My first home made gorgonzola

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Daniele96

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Gorgonzola is a cheese from Lombardy and the first documents on it date back to XVI century. It comes from a town near Milan called Gorgonzola where, probably, the firs gorgonzola cheese was a curd for stracchino cheese (another Italian cheese) infected by a penicillium fungi. This is my first attempt with gorgonzola and I started it taking a piece of penicillium from another gorgonzola bought from a little cheese making company and I put this piece of penicillium in a glass of milk. After 18/24 hours this starter is ready and I added it in a pot containing 20 litres of fresh milk (I bought the milk and the other cheese from a little company near my house and if it is possible it is better when we make homemade cheese buy milk of high quality). Then I put the milk on the cooker and when it was at 35°C I added 2 rennet spoons on milk. Then I covered until the curd is ready. Then I cut it and then I put it on a drum to let the curd dry. It is important, if we want a good gorgonzola dolce, to make a big shape, if we want gorgonzola forte the shapes must be smaller. After some days I added salt and made some hole to allow the mold to grow. And this is the result now.
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Looking good! I usually don't poke the holes until the cheese firms up a bit so that the holes don't close and the pH has dropped some, but it looks like you know what you're doing so I'll just shut up now :) Don't forget to come back and update us with a wedge picture.
 
Looking good! I usually don't poke the holes until the cheese firms up a bit so that the holes don't close and the pH has dropped some, but it looks like you know what you're doing so I'll just shut up now :) Don't forget to come back and update us with a wedge picture.
The holes are necessary because penicillium need oxygen to grow inside the shape. This is a photo of a piece of Gorgonzola I bought last week: as you can see there are a lot of penicillium colonies inside it but it is essential that penicillium grow inside the shape at the same time it grow on the peel of the shape. This is the reason we make holes before.
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:pYum!! Taste impressions? Looks amazing!
Finally I have the photo of the final product. The taste of sweet gorgonzola is not as strong as the more dry version (Gorgonzola forte) but as every blue cheeses it has the typical spicy flavour due to the penicillium. It is creamy and excellent for a lot of recipes
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Yes it should have more penicillium veins but it was my first time with gorgonzola

Still looks tasty. does it have the flavor without the veins? you said you inoculated the milk with the mold spores didn't you? so it would grow and just not sporulate?

the only cheese i ever made was a 'quick' mozzarella, using acid...always been interested in it though!
 
Still looks tasty. does it have the flavor without the veins? you said you inoculated the milk with the mold spores didn't you? so it would grow and just not sporulate?
The flavour is ok. Probably I didn't make too much holes for oxygen and without oxygen penicillium doesn't make veins
 
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lol, next attempt try something like this?

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B074ZP426C/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

'rough it up' shall we say. :)


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LOL. Now those would make air holes. I think if you are going to make holes before it firms up, then you may need to reopen those holes a second time to ensure they remain open for oxygen to keep getting in. Even the holes in the rind appear from the picture to have closed up. But I'm just a new guy to cheese making and am just guessing. Pretty cheese, regardless!
 
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Unfortunately I have been very busy with my new business so I could not make some new gorgonzola shape, but last November I gave some truffles to a friend of mine who owns a little diary near Lanzo. He gave me yesterday a shape of the famous Toma cheese typical prepared with truffles of Lanzo zone near Turin.
 
Unfortunately I have been very busy with my new business so I could not make some new gorgonzola shape, but last November I gave some truffles to a friend of mine who owns a little diary near Lanzo. He gave me yesterday a shape of the famous Toma cheese typical prepared with truffles of Lanzo zone near Turin.
Here I post a photo of the full shape (7kg) which will spend the time until Easter in my cellar to age before the time I will cut and eat it
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i got a friend named Toma....he don't look as good as your cheese wheel though!

(out of curiosity, what's toma mean?)
 
iirc, tomar in spanish is too drink (just the verb drinking ) I think Spanish and Italian are pretty close so my guess is drink.
Great work on your first Gorgonzola by the way. You got to start somewhere. I remember my mom told me the road to China starts with the first step.

edit, and as you would expect I am dead wrong. The word has many different meanings and is used in many things if you see the Wikipedia page for it. According to this website Toma means cheese made by the farmer himself.

https://www.cheese.com/toma/
 
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i got a friend named Toma....he don't look as good as your cheese wheel though!

(out of curiosity, what's toma mean?)
Toma is a type of cheese from piedmont and North West Italy and it can be used fresh or aged. In the past it was made with fresh milk by farmers and bergè (the Italian "cowboys" who brought milk cows in mountains during summer). There are different type of toma: made with cow milk, sheep milk or goat milk and they can be less aged or more aged, aged in grape marcs, in straw or hay. The great difference is between the "toma bergera": it is made in summer when animals are in mountains and it is the eldest one (in the past farmers made toma during summer and let them age during the year as a food reserve). The other one is made from autumn to late spring, when animals are in stable and ear hay or fresh grass somewhere. The second type is the type used to make truffle toma.
 
Your Gorgonzola Dolce looks good. I have many failed attempts at making the dolce. How do you store and mature your Gorgonzola dolce? Mine always becomes hard after maturing. Thank you.
 
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