Hi guys (and ladies) and Merry Christmas to everyone…...
As you know, I’ve been living and breathing my first Stilton attempt for the past month and although it didn’t turn out as perfectly as I had hoped, I honestly don’t know how it could have went much better when it comes to the flavor of the cheese.
I cracked this cheese open last night as an early Christmas gift. Although it was an ugly cheese (due to cracking) the interior of the cheese was (in my opinion) beautiful.
Upon tasting the cheese, I immediatley realized that I would be making MUCH more of this particular variety. The smoothness of the texture, combined with the “biting” flavor made for what I consider the perfect cheese.
Myself, my dad and my brother are all blue cheese fanatics. We all agree that we have never eaten a bad blue cheese although up to this point we all liked Gorgonzola the best.
Well upon tasting this particular cheese my brother made the comment that it was the best cheese he has ever eaten. Now mind you it was not the best blue he had ever eaten, but the best cheese he had ever eaten. Yeah, this did wonders for my cheese making ego.
My dad was also very impressed and between the two of them they polished off pretty much half of the log. What was leftover was sent home with my brother for further enjoyment.
Now remember that this cheese is only a month old. I honestly can’t imagine how great it would be if it had been able to age it properly. I guess I’ll have to get a couple of different batches going so that I can enjoy one young while letting the other age.
Okay, take a look at the pic below. I had some serious veining going on although the rind never did form as I had hoped for. Regardless I would recommend a Stilton to anyone who loves the flavor of blues.
Again, Merry Christmas to everyone and thanks to everyone who has offered advice on this cheese, along the way.
Dave

Oh, and as you can see, even with the new cameras in the house (three of them), I’m still not much of a photographer. I try to get the best shots possible, but photography is just not my thing.
As of today we have a 8.1 MP Nikon and two 12 MP Pentax but I still can’t get a good shot!
I really envy Neil in his ability to get the perfect shot. Oh well, maybe with some more practice.
Regardless, I’ll be uploading several shots in the coming weeks and months so hopefully some of them will look better than what you see above.

Dave

LOL, welcome to having the cheese bug. Just practice making pictures, its digital so your not wasting film, youl get it eventually. The cheese does look real good

Dave, just work on getting close up shots.  Your cameras are able to give really good resolution.  If you want to show detail such as texture, you’ve got to be right on top of it.

Rich and Neil….
Thanks for the photo advice. I guess it’s something that will come with time but I actually got my first digital camera several years ago. It was a Casio that would take 640 x 480 pics ONLY and I paid one heck of a nice price for it. I’ve always been the type to jump on something when it first comes out and realize later that I got screwed. Like my brother always says “The pilgram has always been the one that takes the arrow in the back”.
I will do as both of you suggest. I guess if I keep practicing long enough, I’ll eventually get a feel for it. I’m wondering if I shouldn’t set up the tripod for my next attempt since I always get a really blurry image when trying to get extremely close to the subject.
Hopefully sometime soon you’ll be seeing good pics of my progress. Of course on the failures I’ll revert to my old ways and give you nice grainy pics so that the imperfections don’t show as much.
Thanks again…

Dave

I use shutter priority and have it set to 1/100 and have the flash on that way the F stop goes higher and more depth of field. A tripot works great since u can then drop the speed so to get a F16 for a bigger depth of field. Assuming its a DSLR you have. A tripod def will help you.

Neil…..
English please.
I think I need to read through my book so I can have some idea of what you just said!
I’m impressed at your knowledge. Honestly I’ll settle for just a good working knowledge of all of the features and functions of any camera.
I’ll give one of the camera books a read through and see if I can figure some of this out. I really would like to get better at taking good photographs.
Thanks again.
Dave

LOL, sorry didnt mean for that, but then the same is for someone who has never made cheese and u start talking cultures