temperature. Then into cave for 2 weeks, then piercing and smoothing the outside with brine-soaked cheesecloth, then a couple more weeks.

I'm letting it sit at room temp now to dry out the rind a bit, then vac-bagging one of them.

Out of curiosity, about how much cheese do you end up with from the above recipe?

And, have you tried with raw milk by any chance?

And, what is the "bad mold" you refer to? Is it also blue/green in color?

Consider me intrigued ;)
 
are these pictures of the same cheese? If so were you rubbing out cracks after formation of blue mold?



I made 3 cheeses. I don't know if the rubbed one is the same as the craggly one. But they both are from this group below. Craggly pics were taken yesterday, rubbed pics today.

Right, I didn't rub it down until 5 days after I made the cheese. I don't have my log book in front of me, but I think it's the same process I used before. Sort of.

The last time I made blue cheese, I ladled the curds right into molds lined with cheesecloth. The curds were still very, very loose and full of whey. They drained like that for 4 days. There was no way to rub it down because it was not a cohesive piece of cheese until the end of that period.

For this make, I ladled the curds into a large cheesecloth and hung it over my sink overnight. The whey drained and it resulted in a solid "loaf" of curd. I then cut them up into 1" blocks and dropped them into the molds. So, this time I suppose I might have been able to try to make a solid wheel, but I like the idea of the loose curd blocks in order to let the PR to get a foothold in the crevices in there.

_mg_1205-66467.jpg
 
Last edited:
Out of curiosity, about how much cheese do you end up with from the above recipe?

And, have you tried with raw milk by any chance?

And, what is the "bad mold" you refer to? Is it also blue/green in color?

Consider me intrigued ;)

I get about 1.5 lb. of cheese from a gallon of milk. The largest one, which is the rubbed one above, is 1.8 lb. For pressed cheeses like cheddar and cooked curd cheeses like swiss, it's about 1 lb. (from memory).

I've never had the bad mold, but here's the description from my cheese book.

mold.jpg
 
You have a fully blue color in 5 days?? It has been 5 days for this first attempt blue. I did use half the recommended amount of culture in order to get (I hoped) a lighter tasting blue.

IMG_1382.jpg
 
You have a fully blue color in 5 days?? It has been 5 days for this first attempt blue. I did use half the recommended amount of culture in order to get (I hoped) a lighter tasting blue.

I think it was 4 days. I left mine covered with that cheesecloth in the pic, which kept the outside very moist. Moist is where it's at if you're looking for mold growth.

I wouldn't worry at all. Just get them in a mostly sealed container where the moisture won't escape. If you have PR in the milk, and there's O2 and moisture, it should grow.
 
I rubbed it down as you suggested, it sealed just fine. Thank you. Will put it in a container to keep up the moisture and see how it goes. Will post a pic when it turns blue. Thanks again.
 
Developing nicely now. Should I have it wrapped in cheese paper at this stage? At what point might I vacuum pack it? Thanks
 

Latest posts

Back
Top