Apple #591: Bleu Cheese

Continuing my blue series, I thought today I would unearth the mysteries of bleu cheese.  Mainly because it's so delicious.  And it's bleu.  Or blue.


Bleu cheese crumbles. Always tasty on salads or on a burger. Yum.
(Photo from The Kitchen Sink)

• Some people call it bleu cheese, others spell it blue.  I'm going to go with the original bleu spelling since the cheese originally comes from France.  

• But I admit, if we were going to go fully Francophone with the name, we'd call it bleu fromage or better yet, le fromage bleu. But since we English speakers are a mash-up culture, we call it bleu cheese.

• You may have noticed that I said le fromage bleu originates in France. What's the story there, you ask. Well. There are many legends and versions of legends about how the first bleu cheese was made. I will distill them into one legend for you:

• Once upon a time long long ago, a beautiful young shepherdess was out tending her sheep. Nearby, there was also a strapping young shepherd tending his sheep.

• These sheep-tenders were not just wandering around any old place.  They were out among the hills and gorges of the Roquefort region in France.

In cheese terms, this map shows Roquefort's location.
(Map from La Logia del Vino)


Here's France again, this time in political geography terms. The red circle indicates the land of Roquefort.
(Map from Off-at-a-Tangent)

• Now, when the young lad, standing on the Combalou plateau, spied the comely lass across the way, he happened to be eating his lunch. Love even at that distance made him set aside his lunch, which was a humble meal of ewe's milk curds on rye.

• He wasn't so smitten that he lost his head completely, though. Caves dotted the Roquefort region, and many shepherds and shepherdesses and all sorts of people used the limestone caves as we might use a refrigerator today.  So first he nestled  his curds and crust in a nearby cave, and then he went off to woo.

• But by the time he got down off his plateau and over to the hill where he'd seen her, she and her sheep were gone. Days and days he searched, to no avail. What happened to his sheep, I don't know, but when he finally went back to get his lunch, it was nicely chilled, but oh dear, both the bread and the curds were ribboned with mold.

• But he was so hungry after his failed venture, he ate the curds anyway. Much to his surprise and delight, the curds were delicious!  They had become cheese!  And not just any cheese -- Roquefort!

• (I should point out that some versions of the story have it that the shepherdess spies the shepherd and searches for him in vain, returning to find Roquefort. So you may choose whichever gender you like as the failed searcher/inventor. I went with the shepherd because that's the way the Roquefort people tell it.)

• So Roquefort was the first bleu cheese.  Yes, it's true that, even though our American restaurant menus list the singular "bleu cheese," there are in fact many, many kinds of bleu cheese. Roquefort is only one, albeit the first.

• And by "first," I mean it's pretty old. Based on some things that Pliny the Elder wrote down, it sounds like the French were making Roquefort sometime in the early A.D. times.  It's also said that Charlemagne was served Roquefort when he stopped by the monastery of St. Gall in 778.  So the French have been making bleu cheese for a long time.

• The particular mold responsible for this culinary wonder is Penicillium roqueforti.  Sounds like the antibiotics they give you at the doctor's office, doesn't it?  This cheese mold is a relative of that mold, but not the same thing.

• But when I say "this mold," I'm simplifying, because there are in fact over 700 different varieties of Penicillium roqueforti.  So if you picked up two blocks of Roquefort cheese made by different people, they would look and even taste slightly different.  Some Roquefort has darker blue-green spots; others have paler green streaks. Some will seem saltier or more pungent.  

• But only true Roquefort cheese is chilled and aged in the caves of the Roquefort region, all of which are owned by seven French cheese-making companies. 

• Regardless of who makes it and in which cave, all Roquefort is made with the Penicillium roqueforti, and it's almost entirely the mold which determines the flavor and texture and character of the cheese.

• The mold doesn't spread unless it comes into contact with oxygen, so it's also true that after the mold is worked into the curds at the outset, later, oxygen is injected into the cheese using sterile needles. The extra oxygen encourages the mold to spread further. You can sometimes see channels left by the needles, as well as the more random air pockets.

This is a molded cylinder of Stilton being pierced with stainless steel needles. The needles allow more air into the cheese so that the mold will "vein" even more fully. The mysterious thing is, the mold doesn't always follow the paths of the needles but instead spreads further throughout the natural fissures already present in the cheese.
(Photo from Stilton.uk)

• To find out more about how cheese is made, check out this video of the making of Stilton. Among other things, you'll see the difference between curds and whey.

• What about all those other bleu cheeses besides Roquefort, you ask?  Well, they are legion.  Allow me to give you a quick overview of some of the leading lights in the bunch. For comparison's sake, I'll include Roquefort in the quick tour:

• Roquefort
• made in France
• sheep's milk
• Penicillium roqueforti

Roquefort has a mottled, almost spotted appearance.

(Photo from HESO Magazine)

Bleu d'Avergne

• made in France
• cow's milk
• Penicillium roqueforti
• some say it's the cow's milk that makes this creamier than Roquefort
• goes well with salad dressings, nuts, and apples 

Bleu d'Avergne. People say that it's creamier than Roquefort, and that it has a slightly spicy taste to it, with notes of grass and wildflowers. Must be some cheese.
(Photo from Brad Gates Catering)
 

• Gorgonzola
• made in Italy
• cow's or goat's milk
• Penicillium roqueforti or Penicillium glaucum
• served drizzled with honey and eaten with bread and pears

Gorgonzolas are typically aged only 90 days, but this Gorgonzola has been aged 130 days, which gives it an even deeper, richer, more intense flavor. You can see how the veining follows where the needles pierced the cheese, but mainly spread through the natural air pockets in the cheese.
(Photo from ForeverCheese)

• Stilton
• made in England 
• (specifically in Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire; was never actually made in Stilton)
• cow's milk
• Penicillium roqueforti
• milder than Roquefort, but when young at only 9 weeks its flavor will still be a bit sharp; add 6 weeks for a more buttery flavor 

A close-up of Stilton. You can see the grainy rind and its crumbly texture. It's never pressed, so the curds pack themselves together with the aid of gravity, and that's it. Stilton is referred to as the "King's cheese," and the Stilton people were very careful to talk about how their cheeses are graded and the better cheeses are reserved for "certain customers." The English class system is still at work, even in their cheese.
(Photo from Hamperz)

• Cabrales
• made in Spain
• (specifically from Cabrales and three villages of the Concejo de Peñamellera Alta, which are in the north of Spain, just east of Oviedo where Fernando Alonso is from. Aged in the caves of the Picos de Europa.)
• raw or unpasteurized milk, mainly cow's, but goat's and ewe's milks are used in summer
• Penicillium roqueforti
• unlike other bleu cheeses, ripens from the outside in
• especially tasty with salami or figs and a full-bodied red wine, such as Pedro Ximinez

Cabrales cheese has way more of the blue stuff, and it's like speckles throughout the cheese.
(Photo from Cellar Tours Blog)

• Cashel Blue
• made in Ireland
• also made in New Jersey, after the Irish cheesemaker emigrated
• pasteurized cow's milk
• Penicillium roqueforti
• uses vegetable rennet, so it's vegetarian-friendly
• creamy, crumbly, a bit tame when young; when aged longer it softens but also develops a salty grit and a stronger flavor

Cashel blue is one of the milder of the European blue cheeses. The blue is paler than others and the cheese itself looks lighter and creamier.
(Photo from Brad Gates Catering)

• Danablu or Danish Blue
• originally made in Denmark but now produced worldwide
• cow's milk
• Penicillium roqueforti
• developed as a less expensive alternative to Roquefort, became popular in England after WWII
• milder than Roquefort, surprisingly easy to slice. Best-selling blue cheese in North America.

 

Danablu or Danish Blue. I would guess, just by looking at it, how there isn't as much blue as in some other cheeses, that this cheese would be relatively mild. If you like blue cheese but you don't like it very strong, this is probably a good choice.

(Photo from Gourmet-Food)

• Bleu Bénédictin or Benedictine Blue
• made in Canada
• invented in 2000
• cow's milk
• Penicillium roqueforti
• crumbly, semi-soft, well-rounded flavor, mushroomy essence

St. Benedict taught that one should live by the work of one's hands. The Benedictine  monastery in Canada decided that the work of their hands would be this cheese.

(Photo from the Canada Cheese Man)

• Maytag blue
• Developed at Iowa State University in 1941
• originally used the milk prize Holsteins owned by Fred Maytag II -- yes, of the Maytag dishwasher company
• unpasteurized cow's milk
• Penicillium roqueforti
• aged in caves on the Maytag Dairy Farm in Iowa
• has a tangy, almost peppery flavor

Maytag Blue looks paler and more creamy than other blues, and a little light on the blue too.
(Photo from Gourmet Sleuth)


While I've listed a lot of cheese here, there are way more kinds of bleu or blue cheese yet.  Go to your local cheese shop and ask if they'll let you taste a few.  You'll be surprised by the variety of flavors and textures, even though they're all blue. Or bleu.

In the meantime, I think I'm going to go into the kitchen and have a spot of cheese.


Sources
igroument.com, About Bleu Cheese
The Straight Dope, What makes blue cheese blue?
France Today, The Secrets of Roquefort, February 28, 2012
Food Reference.com, Blue Cheese of Bleu Cheese
The Cook's Thesaurus, Blue Cheeses
Cheese-France, Bleu d'Avergne
Ile de France, Bleu d'Avergne
The Wise Geek, What is Stilton Cheese?, What is Cabrales Cheese?
Cheese from Spain, Cabrales
Entree Dallas, Cheese 101: Gorgonzola
Diffen, Bleu Cheese vs Gorgonzola {this is kind of a brilliant site, by the way; Wikipedia-like comparisons of all sorts of similar things)
The Functioning Cheese Addict, Cashel Blue, The Dropkick Murphys of Bue Cheese
My Blog of Cheese, Cheese 109--Danish Blue Cheese AKA Danablu-Costello Rosenborg
The Canada Cheese Man, Blue Benedictin - Made in Quebec Canada by Monks
Gourmet Sleuth, Maytag bluee cheese
igourmet.com, About Maytag Blue Cheese