5 surprising facts about blue cheese
Blue cheeses: if you’re sensitive to strong smells, these first two words may already have driven you away. But of course, there are plenty of enthusiasts too, and they are very vocal about their love for these stinkers! We’re big fans as well, so we’ve put together these surprising facts for you:
The varieties are endless, and virtually every Western European country has its own traditional blue cheese. The Netherlands makes excellent blue cheese too! Fortunately, all that European enthusiasm means there’s plenty of choice at the supermarket or your favorite cheesemonger, along with lots of delicious combinations, such as with pear or nuts, quince jelly, fig bread and so on! Did you know this?
I’ll have a cheese pill
No, that won’t work if you’re ill, but it is a fact that the blue mold Penicillium roqueforti in blue cheeses is a distant relative of the Penicillium mold that formed the basis for antibiotics. It also gives the veins in the cheese that distinctive blue color.
Needlework
In many cheeses, those veins are given a helping hand by poking air holes into the cheese. The oxygen that gets in this way allows the mold to develop. In the past, these holes were made with wooden or bone pins; today, long stainless-steel or copper needles are used, often by machine.
Zola
Not only the surname of Émile, the highly prolific French writer who lived in the nineteenth century, or the first name of Eddie Murphy’s daughter. It’s also the nickname for gorgonzola, one of the most popular blue cheeses in the world, with annual sales of around four million from the Italian town of—yes—Gorgonzola.
Let’s pair
Blue cheeses, intense as they can be, work well with wines that lean sweet or are distinctly sweet, such as dessert wines. Port with cheese after dinner is an obvious choice, as is a creamy Sauternes, but a sweet sparkling wine can also be surprisingly delicious. So if you come home with a demi-sec bubbly because you didn’t read the label properly (it happens to the best of us), you’ll know what to do next time. Head to the cheesemonger; problem solved.
Crazy Henk Karel
King Charles VI of France, who deteriorated mentally to such an extent that his nickname became ‘the Madman’ (and not in a good way, but genuinely insane), must surely have done at least one good thing. He was the first to award an AOC (Appellation d’Origine Contrôlée) in 1411, to the area containing the caves where Roquefort had been made for centuries near the village of Roquefort-sur-Soulzon. This designation has since become highly valuable in protecting all kinds of products that may officially bear their name only when produced in a specific region.
Also read:
- Parmesan or Grana Padano; these are the differences
- How do you build the perfect cheeseboard?
- Freezing cheese? You can, but remember these tips
