Now, We’ve Got The Blues

The British Blue Cheese Workshop led by Kathy Biss from West Highland Dairy in Scotland took place last weekend and the participating Guild members all took a lot away from it — information as well as workshop cheese that they will now age!

We made four recipes in two different milks for contrast:

  • Blue Leicester — goats milk
  • Ascaig Blue — cows milk
  • Strathdon Blue — goats and cows milk
  • Lymeswold — goats and cows milk

The first two are made with scalded curd for a firmer texture, more mechanical holes, and longer aging potential. The last two have a much higher moisture content, and the Lymeswold actually incorporates a bloomy rind with the blue interior, though it will age no more than four to six weeks.

The contrast between all of these recipes provided and excellent background on what is needed to adapt any recipe to a blue recipe, and how to work with Penicillium roqueforti, which digests the milk fats for its distinctive flavors, but requires oxygen to grow. That’s why piercing cheese wheels is necessary to allow blue to grow inside.

As with any workshop, much of the information applied to cheese making of all kinds, and most importantly what to do when your make isn’t progressing the way you would like. In this case we needed to re-warm the buckets in which we were making the Strathdon Blue on the second day because the acid was not developing, which was evident because the curd was slow to reach the right texture.

Overall a great experience for Maine (and beyond Maine) cheese makers.

Kathy Biss will return the following weekend to lead a workshop on making Hard British Cheeses.

Monroe Cheesemaker Ruffles Some Feathers

Last weeks some folks in the Guild asked if I would go to the State House when the Farmer Brown supports marched on April 17th to provide the prospective of a licensed dairy processor.

There was a bunch of media there for the march (much of it was there for the Governor’s signing of new domestic violence laws earlier in the day), and I was interviewed after the media finished talking with the demonstrators. Here are links (WLBZ, and WABI) to the two stories that have been broadcast on TV news so far about the issue.

(I made it clear to reports that I was also President of the Maine Cheese Guild and that I supported the Guild’s Quality Statement, but so far they have preferred to identify me only as the owner of Monroe Cheese Studio.)

Use the comments section to let me know what you think.

Christmas Cove Cottage Cheese

Eric Rector (Monroe Cheese Studio) and Jamien Shields (Turner Farm Creamery) have collaborated on this simple and straight-forward recipe for making a cottage cheese, just as might have been made every day by settlers on the coast.

Christmas Cove Cottage Cheese

For 1 gallon of fresh milk: 

Add 1/8 tsp MM series freeze-dried culture, or an equivalent mesophilic culture at 70 deg F, then let it “wake up” for 30 minutes.

Stir in 1/8 tsp Calcium Chloride (CaCl) solution for a firm curd, then heat milk to 86 deg F while stirring.

Add 1/2 drop rennet (double-strength, diluted in water) just to incorporate, then settle the milk, cover the pot, and let sit at room temp (72 deg F) for at least 4 hours.

Cut into 3/4″ cubes taking care not to damage the curd.

Raise the temp while stirring, gently at first, to 113 deg F over about 30 minutes.

Drain curds; then wash the warm curds with very cold water to cool them completely, then drain the curds again, as much as possible.

Stir 7 grams of salt (1/4 oz.) into the curds. If you wish to add add any spices, herbs, or flavorings, they can go in now, just before packing.

Pack into tub/containers; the curds will continue to weep whey resulting in a creamy mix to help keep the curds semi-independent. If you set aside the whey from the first draining in the pot, you could skim the whey cream that rises to the top overnight and add that to the packed curds for a creamier flavor.

Yield: about three pint containers (40 oz).

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