Whey of Life: a breakthrough with the blue!

Aaah! There is nothing like waking up early on Sunday morning and scraping mold off the rinds of blue cheese! But duty calls and this batch of Asher Blue is perfect at two months and it needs a little extra care to stay that way. Making a great blue cheese has been a goal of Jeremy and I’s since I got here and not to say it’s been difficult so much as confusing. For the longest time we had problems developing the characteristic blue veins. Some batches turned out and some grew other things inside where the holes were pierced. We’ve especially had a problem with a pesky surface mold, Geotrichum Candidum. It’s no suprise that it’s lurking in our cheese room, we utilize it for our bloomy rind cheese like Lumiere and Green Hill. But we certainly don’t want it in our Asher Blue for a simple reason. Geotrichum Candidum, like other surface molds has a short life and begins to break down after a month or two, depending on conditions in the environment such as temperature and humidity. Once G. Candidum starts to break down, the white bloomy rind turns orange and produces aromas of ammonia. Needless to say, not very appetizing and with this in mind, is why we eat cheeses like Brie and Camembert after a few weeks instead of a few months. To make a long story short, blue cheese requires a longer ripening time- usually 4 months, so to have something growing inside that is going to break down and produce acrid flavors before said product is ready is problematic. But as I said before, some batches turned out and some didn’t. There are other factors at stake! One is the cooler we store the cheeses in. We have multiple coolers, they are old refrigeration truck bodies we converted into “caves.” It struck me a while back that cheeses coming out of cooler #5 were more prone to having G. Canidum than cheeses from cooler #3. Mind you, the answer is a hunch because I have no way to actually prove this. Cooler #5 used to house our bloomy-rind cheeses and my guess is that it has inoculated itself into the environment. Cooler #3 has only housed big wheels, none of which utilize G. Candidum and thus Asher Blue is safe in this environment. It’s strange to think although the coolers are maybe 15 feet apart, they are two totally seperate environments with their own diverse mixture of molds, funghi and yeasts. If you are more curious about this subject, I recommend you rent The Cheese Nun, available through Netflix. Sister Noella Marcellino is a Geotrichum Candidum nut, having spent two years roaming France and studying the biodiveristy of the G. Canidum strain! The film culminates with a trip to the American Cheese Society’s Annual Competition, which is where we are headed in July. This particular batch of Asher Blue will be in tow, as will Titan and our heavy hitter, Green Hill. Here’s to hoping for a big win! And a last side note, if you are itching for another food blog, please check out http://anicca3.blogspot.com/. John Bowers is as passionate about BBQ as I am about cheese and I sent him some a while back, so check regularly to see what he comes up with! Also, be on the lookout for a post about the trials and triumphs of making Haloumi!