You used Flora Danica and LM 57 which are gas producers and advantageous in blue cheese because they create holes for the blue mold to grow. You use raw milk which likely has gas producing microbes. You also brined and air dry at room temperature ( I assume 70 F). The warmer the temperature the more active they are. I think at 55 F or lower they don't produce holes based on my experience.
@@jmilkslinger For me it was probably okay except for the old cream you added. For me yeast is ok in cheese as long as it doesn't give a bad taste and flavor. I talked to an Italian cheese maker before who used to work in the cheese industry and told me that yeast is added in Gorgonzola Dolce.
@@jmilkslinger There is a famous cheese in venezuela called Palmita cheese, it looks exactly like your first cheese turned out, it is a cheese that is prepared from one day to the next, the appearance is the same and it also screeches when you press it, now the taste I don't know how yours will taste , another thing the eyes of the coli are much smaller, i think you first cheese was fine
The cheese should have air gaps in it's interior, so 'low' floating should not be such an issue. Also the penicillin Roquefort should act as a biological bullet to 'decontaminate' the cheese - this combined with piercings to allow oxygen into the cheese should produce a respectable finish.
The cheese is fine. It's your brine solution. Too much salt will make it float. But as far as salt is concerned, you should be good. The floating cheese myth is sorta a myth. The people who write these cheesemaking book have it down to a science when it comes to quantities. But due to the fact you are intermediate - or semi pro, if your quantities are a little off it still won't damage your cheese. Cheese is a hard thing to screw up. The worst that will happen is you wish for one cheese and end up making another. That's the reason there is over 2000 types of cheeses in the world. 99% percent of them were invented from mistakes.
Hi Jennifer, I'm enjoying your informal and vivacious teaching style. I am just two months into my cheesemaking dream in the mountains of Ecuador and am surrounded by cows. Unfortunately, although a huge amount of cheese is made here it is only queso fresco, young and tasteless. So there is no supply of cultures or molds available, nor is there a postal system, Anything that comes in comes in via courier company and costs a fortune from the north. -$125 to send me a new credit card. My question is: Can I get by with a generic mesophylic and thermophylic form New England cheesemaking supply or do I have to have the exact cultures you add like Flora Danica and Messo Adjunct ML57? I have Penicillium Roqueforte and Penicillium Candidum and Geotrichum Candidum that I brought home on the plane from a visit to the US last year. Thanks for your advice and keep on keeping on. John G, Cotacachi Ecuador
By the generic blends, do you mean the single-dose packet blends? I haven't used them in years, but they work great, I think. Have you considered starting a clabber culture? That's what I primarily use these days, and it's fabulous. And then you're not reliant on anything outside of your locality (besides rennet). If you want one single meso freeze-dried culture, I'd recommend getting a couple bigger packs of Flora Danica --- that one is quite versatile.
Thanks for the reply and encouragement. Have you made a video or is there one that you know of that explains how to make the clabber culture? Would be right at home next to my sourdough starter. I'm also planning to try harvesting some Penicillium Roquefori from the surface of my Petit Blu (Gavin Webber's recipe) to save and innoculate other cheeses. Not sure exactly how (Gavin's comment was "hit or miss") but that's half the fun. @@jmilkslinger
Hola otra vez, just to clarify what I bought from NECheesemaking was Mesophyllic (C101) and Thermophyllic (C201)., and at this point I don't have a huge amount left of either. So if you can get me started on clabber culturing, it might make a huge difference. Any help will be vastly appreciated. Question: since I am using raw milk how much can I cut the amount of the cultures?
@@johngrunewald6616 Here's the video on making clabber: th-cam.com/video/OgGWDTv4KzU/w-d-xo.html When using freeze-dried cultures with raw milk, reduce the amount of culture by 25%.
instead of buying Penicillium roqueforti why are you not just taking some store bought blue cheese and use that. I have blue cheese in the freezer all the time we eat a lot of it. But I was uncertain if I could use it since it was frozen. Duh found out later you can. BUT>>> for $2.49 bought a small container of blue cheese at the grocery store (bulk dept) used about a 1/4 teaspoon and BAM!! Do you know what much blue cheese you can make with that little container for $2.50 instead of spending $20??? The mold is growing beautiful!!! Wish I could show you pick here. I was chastised in a "snobby" group for doing that. screw them I left and will follow you and a couple of others I like. Keep on going Jennifer! I wanted to make a cheese with dried cranberries and chipotle and again NO NO NO you can't you have to make the cheddar then shred it and reknit it again. HUH???? I am going to give it a shot in a couple of weeks and see what happens. Thanks my friend you are the best!
I've been wanting to inoculate milk with blue cheese but I just haven't gotten around to it yet. One of these days! (And I'm sorry you got chastised. Cheesemaking gatekeeping gets old pretty darn fast!)
Last week i sterilized bread chunks in a canning jar then opened it and quickly stuffed some blue cheese in there and closed it up again. Shook it around and now I have blue cheese spores to for life haha. It’s growing awesome!
I got that book, and in it she says to keep your pets out of the kitchen when you're making cheese because they're a source of coliform. Don't you have a dog?
I find the same with bread making and yeast. It seems that every loaf is unique. Every loaf takes a different amount of water and the yeast reacts slightly different each time. Maybe it’s the moon ha ha
Jennifer, every cheese will float in heavy brine. That ‘test’ tells you nothing about the health of your cheese. I’ve never seen a Blue being brined. Just rub the salt into the surface. Top first, then do the bottom 18 hours later. Then do the top, bottom and sides 18 hours later. Pierce after one week. Mature for three months.
Could putting your bare hand in it be an issue since our skin holds bacteria ? Idk but kudos to you for making cheese im currently making my own yogurt and going to make ricotta from the whey next. Can you do a video on beginning cheese making id love to try this
People have been making cheese by hand --- with their hands --- for centuries. I wash my arm and often spritz it down with a vinegar/water solution. Pretty sure that's not the problem... Glad to hear you're starting with cheesemaking --- it's so much fun! I have no beginning cheesemaking videos because there's no real starting point. You just gotta do it, and then do it some more.... You got this!
@@jmilkslinger this is my first cheese making video I’ve seen so I wasn’t aware lol but good to know ! I’m going to give the yogurt I made a try today them try and make some cream cheese using the left over whey
The recipe I was following (from the book Kitchen Creamery) called for the cheese to be pressed.... Even though the cheese turned out great and had a committed fan club (not any of my immediate family members, though, ha!), next time I want to try a different recipe. I've been eyeing yours...
@@jmilkslinger There are so many blue cheese recipes, aren't there? The thing is with blue cheese, that by pressing, you are removing the cracks between the curds, minimizing the spaces inside the cheese for the blue mold to grow.
@@GiveCheeseaChance Exactly! That's why this recipe was weird. (But ALSO weird was how completely riddled it was with blue. Like, over-the-top blue. So I guess the pressing isn't always a deterrent...?)
@@jmilkslinger I strongly recommend that you try Gavin Webber's "Petite Bleu" and watch the video. He explains how more space around the cheese affects the mold growth. Flora Danica and LM57 are both CO2 producers, and will inhibit the growth of the mold on the rind. That's probably why your smaller ones didn't bloom. They didn't have enough air space around them to let the rind mature.
Normally I love all your videos slowly working my way through them all. But it's a pain to constantly have to readjust the volume, because I don't care for the music. And there's no way to turn it off. 😢
Hello to make blue cheese you must obtain a dry curd, make several flip flop do not press. After that do not put in a brine. Dry salt process is more accurate.
Yes, numerous people have commented that the recipe I followed was not traditional (though it did turn out most wonderfully!). I'm currently aging a dry-salted blue cheese, so I'm eager to see what the difference is between the two versions.
Oh I would love to be your neighbor, I want to learn how to make cheese so bad. There is just so much to it, and I get so overwhelmed by all of it.
12:44 I thought I would never fall in love again until I saw that face. 😂❤
You used Flora Danica and LM 57 which are gas producers and advantageous in blue cheese because they create holes for the blue mold to grow. You use raw milk which likely has gas producing microbes. You also brined and air dry at room temperature ( I assume 70 F). The warmer the temperature the more active they are. I think at 55 F or lower they don't produce holes based on my experience.
This makes sense...and it makes me wonder: does this mean the other cheese was okay?
@@jmilkslinger For me it was probably okay except for the old cream you added. For me yeast is ok in cheese as long as it doesn't give a bad taste and flavor. I talked to an Italian cheese maker before who used to work in the cheese industry and told me that yeast is added in Gorgonzola Dolce.
@@jmilkslinger
There is a famous cheese in venezuela called Palmita cheese, it looks exactly like your first cheese turned out, it is a cheese that is prepared from one day to the next, the appearance is the same and it also screeches when you press it, now the taste I don't know how yours will taste , another thing the eyes of the coli are much smaller, i think you first cheese was fine
@@Wilfredinho So interesting about the Palmita cheese! I'm going to look it up. Thanks for weighing in!!
I love making blue cheeses! I like to make stilton style. Salt the curds before pressing. 2 out of 3 worked great. Ive never brined a blue.
Do you have a favorite recipe to share?
@@jmilkslinger home cheese making by Ricki Carroll has a stilton blue that I use.
The cheese should have air gaps in it's interior, so 'low' floating should not be such an issue. Also the penicillin Roquefort should act as a biological bullet to 'decontaminate' the cheese - this combined with piercings to allow oxygen into the cheese should produce a respectable finish.
The cheese is fine. It's your brine solution. Too much salt will make it float. But as far as salt is concerned, you should be good. The floating cheese myth is sorta a myth. The people who write these cheesemaking book have it down to a science when it comes to quantities. But due to the fact you are intermediate - or semi pro, if your quantities are a little off it still won't damage your cheese. Cheese is a hard thing to screw up. The worst that will happen is you wish for one cheese and end up making another. That's the reason there is over 2000 types of cheeses in the world. 99% percent of them were invented from mistakes.
Haha! This made me laugh out loud. LOVE IT.
Hi Jennifer, I'm enjoying your informal and vivacious teaching style. I am just two months into my cheesemaking dream in the mountains of Ecuador and am surrounded by cows. Unfortunately, although a huge amount of cheese is made here it is only queso fresco, young and tasteless. So there is no supply of cultures or molds available, nor is there a postal system, Anything that comes in comes in via courier company and costs a fortune from the north. -$125 to send me a new credit card. My question is: Can I get by with a generic mesophylic and thermophylic form New England cheesemaking supply or do I have to have the exact cultures you add like Flora Danica and Messo Adjunct ML57? I have Penicillium Roqueforte and Penicillium Candidum and Geotrichum Candidum that I brought home on the plane from a visit to the US last year. Thanks for your advice and keep on keeping on. John G, Cotacachi Ecuador
By the generic blends, do you mean the single-dose packet blends? I haven't used them in years, but they work great, I think.
Have you considered starting a clabber culture? That's what I primarily use these days, and it's fabulous. And then you're not reliant on anything outside of your locality (besides rennet).
If you want one single meso freeze-dried culture, I'd recommend getting a couple bigger packs of Flora Danica --- that one is quite versatile.
Thanks for the reply and encouragement. Have you made a video or is there one that you know of that explains how to make the clabber culture? Would be right at home next to my sourdough starter. I'm also planning to try harvesting some Penicillium Roquefori from the surface of my Petit Blu (Gavin Webber's recipe) to
save and innoculate other cheeses. Not sure exactly how (Gavin's comment was "hit or miss") but that's half the fun. @@jmilkslinger
Hola otra vez, just to clarify what I bought from NECheesemaking was Mesophyllic (C101) and Thermophyllic (C201)., and at this point I don't have a huge amount left of either. So if you can get me started on clabber culturing, it might make a huge difference. Any help will be vastly appreciated. Question: since I am using raw milk how much can I cut the amount of the cultures?
@@johngrunewald6616 Here's the video on making clabber:
th-cam.com/video/OgGWDTv4KzU/w-d-xo.html
When using freeze-dried cultures with raw milk, reduce the amount of culture by 25%.
Thanks, Jennifer. I'll give it a watch tomorrow when I'm in one of the pauses between cheesemaking steps. @@jmilkslinger
instead of buying Penicillium roqueforti why are you not just taking some store bought blue cheese and use that. I have blue cheese in the freezer all the time we eat a lot of it. But I was uncertain if I could use it since it was frozen. Duh found out later you can. BUT>>> for $2.49 bought a small container of blue cheese at the grocery store (bulk dept) used about a 1/4 teaspoon and BAM!! Do you know what much blue cheese you can make with that little container for $2.50 instead of spending $20??? The mold is growing beautiful!!! Wish I could show you pick here. I was chastised in a "snobby" group for doing that. screw them I left and will follow you and a couple of others I like. Keep on going Jennifer! I wanted to make a cheese with dried cranberries and chipotle and again NO NO NO you can't you have to make the cheddar then shred it and reknit it again. HUH???? I am going to give it a shot in a couple of weeks and see what happens. Thanks my friend you are the best!
I've been wanting to inoculate milk with blue cheese but I just haven't gotten around to it yet. One of these days! (And I'm sorry you got chastised. Cheesemaking gatekeeping gets old pretty darn fast!)
Last week i sterilized bread chunks in a canning jar then opened it and quickly stuffed some blue cheese in there and closed it up again. Shook it around and now I have blue cheese spores to for life haha. It’s growing awesome!
I got that book, and in it she says to keep your pets out of the kitchen when you're making cheese because they're a source of coliform. Don't you have a dog?
Outdoor dogs.
It is beautiful. Practice makes perfect. Do you have your food handlers card?
LOL… you are funny
I find the same with bread making and yeast. It seems that every loaf is unique. Every loaf takes a different amount of water and the yeast reacts slightly different each time. Maybe it’s the moon ha ha
Jennifer, every cheese will float in heavy brine. That ‘test’ tells you nothing about the health of your cheese. I’ve never seen a Blue being brined. Just rub the salt into the surface. Top first, then do the bottom 18 hours later. Then do the top, bottom and sides 18 hours later.
Pierce after one week. Mature for three months.
Yes, all cheeses float. But rising up OUT of the brine is different and a sign of contamination.
Love the music!
😂
Hip-hop cheese
As I am not able to work with this volume of milk , is it possible to be made with only two gallons of milk,
Yup! Reduce the quantities accordingly; temps and method stay the same.
"finally you do it" I hope the results will be good.
Could it be because Flora danica produces gas? Because it does, I have checked. In fact apparently that makes it desirable for blue cheese.
Yes, indeed! (I'm pretty sure that first blue was perfectly fine. I just freaked.)
Could putting your bare hand in it be an issue since our skin holds bacteria ? Idk but kudos to you for making cheese im currently making my own yogurt and going to make ricotta from the whey next. Can you do a video on beginning cheese making id love to try this
Just finished the video really happy you seem to have an answer can’t wait to see how it comes out.
People have been making cheese by hand --- with their hands --- for centuries. I wash my arm and often spritz it down with a vinegar/water solution. Pretty sure that's not the problem...
Glad to hear you're starting with cheesemaking --- it's so much fun! I have no beginning cheesemaking videos because there's no real starting point. You just gotta do it, and then do it some more.... You got this!
@@jmilkslinger this is my first cheese making video I’ve seen so I wasn’t aware lol but good to know ! I’m going to give the yogurt I made a try today them try and make some cream cheese using the left over whey
In France and Italia people use to collect the curd with their arms. There is no issue as long you wash your arms carefully.
I'm fat, fat floats
What do you use for a cheese fridge?
A wine fridge and a freezer that's been recalibrated to 55 degrees.
I wish a milk supplier. It's just not practical to make cheese without one.
Agreed!
Jennifer, why do you press your blue cheese?
The recipe I was following (from the book Kitchen Creamery) called for the cheese to be pressed.... Even though the cheese turned out great and had a committed fan club (not any of my immediate family members, though, ha!), next time I want to try a different recipe. I've been eyeing yours...
@@jmilkslinger There are so many blue cheese recipes, aren't there? The thing is with blue cheese, that by pressing, you are removing the cracks between the curds, minimizing the spaces inside the cheese for the blue mold to grow.
@@GiveCheeseaChance Exactly! That's why this recipe was weird. (But ALSO weird was how completely riddled it was with blue. Like, over-the-top blue. So I guess the pressing isn't always a deterrent...?)
@@jmilkslinger Hey, no harm done, if you like the result, right? 🙂
@@jmilkslinger I strongly recommend that you try Gavin Webber's "Petite Bleu" and watch the video. He explains how more space around the cheese affects the mold growth. Flora Danica and LM57 are both CO2 producers, and will inhibit the growth of the mold on the rind. That's probably why your smaller ones didn't bloom. They didn't have enough air space around them to let the rind mature.
Normally I love all your videos slowly working my way through them all. But it's a pain to constantly have to readjust the volume, because I don't care for the music. And there's no way to turn it off. 😢
Thank you for the feedback, Mabel!
What about talking to the curd nerd ? 🤷🏻♀️
Oh, I have! Gavin has been soooo helpful, offering insights to my many questions. He's fantastic!
Hello
to make blue cheese you must obtain a dry curd, make several flip flop do not press.
After that do not put in a brine. Dry salt process is more accurate.
Yes, numerous people have commented that the recipe I followed was not traditional (though it did turn out most wonderfully!). I'm currently aging a dry-salted blue cheese, so I'm eager to see what the difference is between the two versions.
th-cam.com/video/Ehab4sUHYhI/w-d-xo.htmlfeature=shared