Today started with cutting the Caerphilly style cheese I made a couple of weeks ago. It should have matured for another week but, because my mould was a little big, the cheese was thinner than it should have been and was starting to crack. I forgot to about the humidity level too. Anyway, cutting into the cheese was exciting. It looked like Caerphilly, it tasted like Caerphilly so I'm calling it a success.
So with that, I started on my blue. I'd looked up several blue recipes but couldn't find exactly what I was looking for. I found a Wensleydale Blue recipe here http://www.theweekendartisan.co.uk/wensleydale-cheese-recipe I had also looked at Gavin Webber's video https://www.littlegreencheese.com/cheese-videos. I have used a few recipes from Little Green Cheeses now and Gavin's website has become my go to site.
I decided to go with the recipe from Gavin and added some Penicillium roqueforti in a smaller quantity that was called for in the first recipe I looked at.
Mmmmmmmmmm panna cotta.
This is how the curds looked at about an hour after being cut. There are little black specks which I hope are part of the roqueforti and not just random bits of stuff.
The curds needed to sit for two hours and thankfully they didn't need constant stirring like the Emmental did. My biggest pan is very tall, I am short. It's not the easiest job. I may need a lower cooker.
The drained curds had to be smooshed up every 15 mins for the next two hours. It looked like it did on the video so it is was probably working like it should. I can see how Wensleydale has that crumbly texture. It should give the blue veins plenty of room to spread (at least that's what Woody my hair stylist said).I think this is the lengthiest cheese making process I have tackled so far. It's not quick. Hopefully it will be worth it.
I'm looking forward to getting it out of the mould tomorrow morning.
