'Tis or 'Tisn't Blue Cheese Hard to Make?

And now, for an exciting educational game of Tis, or ‘Tisn’t, where you learn something about cheesemaking and guess whether it Tis or ‘Tisn’t an easy thing! Hosted by….. cheesemaker Joe Howansky!!

Something that makes cheesemaking interesting and continually engaging is that different types of cheeses are made very differently, so something that is necessary for making one particular style of cheese would render another style of cheese pig food. Here's an example:

We make four types of cheese at von Trapp including Mad River Blue. Blue cheese can be very tricky even for experienced cheesemakers because you have to do so many things that are "wrong" from the point of view of other cheeses. One of which is making a skin on the curd. Normally this is very bad. But in blue it's essential for the curds to not knit so they form a matrix of openings. This is where the blue mold grows as it ripens the cheese.

The best way to do this is by agitating the curds just so. You have to homogeneously stir the whole vat extremely gently so as to not damage the structure of the curd, but yet you need to increase your rate of agitation as fast as you can in order to create a differential level of stress on the outsides of them, making a leathery skin. It's kind of like a Johnny Cash song - he gets right to the point, but never hurries. Sounds easy, right? Well....is it?

‘TISN’T!