I have always loved cheese. The stinkier the better. I have a fascination with blue cheese because it is so beautiful. The patterns and designs in the cheese make it a work of art. The prevailing legend of blue cheese's discovery revolves around a happy accident. The story goes that, over a millennium ago, in the Roquefort region of southern France, a shepherd settled down in a cave for a tasty picnic lunch of rye bread and sheep's milk cheese while tending to his flock. However, prior to him taking a bite, the sheep got spooked and took off. He went after them, leaving his lunch behind. Months later, he passed by the cave and found his former lunch undisturbed ... other than by a thick layer of mold that had formed on top. Despite finding blue flecks of mold covering his cheese, he hesitantly took a bite, and to his astonishment, his moldy cheese tasted even more delicious than before. Weather or not this legend is true, someone somewhere at some point in time decided to eat a moldy piece of cheese - and our palates are thankful for their risk-taking taste buds!
Few flavors are as distinctive as that of blue cheese. You could attempt to describe it as spicy, savory, or punchy, but it may be most accurate to opt simply for “blue.” Inarguably, it’s obviously the mold that makes blue cheese so unique.
Roquefort, a French blue cheese made from sheep's milk and aged in limestone caves, is widely considered the original blue cheese. The caves' unique environment fosters the growth of Penicillium roqueforti, the mold responsible for the cheese's distinctive blue veins and flavor. Some cheese makers around the world still produce blue cheese the authentic way - by simply aging cheese in caves where the mold grows naturally.
However, it didn’t take long for the majority of the world to take a more modern approach to producing moldy blue cheese. In today's era, the mold is added to the cheese, instead of letting it grow naturally.
Cheese can become blue intentionally or accidentally. When producing Stilton, for example, cheesemakers pierce the cheese, allowing oxygen to activate the Penicillium roqueforti that has been added to the milk. But the maturation process can introduce bluing in cheeses like Cheddar, Cheshire, Lancashire, and Wensleydale, too.
How is blue cheese made?
To become blue, cheese requires the presence of blue mold and exposure to air. Take Stilton, for example. It’s inoculated with Penicillium [roqueforti] in the vat and then it is pierced to let the air in and that’s what makes it go blue.
The blue mold cultures added to the milk during the cheesemaking process remain dormant until the cheese is pierced. Piercing is a process where long, thin metal needles are inserted into the cheese. Once exposed to the air, the mold inside the cheese becomes active. The outcome is blue streaks in between the open textured curd which matures the cheese from the inside out; turning a young, acidic, dry cheese into a softer, mellow, more broken-down cheese as it ages.
When and how much you pierce a cheese will alter its taste and appearance. When piercing a Stilton cheese, most producers wait until the cheese is at least four weeks old. Any earlier and the cheese will be too fragile to withstand the physical nature of the process — not to mention bland. Commercial Stilton producers often pierce cheeses up to three times during the cheeses fourth and fifth weeks, which encourages a quick and heavy bluing. This allows the cheeses to be sold quickly, delivering a speedier return on the milk and increasing the volume of cheese produced in a year. In consequence, the blue taste is prevalent, and customers will taste a bright, acidic cheese with a dominant blue flavor.
Some cheesemakers prioritize taste over expediency by allowing the cheeses to mature over six to seven weeks developing their own flavor characteristics before piercing. Less piercing reduces the number of holes in the rind of the wheels and reduces bluing. All of these considerations result in a cheese with the blue flavor in the background, rather than dominating the palate.
Bluing isn't just for blue cheese, however. Occasionally you will find blue streaks shooting through typically non-blue cheeses, like Montgomery’s Cheddar or Appleby’s Cheshire. These accidentally blue cheeses are completely natural and edible. They're simply the result of air inadvertently reaching the interior of the cheese and making contact with mold spores naturally present there.
How? No one knows for certain. The simplest explanation is that wheels of hard cheese are turned frequently throughout their maturation. If in the course of flipping a wheel of cheese it is bumped on a shelf, that can introduce microscopic fissures – and potentially, eventually, bluing. The green mold which happily lives in the air of humid, dark environments like a cheese cave, gets into the interior of the cheese and proliferates.
This happens more often to cheeses with a slightly brittle, crumbly texture. British territorials like Cheshire, Wensleydale, Lancashire, and Cheddars are particularly prone to bluing.
Accidental mold in cheeses can be delicious and is sometimes sought after by customers. Rarities like bluing in non-blue cheeses is one of the things that make handmade cheese so special. Each batch, and even each wheel, will be unique. Some cheeses will differ so much through accidental bluing that they become entirely different cheeses.
Is Blue Cheese dangerous?
It is perfectly safe to eat. The mold that grows as the cheese matures, Penicillium roqueforti, is from the same family that the antibiotic Penicillin is made from.
Unlike other molds, this variety does not produce toxins, and is perfectly safe for people to consume.
Whether naturally or through injection, when these safe Penicillin varieties come in contact with cheese, enzymes are produced that break down the protein in the cheese. This helps give the cheese its creamy texture.
Some Blue Cheeses Worth a Taste at Your Local Cheese Shop
Gorgonzola is one of the oldest known blue cheeses, having been created around AD 879, though it is said that it did not contain blue veins until around the 11th century. Gorgonzola blue cheese takes its name from the village of Gorgonzola in Italy where it was first made. Belonging to the family of Stracchino cheeses, Gorgonzola is a whole milk, white, and "uncooked" cheese.
Stilton is a relatively new addition, becoming popular sometime in the early 1700s. Stilton blue cheese was first sold in the village of Stilton in England.
Cambozola has been sold on the global market by the German company Hofmeister-Champignon since 1983. In English-speaking countries, Cambozola is often marketed as blue brie. It is made from a combination of Penicillium camemberti (Penicillium camemberti is a species of fungus in the genus Penicillium. It is used in the production of Camembert, Brie, Langres, Coulommiers, and Cambozola cheeses, on which colonies of P. camemberti form a hard, white crust. It is responsible for giving these cheeses their distinctive flavors. When making soft cheese that involves Penicillium camemberti, the mold may be mixed into the ingredients before being placed in the molds, or it may be added to the outside of the cheese after it is removed from the cheese molds. Penicillium camemberti, is responsible for the soft, buttery texture of Brie and Camembert) and the same blue Penicillium roqueforti mold used to make Gorgonzola, Roquefort, and Stilton. Extra cream is added to the milk, giving Cambozola a rich consistency characteristic of triple crèmes, while the edible bloomy rind is similar to that of Camembert. The cheese's name is a combination of the names Camembert and Gorgonzola. It also refers to Cambodunum, the Roman name of Kempten, the city where Champignon is located.
A personal favorite of mine, Point Reyes Original Blue, has been produced on a family farm just outside of San Francisco since 2000. The cheese’s creamy-crumbly texture and tangy lactic flavors are punctuated by a piquant peppery finish. This California classic style blue cheese is rindless, all-natural and gluten-free.
Take a chance on a blue cheese and let me know your favorites! Bon Appétit
Great article. Very interesting history that I was unaware of before. I am suddenly craving blue cheese!