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July 15, 2005
Blue cheeses
I've never been a big fan of blue cheese. The flavor is just too powerful. I can see myself eating huge amounts of soft cheeses, nice and creamy, mhm... Yet, for this cheese-exploring endeavor, I've been eating blue cheese. Americans eat blue cheese in a kind of heathan fashion: in salads or as dipping sauce for chicken wings. Terrifying! The French eat it as a dessert cheese and I think that's an appropriate way to eat blue cheese. It is very strong and very powerful - you can't really eat too much of it and the edge is easily taken off by eating blue cheese with fresh fruit, like apples or grapes.
To make blue cheese blue, you have to add the mold to it. This, at least in the case of Roquefort, is accomplished by adding Pennicillium Roqueforti mold. It is added to the cheese curds contained in powdered bread. Then there's the process of aging the cheese, usually in caves. To make the blue part permeate throughout the whole mass of cheese, some flipping of the cheese is required. Since blue cheese is crumbly, this requires a careful approach.
The result is a very sharp cheese with a very specific, almost overpowering flavor. I am learning to overcome it, but it's coming slowly. So far, I have tried French Roquefort, but I will branch out into the milder blue cheeses as well as the more full-flavored ones. Reviews coming soon.
Posted by maggie at July 15, 2005 02:01 PM