Bleu

33140 Views 10/03/2023 0 comments Posted By: Emmanuel Poulet-Harmel In: Blog of gourmets

Flowered cheese is the poetic name for these more or less strong blue-veined cheeses commonly called "blue".

Like marble, the bluish, sometimes green veins of these cheeses color their clear paste, bringing aromas that go perfectly with sweet white wines.

Very often from cow, they are also made from sheep's milk and more rarely from goat's milk.

The mushroom that makes all the difference

Unlike other cheeses, the mold in blue-veined cheeses develops inside the blue cheeses.

Generally during coagulation, the cheeses are seeded with a microscopic fungus, the Penicillium, from the penicillin family, which has made medical treatments evolve so much.

Without blue dot ventilation

Oxygen is essential for blue stain. This is why these cheeses are matured in ventilated cellars.

The cheeses are seeded with large needles thus making the holes necessary for the perfect oxygenation of the pasta. Blue-veined cheeses are thus refined from the inside out.

The only blue not to be seeded is the Termignon blue. The cows at the origin of Termignon blue cheese feed on plants on which there are molds. These pass into the milk and then into the cheese. The pricking technique is still used to promote their proliferation.

Appellations of Origin

Only 7 of our French blues benefit from AOP/AOC and are divided into two categories.

- Strong blues: Roquefort and Bleu des Causses

- Soft blues: Bleu des Causses, Bleu de Gex, Bleu du Vercors Sassenage, Fourme d'Ambert and Fourme de Montbrison.

- In France -

• Based on cow's milk

Bleu d'Auvergne is produced in Auvergne but also in the Pyrenees, Limousin and Languedoc.

Bleu de Bonneval produced in Savoie

Bleu des Causses produced in Aveyron and Lozère

Bleu de Gex produced in Ain and Jura

Bleu de Laqueuille produced in Puy-de-Dôme

Bleu de Termignon produced in Savoie

Bleu du Vercors Sassenage produced in Drôme and Isère

Fourme d'Ambert produced in Auvergne

The Fourme de Montbrison produced in the Loire and the Puy-de-Dôme

Country cheese produced in Cantal

Bleu de Queyras produced in the Hautes-Alpes

• Made from goat's milk

Persillé des Aravis produced in Savoie

• Based on sheep's milk

Roquefort produced in Aveyron

The Tignard produced in Savoie is made from mixed milk (cow, goat and sheep)

Other commercial brand blues exist such as Bresse Bleu, Carré d'Aurillac, Rochebarron or Saint-Agur.

- In Great Britain -

• Based on cow's milk

The Dorset Blue Vinney produced in England

Stilton and its unpasteurized cousin Stchelton produced in England

Shropshire Blue produced in Scotland

Cashel Blue produced in Ireland

Blengdale Blue produced in England

Buxton Blue produced in England

The Dovedale produced in England

• Based on sheep's milk

Lanark Blue produced in Scotland

- In Italy -

Gorgonzola produced from cow's milk

Blu di Bufala produced from buffalo milk

Castelmagno produced from cow's milk to which is added goat's or sheep's milk

- In Spain -

Picon de Valdeon produced from cow goat's milk or both

The Cabrales produced from cow goat and sheep milk

The Picon Bejes Tresviso produced from cow goat and sheep milk

Gamonedo is a product made from cow's, goat's and sheep's milk

La Peral goat's milk product

- In Belgium -

Bleu de Gand made from cow's milk

Château d'Arville made from cow's milk

Bleu de Franchimont Walloon cheese

Pas de Bleu made from cow's milk produced in Flanders

Bleu d'Achel made from cow's milk

But also the Bleu des moines de Val Dieu, the Bleu de Lignette, the Bleu d'Ath, the Bleu de brebis, the Bleu Gourmet, the Bleu d'Adèle, the Bleu de Scailton and the Bleu des Grottes.

- In Swiss -

Bleuchâtel made from cow's milk

The Belper Mürgge made from cow's milk

Blue jersey made from cow's milk

Bleu de Friborg made from cow's milk

The Grand Bleu de Grimisuat made from goat's milk

Bleu du Valais made from cow's milk

- In Germany -

Bavaria Blu made from cow's milk

Blau made from cow's milk

- In Finland-

Jalo made from cow's milk