How to make blue cheese

On the shelves in the store, in the cheese section, you can find various varieties of cheeses with red, white or bluish mold... It seems that there is no way to do it yourself. But this is not so, this type of cheese can be prepared at home, observing all the rules, conditions and sterility.

Ingredients for blue cheese

Most often, moldy cheeses are made from natural cow, goat or sheep milk... A special bacterium is grown for mold growth. For white mold, the bacterium Penicillium Camemberti is used. It only covers the surface of the cheese, without spreading inward.

Blue or greenish mildew - bacteria Penicillium roqueforti - used for Roquefort and Dor Blue varieties. It grows not only on the surface, but also inside the cheeses, creating a marble pattern, a spicy, tangy mushroom flavor.

Cheese with red mold is not for everybody, as they have a rather specific aroma of "unwashed feet". They use the bacterium Brevibacterium linens, it only covers the crust of the cheese.

How to make blue cheese

Cheeses with noble mold are soft and hard. White cheeses are made by curdling fatty milk, then it is salted and sent to the basement with moldy fungi. The walls of the basement are covered with these bacteria.

Blue cheeses are cooked same curdling, after which the mixture is put into the mold. After a long time, whey drains from the mass. When the product dries up, it is rubbed with salt and stuffed with a special kind of fungus. Then they leave for mold to ripen.

When the red cheese ripens, it is washed with brine so that it is not covered with common mold. Then the product undergoes a special treatment with fungi, after which a red blurred crust appears.

Blue cheese at home

Home Dor Blue

What is necessary:

• four liters of homemade milk, or store, but with a short shelf life;
• salt;
• a slice of Dor-blue cheese;
• 1.5 glasses of sour milk, or sour cream;
• 6 tablets Abomin or Acidin-Pepsin.

How to cook:

1. With a sharp knife, scrape off a small amount of mold from a piece of the purchased product, preferably without cheese.
2. Mix it and half a glass of milk, leaving for 60 minutes.
3. Mix with the remaining milk, warm up to 32 degrees and add sour product or sour cream at room temperature. Mix and set aside for 5-7 minutes.
4. Powder the pills and stir them in 50 ml of water.
5. Pour the mixture into milk, stir and heat, covering with a lid and a towel for 1.5-2 hours until a jelly-like clot appears. When you click on it, a yellowish serum should appear.
6. Cut the jelly and stir gently with a wooden spoon, leave for 25 minutes. During this time, flakes will settle to the bottom of the container.
7. Take a plastic cup and poke holes on the bottom and sides with an awl, the more the better.
8. Put a glass in a deep plate and use a slotted spoon to catch and put the cheese flakes into it. Leave for half a day without pressing or closing.
9. After the allotted time, carefully remove the cheese, turn over and leave again for half a day. This should be done 4-5 times, draining the dripping whey from the plate.
10. After the last time, coat the resulting product with plain salt and let it dry for about 10-12 hours.
11. Scrape off more mold from the store cheese and mix it with a quarter of a glass of milk, leaving for 60 minutes.
12. Pierce the cheese with a sterilized knitting needle on all sides. Pour the mold diluted in milk into these holes with a syringe.
13. Take a plastic container. It should be larger than the plastic cup.
14. Pour a spoonful of boiled water into it. Rinse the glass well and trim the edges.
15. Fold the cheese into a glass, turn it over and insert the glass into a container. You can cover the top with a saucer so that there is air.
16. Remove the container in a dark place at medium temperature until a blue or greenish-blue mold appears. Mold growth period is 7-14 days. A prerequisite for all manipulations is carefully sterilized items: knitting needle, spoons, cups. Try to turn the cheese over with your gloved hands every couple of days. After 10-14 days, wrap the product in parchment and leave in the refrigerator for 7 days.

Soft cheese with white mold

What is necessary:

• 6 liters of natural milk;
• a small piece of brie cheese;
• 1.5-2 tablespoons of salt;
• half a spoonful of citric acid;
• 0.2 g rennet.

How to do:

1. Take two glasses, each half filled with water. Stir citric acid in one, enzyme in the other.
2. Warm up the milk to 35 degrees, pour the lemon mixture, and then the enzymatic mixture. Mix thoroughly with a whisk. Leave for an hour until a clot forms.
3. Cut into small pieces and leave for a quarter of an hour.
4. Put a bowl of cheese product in hot water and, stirring, bring to 42 degrees. Flakes will form with stirring.
5. Drain the whey liquid, add salt to the cheese mass and transfer it to the mold for 2-3 hours. During this time, the remaining serum will drain.
6. Wrap the cheese in a cloth and refrigerate, turning it over a couple of times a day.
7. Collect the mold from a piece of store cheese and rub it into the finished cheese.
8. Put the product in a container, cover with a lid and put in the cold for a couple of weeks.
9. Wrap the cheese in parchment, put it back in the container and remove for another couple of weeks.