Back on November 13th, I made my first gorgonzoa. Oh, I was so proud of it! I had a lot of extra milk and had to either use it or give it to the
poultry, and I wasn’t willing to do that. So, feeling brave after my
successful Camembert make, I decided to try Gorgonzola. I used a
combination of
cheesemaking.com's recipe and one that I found on
Cookipedia.
I used
1 gallon of raw goat milk and
1-1/2 qts of raw Jersey cream
To that I added
1/4 tsp Flora Danica and a large pinch of Penicillium rogueforti, which I had hydrated for 24 hours in 1/4 C water.
After stirring well, I let it culture for an hour.
After
the hour, I added
9 drops of double strength vegetable rennet (diluted,
of course),
which brought the flocculation time to just about 13 minutes. I
let it set for a factor of 2, or 26 minutes. The curds were very
delicate, and next time I may try for a factor of 3, depending on how
this make turns out.
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Cut curds |
I let them rest for 30 minutes, stirring a
couple of times gently—mostly just shaking the spoon a bit to get some
motion and encourage release of the whey. At the end of that time I
ladled off as much whey as I could. I then carefully ladled the curds
into a cheesecloth lined colander and let them drain, lifting the sides
of the cheesecloth to aid in the drainage.
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Draining the curds |
It actually took a
bit of draining before I could get all of the curds into the colander.
When they’d drained considerably, I ladled them into a 6” mold, which
sat atop a plastic mat on top of a cookie sheet, which sat on a pan to
catch the whey.
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Keeping the curds warm |
I turned it at 15 minutes, 45 minutes, and then several
times after that before I let it sit draining overnight.
The
following afternoon, I removed the mold and salted the cheese, then covered it with a bowl to maintain a high humidity.
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Just before salting. Doesn't it look lovely? |
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Draining after salting. |
I
repeated this every day for 4 days, then removed it to a plastic
container in a location around 55° and turned it daily. A couple of
days later I skewered it top and bottom to encourage blue mold
formation.
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Lots of blue! |
The blue mold was developing as it should, but then it started developing a
white mold on it as well, and I wasn't sure whether that was normal, so I decided to "fix" it.
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Now there's white, too. |
HA! I should have left well enough alone. I salted the Gorgonzola to get
rid of the white mold, before I heard from someone that its normal. So I turned the cheese every 2 days, and I've been battling a soft, tacky skin,
which became rather slimy. Under the slime, the cheese seemed
rather firm, and it doesn't have a disagreeable odor to it. I suspected that it was Brevabacterium linens, a red mold that's used in cheesemaking--but doesn't belong on gorgonzola. I guess it was free floating in the air and settled down to raise its family on whatever was available.
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Slimy red mold. |
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This is what it looks like close up. Yech! |
I reduced the humidity a week ago, hoping to encourage it to dry out a bit. As a blue cheese, it really
shouldn't be vacuum packed or waxed, so that's not a solution.
Today I bit the proverbial bullet and, at the suggestion of some other cheesemakers, washed all the slime off. Well, here's what my Gorgonzola looks like post-cleanup. I think I was a tad too aggressive on one side, though it was just plain squishier than
the other. You can see where just the pressure of my thumb holding it
took a soft piece out..
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The "good" side. Nice and firm. |
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The slightly squishier side. |
Now it'll go back into a drier, cooler place to see if I can get a better rind on it and stop the slime. I'm just hoping to salvage
this poor cheese. It has another 2 months to go for Gorgonzola Dolce (softer and creamier) and another 5 months to go for Gorgonzola Piccante (firmer and crumblier--is that a word?).
Anyhow,
since it's my first make, I'll cry a bit if it doesn't turn out, but I
guess I can chalk all this up to learning experience, but
I haven't given up yet!