Fixa, cheese IS the best food in the world. Here is a rundown of the process I use to make Stilton cheese.
The Recipe
4.5lt full cream milk
1/8 tsp farmhouse culture available here
Cheeselinks
OR 1/2 cup buttermilk
1 tbls of stilton cheese for the mold culture or a blue mold culture available from the above link
1.5ml of liquid Rennet
2 tsp salt, non iodised (rock salt or sea salt is best)
Warm your milk in a S/S pot or plastic bucket to 31c, I usually put the pot in a sink of warm water to keep it at 31c, stir in the farmhouse culture OR buttermilk, make a paste of the stilton cheese with a little of the milk and stir this into your 4.5l milk until it is dissolved.
Dissolve 1.5ml of the rennet in 50 ml of boiled cooled water and then stir this into the milk, you must do this quickly as the Rennet will cause the milk to set fairly soon.
Keep the milk at 31c for the next 90 minutes and do not disturb the milk, it is important to keep this temperature constant throught the "cooking" period.
At the end of the 90 minutes your curd will have formed and the milk will be a soft solid mass. If you push down on the top of the curd and it splits you will know it is time to cut the curd. Cut the curd into small 1cm cubes by slicing with a long knife that reaches to the bottom of the pot.
Stir gently and rest for 30 minutes all the time keeping the temp at 31c, remove some of the whey at the end of the 30 minute rest and stir gently again and rest for 30 minutes and remove some more of the whey.
Pour the curds into a cheese cloth lined collander and drain for 10 minutes then bundle and hang the curds over a bucket for 1/2 an hour to extract more of the whey.
next place the curd bundle on a draining board and put a 5 kilo weight on top for 2 hours, this will extract more of the whey.
next we need to salt and crumble the curds. open the bundle and break up the curd into small pieces about the size of a sultana sprinkle in the salt and stir gently.
pack the curds evenly into 2x 3 1/2 inch diameter molds and press for 12 hours with 5 kilo weights turning every couple of hours.
and here is what the should look like after the 12 hour pressing
Put the cheese onto cheese mats to allow them to drain some more. I keep my cheeses in a decore style container in a spare fridge at around 9c, leave the lid open a crack to regulate the humidity and keep turning the cheese on a daily basis. After about 10 days you will see the cheese is starting to mold up
and after about 4 weeks it is time to needle the cheese to allow the blue mold to get inside the cheese, here is mine at 4 weeks just before I needled it,
and at 6 weeks I am eating it along with home made Salsa and home grown pickled vegetables
This is a fairly simplified approach to making a Stilton cheese but the results are very nice.
but it was all really edible (if you go for reall pundgent type cheese) It dosnt cost allot. Your best off checking out Cheeselinks for all you need to know and get more info but if your into it its very rewarding much like homebrewing.-
