Blue Cheese

Description

There is a large variety of cheese with interior molds. They are known as blue cheese or "noble mold cheese". This term comes from the blue / green mold that is of course edible. This strain is usually the Penicillium Roqueforti, or one of its relatives. Nearly every mold needs oxygen to flourish. For that reason, it grows only in the cheese in-between curd-holes or inoculation channels, which needs to be created by special needles.

The flavor of the blue cheese depends also on the milk used. For one of the most popular Blue Cheese types, the Roquefort, raw sheep milk is processed. Nowadays, the majority of blue cheese is made from cow's milk. The wide variety of different cheese flavors could be pointed out at the example of Gorgonzola from Italy. There is a sweet (dolce) or a sharper (picante) variety. Other examples for Blue cheese are: Stilton or Danish Blue to name just a few.

During the first maturation stage, the blue mold growth. In the second stage the wholes are closed. This does not hinder the enzymes, which were previously emitted by the mold to the cheese mass, to break down the fat by lipolysis and the protein by proteolysis. A consequence is the typical soft texture and piquant, strong blue cheese flavor.