Gorgonzola? We'll see....

Well, I made my very first batch of Gorgonzola cheese!  We shall see, in time, how it turns out...

Here's a photo of the beautiful Jersey milk I used.

I added mesophyllic starter culture, let it ripen for 30 minutes, then added rennet.  Here I am checking to identify the flocculation point.  "Flocculation" is the point at which the solids begin to separate from the liquids in the milk.  The evening milk took 11 minutes to flocculate, and the morning batch 10 minutes.  Therefore, I let the evening batch rest 45 minutes total, to get the best curd set for this cheese.  The morning milk set 40 minutes.

After the designated time for setting up, I cut the curd into 1/2 in cubes and let them rest 10 minutes.

The next step was to dump the curds into a cheesecloth to drain.  The evening bit drained for about 17 hours, and the morning curd drained for only one.

While waiting for the morning curd to finish draining, I mixed up an inoculate so the cheese grows blue mold.  I used 1 tsp of Gorgonzola cheese (the moldiest part I could find) and mixed that thoroughly with 1/4 cup of cool water.

Finally I was able to cut up the two batches of curd and mix salt and the blue cheese slurry into them.  

I put the larger bowl of curd (the morning curd) on the bottom and sides of the mold.  The smaller bowl of curd went into the center, surrounded on all sides by the newer curd.  

Now I have to flip the cheese every 15 minutes for 2 hours.  Then it goes into a cool room for 3 days.  I still have to flip it a few times each day, but not quite as often.  After that, it will go to start growing mold!