Blue cheese may be made from raw, heated or pasteurized whole milk or from skim.
The earliest makers of blue cheese used bread to begin production of the distinctive mold and then waited patiently for the veins of mold to grow and spread naturally between the curds.
Consumers need to ask for a taste before buying moldy chees. A good always is flavorful but never is sour or harsh.
Penicillium roquefortii is primarily responsible for ripening blue cheese. Proteolytic enzymes from the mold act to soften the curd and thus to produce the desired body in the cheese.
This cheese is a heterogeneous microenvironment comprising different habitats for microorganisms in the core with its fissures and piercing channels and on the surfaces of the cheese.
Most blue cheese are pierced at specific times during aging to allow the molds access to more oxygen once they have used up the supply inside the cheese.
A complex microflora develops ripening and adapts to the pronounce pH and NaCl gradients and the large variation in content of O2 and CO2.
The best known varieties today, worldwide are considered to be Gorgonzola, Roquefort, Stilton and Danablu, all which have been granted the status of Protected Designation of Origin.
Roquefort is the original blue cheese. The designation ‘Roquefort’ is applicable only to cheeses made from ewe’s milk in the area of France.
Gorgonzola is the principal blue mold cheese of Italy where it is claimed to have been made in the Po Valley since 879 AD.
What is so special about blue cheese?
