Blue cheeses
Roquefort, Stilton, Gorgonzola and Cabrales: pierced so blue-green mould can grow through the paste.
Blue cheeses are pierced so that air can reach the inside, where Penicillium roqueforti grows along the channels and through the cracks in the paste. The mould brings the blue-green veins and a sharp, peppery, sometimes sweet flavour. Roquefort, Stilton, Gorgonzola, Cabrales, Bleu d'Auvergne and Danablu are the best known, and nearly every cheese country now makes its own.
How the veins grow
Spores of Penicillium roqueforti are added to the milk or the curd. The curd is left loose and open rather than pressed hard, so there are spaces inside. After a few weeks the cheeses are pierced with steel needles, and air flows in along the holes, letting the mould bloom blue. The mould also breaks down fats into compounds that give blue cheese its sharp, spicy aroma. The cheeses then ripen in cool, damp cellars for two months or more, and some are wrapped in foil to slow the rind.
The caves of Roquefort
Roquefort, made from the raw milk of Lacaune sheep, must be ripened in the natural caves of Roquefort-sur-Soulzon in the Aveyron, where faults in the rock, called fleurines, carry cool, moist air through the cellars. A royal charter of 1411 gave the villagers the right to ripen it there, and in 1925 it became the first cheese protected by a French appellation law. The mould was traditionally grown on loaves of rye bread left in the caves until they were blue right through.
Stilton, Gorgonzola and the rest
Blue Stilton is made only in Derbyshire, Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire, and despite its name never in the village of Stilton, where it was sold to coach travellers. Gorgonzola, from Lombardy and Piedmont, comes as soft, creamy dolce and firmer, sharper piccante. Spain's Cabrales ripens in limestone caves in the Picos de Europa. Denmark's Danablu was created in the early twentieth century as an answer to Roquefort, and Fourme d'Ambert is a tall, mild blue of the Auvergne.
Worth knowing
- Roquefort: Sheep's milk blue ripened in the caves of the Aveyron
- Stilton: English blue of three Midlands counties
- Gorgonzola: Italian blue, dolce or piccante
- Cabrales: Strong cave-aged blue of Asturias
- Bleu d'Auvergne: Creamy cow's milk blue of central France
- Danablu: Danish blue, firm and salty
- Fourme d'Ambert: Tall, mild blue of the Auvergne
- Maytag Blue: Iowa blue first made in the 1940s
Good to know
- Wrap blue cheese in foil, which keeps it moist and stops the mould spreading to other cheeses.
- Dip the knife in hot water for clean slices.
- Pair with something sweet: pears, honey, figs, or Sauternes with Roquefort.
- Leftover blue melts into sauces for pasta and steak.
Sources and further reading
Original text by the EveryCheese desk, written with AI assistance and checked against the sources above. Customs are described as tradition, not as advice. If we have something wrong, tell us.
Blue on EveryCheese
The cheeses written up so far, best known first.
Photo credits on this page
The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.
- Cabrales: PDPhoto.org, Public domain, source