Blue
The most polarizing style on any board — built by a mold that’s deliberately mixed into the curd itself, not just grown on the surface.
How blue cheese gets its veins
Penicillium roqueforti is mixed directly into the curd — not applied to the surface like a bloomy rind — and the cheese is often needled with thin skewers to let air reach the mold pockets, letting the blue-green veining develop internally as it ages.
Three classics, three milks
Roquefort
- French, sheep milk
- AOC-protected: must be aged in the natural caves of Roquefort-sur-Soulzon
- Sharp, salty, distinctly piquant
Stilton
- English, cow milk
- A protected name, similarly tied to specific counties
- Creamy with a firm, crumbly structure
Gorgonzola (Italian, cow milk) rounds out the trio — often milder and creamier in its "dolce" form, firmer and sharper in "piccante."
Sweet wine (Sauternes, Port) or a drizzle of honey is the most bulletproof pairing in the entire course — sweetness balances blue cheese’s salt and piquancy the way almost nothing else can. When in doubt with blue, reach for sweet.
Questions
Flashcards
Lock it in
From memory:
- How is Penicillium roqueforti introduced, and why is the cheese needled?
- What milk is Roquefort made from, and what does its AOC require?
- Name a milk-based difference between Roquefort and Stilton.
- What is the single most reliable pairing for blue cheese?
- How would you describe blue cheese’s flavor profile in one sentence?
Curd to wheel
The hands-on production arc: cutting, cooking, molding, pressing, and salting — the physical decisions that turn a soft curd into a shaped, aging-ready cheese.
From curd to shaped cheese
Once curd has formed (Session 6), a sequence of physical decisions determines texture and aging potential:
Cutting
Curd is cut into pieces — the smaller the pieces, the more surface area, the more whey drains out, and the drier and firmer the eventual cheese.
Cooking
Some styles gently heat the curd further, driving out even more moisture (this is what makes alpine cheeses firm enough to age for years).
Molding
Curd goes into a mold that shapes the final wheel and continues gentle drainage.
Pressing
Weight is applied — light for semi-soft styles, heavy for dense hard cheeses — expelling more whey.
Salting
By brine bath, dry rub, or salt mixed directly into curd before molding — controlling moisture, flavor, and which microbes can grow next.
Cut size, cooking, and pressing together are the single biggest predictor of where a cheese lands on the moisture axis from Session 4. A cheesemaker deciding to age a wheel for two years starts making that decision here, at the cutting board — not later in the cave.
Questions
Flashcards
Lock it in
From memory:
- How does curd-cutting size affect the final cheese?
- What does cooking the curd accomplish?
- Name the three salting methods.
- What two purposes does salt serve, beyond flavor?
- Why does the moisture decision start at cutting, not aging?
Affinage
& faults
The cave is where the real transformation happens. Knowing what good aging looks like — and what a fault looks like — is half the skill of judging a cheese.
What affinage actually controls
Affinage — temperature, humidity, turning, and rind care during aging — is where a cheesemaker’s early decisions (Sessions 6, 7, 14) either pay off or go wrong. A skilled affineur can improve a mediocre young cheese; a careless one can ruin a beautifully made one.
The fault library
Click through the common failure modes:
Just as fermentation faults in cacao (under- vs over-fermented) explain most "bad chocolate" complaints, affinage faults explain most "bad cheese" experiences — a genuinely well-made cheese, stored and aged properly, rarely disappoints.
Questions
Flashcards
Lock it in
From memory:
- What does affinage cover, beyond just "waiting"?
- What does a strong ammonia smell on a bloomy rind indicate?
- What does a bulging rind with a chalky core indicate?
- Name two causes of bitterness in aged cheese.
- How does unwanted rind mold differ from cultivated rind mold?