Blue Cheese

Blue cheese is any cheese made with cultures of edible mold that create blue-green veins or spots through the cheese, ranging in flavor from mild to strong and slightly sweet to salty or sharp, in color from pale to dark, and in texture from liquid to hard. It is made by pasteurizing milk, adding bacterial cultures such as Streptococcus lactis to convert lactose to lactic acid and solidify the milk, then adding rennet to coagulate the curds; Penicillium roqueforti spores and Brevibacterium linens bacteria are then introduced, and the cheese ages 60 to 90 days at about 8 to 10 degrees Celsius and 85 to 95 percent humidity, with the curds pierced to let air in so the mold develops the characteristic veins and flavor compounds called methyl ketones. Three blue cheeses hold protected designation of origin status: Gorgonzola, an Italian uncooked whole milk cheese inoculated with Penicillium glaucum; Stilton, an English cheese made from pasteurized milk; and Roquefort, a French cheese made from unpasteurized sheep's milk aged in natural caves.