Attempted a Blue Stilton from Ricki’s book this past weekend. Went back to the raw milk, which turned out better than the week before when I used store bought. Learned my lesson I guess. I did add two cups of pasteurized light cream with no addition of CaCl. It is holding nicely in the mould at the moment.
The recipe does call to break the pressed curd into 1-inch chunks before salting, and then placing the chunks into the mould. So as you’d expect there does appear to be a lot of gaps and creases between the chunks, although it seems to be holding together. Presently there is no weight on the mould. I’m going to assume as time goes on once it’s in the fridge that these creases and gaps will fill in with blue mold as time progresses?

The recipe does say that it should sit in a 70F kitchen for four days before putting into the humidity-controlled fridge. My concern here is that it is winter here in Michigan and the house has a RH of 16% which is pretty dry considering I’m using wood heat. So I may want to avoid it drying out too much and put it into the fridge after tonight. Your thoughts on this please?

Are u referring to page 166? as long as the cheese is covered I would not worry about the room humidity. I would be more concerned with the salting to make sure its protected. This is what I will be doing at the end of the month. The last one I did I didnt poke the cheese and it blued very well (see pics someware ) I found the tossing of the loose curds anf natural weighting that creats the air pockets in the cheese was enough for it to grow prolifically.

Without having the book in front of me, that sounds about right. Sit the cheese out for 4 days and then after that, poke the holes and off to the fridge. Then I believe it was wipe it once a week with a wet brine cloth.

I folow the temps that are in the book, but then I follow more what they do in England when making Stilton. After its been rotated, the use a knife and smooth the sides so its even.

This is my last piece, its my last march Stilton, u can see the big dif from the origonal pics.

(from last year)

I just made the Stilton according to her recipe and also found that I after pressing the curds with weight overnight they became quite dry. I lined my mold with a moist cheesecloth and ended up pressing the curds a bit for fear of the curds never knitting together. Due to dryness in the air I put a slightly moist cheesecloth over the top just to make sure it didn’t dry out. I also smoothed it with a hot knife. Now weeks later it’s looking really good!

U guys know how to use newsgroups?, can post a small vid on Stilton on their.

I can’t remember how but I’m totally game!

Heathers