Blue Cheese

So my cheese making is well and truly under-whey… (sorry, it had to be said.) Just made my fourth batch of feta, and experimenting with different brands of milk. We’re lucky to have four dairies in our region that sell non-homogenised milk.

I’ve also made one batch of camembert which went fairly well. Here is my first attempt at blue cheese. The cultures are from Mad Millie but we buy them in Hahndorf at the Udder Delights Cheeses Shop, with whom I did my cheese-making session back in February. But I also have supplies from GreenLiving Australia.

The challenge here is that I had a recipe from a book, rather than a recipe which came with the cultures. So I’m hoping it works. The process was just like making feta except that a blue mould culture was added to the milk. The cheese look like this after two weeks. It is supposed to age for 3 months, and the mould can be cleaned from the outside after the first month and then every 3 weeks or so. The three recipes that I’ve now read have differing instructions about how the cheese is to be aged.

The cheese has holes in it so that the mould can get inside. The family are terrified by the look of it.

A cheese press arrived today from Green Living Australia to go with the Cheese Basket that I already had. I was also able to buy some recipe books from them. This will be much easier than the precarious method of putting a glass bowl + pestle + etc etc on top.

So next on the list are a couple that will need to age as well – cheddar and parmesan. After that I’ll have a go at mozzarella and taleggio.

I’m also keen to try a goats cheese, and have discovered frozen sheep milk at the Kangaroo Island shop at the Adelaide Central Markets.

Really enjoying this and I hope I don’t kill anyone…