Hi folks! A happy and healthy new year to start with, I hope we can make and consume a lot of good cheeses! I had one on new years eve, a Roche Baron that I bought. A tasty, soft running slightly blue cheese with a black rind. And the black rind is what I have questions about: According to wiki it is ash. Does that mean it is simply charcoal ash? And where do you get that, besides on the bottom of a bag with charcoal for the bbq?

http://www.cheesemaking.com/store/p/121-Ash.html

I would buy it at this place if I wanted some. Of course I don’t know if they ship to you or not.

I have not made any blue cheeses yet, I am still enjoying the hard cheeses. I have thought about making the blue cheeses, and I have gathered up the equipment that my book says that I need, but every time I get raw milk I want to make something else out of it. One day I will get to it, just not yet.

The last blue cheese that I bought was so bitter I threw it away. I need to make some so I would know what home made tastes like.

Burn some good quality wood and use that if u can. Or buy it from a pet store under “activated charcoal”. Charcoal neutralizes acid and can preserve the surface.

Bloomed cheese are generally the easiest, they like acid so u cant realy screw it up with PH.

Thanks for the advice Neil, I’ll have a look in the pet store. Now you mention it I know it is also used for filters in fish tanks. According to what I read about Roche Baron, it’s applied there during ripening. Is that the common way to use it? Anybody any tips/recipes on that?

@Tammy: I have made a list of things I want to make, every variation on Gouda cheese is followed by something more “exotic”. My first and still ripening blue one is Cambozola, which was not hard to do, because I already tried the Brie. I expect the Cambozola to be about the same flavor as Roche Baron mild but tasty), because they are both soft cheeses based on P. Candida and P. Roqueforti.

I know its talked about in Cheese slices in the first couple seasons, french I thingk. it is applied right away after removing from teh mold, that way the cheese is kept from developing mold. Theirs aslo a cheese were its applied in the middle like a sandwich.

I’ll have a look at the video’s about France, I’ve only watched one DVD until now. According to what I read on the link that Tammy send, it is supplied with salt and will stimulate the growth of PC. Will be interesting to do some experiments with…

Morbier————  https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Morbier_(cheese) (Ash in the center)
chevres———-    http://www.fantomefarm.com/process.htm

ASH-COVERED

After they are molded into shape, some goat cheeses are dusted with a fine powder of charcoal ash, traditionally from oak but today often vegetable ash. These are known as ash-covered goat cheeses (or chèvres). Originally, the ash was used to protect the delicate cheeses during transport. While some people think it is now decorative in these days of modern transportation and refrigeration, the ash actually makes the cheese ripen more quickly. the ash-covered variety is a bit creamier than the plain cheese of the exact same age; in general, the cheese gets creamier with age.

Thanks Neil, that’s more usefull information. I’ll put even more things on my list “Things to try”...