Blue
Blue cheeses have long been given a bad rap. When sitting next to an unassuming wedge of cheddar, a pungent, blue-green-gray-ish cheese tends to lose any appeal with less-adventurous cheese fans. But blue cheeses can offer up wonderfully complex, approachable, and more importantly, non-foot-like flavor profiles.
Roquefort and gorgonzola—classic French and Italian blues, respectively—were likely created around 1000 A.D. Some shepherd supposedly left her lunch of cheese and bread in a dark, damp place to keep it out of the sun and forgot about it. A few weeks later she stumbled on some funky looking stuff and voilà—blue cheese was born.
The process of making blue cheese is a little more controlled today. Artisan cheesemakers strategically inject cultures of blue mold into their cheeses during the aging process. The two most common strains of blue mold are penicillium glaucum and penicillium roqueforti. Aside from adding the blue-green color to cheese, these mold strains break down milk fat in a way that gives blue cheese its sharp, pungent flavors and aromas. That said, penicillium roqueforti, typically used in (suprise) roquefort production packs a pretty serious kick, while penicillium glaucum (used to make gorgonzola) is often perceived to produce milder flavors.
The Kehler brothers of Jasper Hill Farm (Greensboro, Vt.) make a few amazing blue cheeses, but their Bayley Hazen Blue has become one of the most recognizable domestic blues available today. If Mike and Carol Gingrich are the paternal faces of the artisan cheese world, Andy and Mateo Kehler represent a hip, young generation of cheese.
Bayley Hazen is made from raw cow’s milk, and penicillium roqueforti is introduced to the cheese while it ages in the Jasper Hill Farm caves for four to six months. What makes this cheese so wonderful is the breed of cow that the Kehlers raise. Ayrshire cows, one of hundreds of breeds, produce milk with smaller fat globules that are more easily broken down by blue mold during the aging process.
Once properly aged, Bayley Hazen becomes a dry, crumbly blue cheese, with the texture of chocolate or cold butter. The piquant flavors associated with penicillium roqueforti are there, but more prominent notes of nuts, sweet cream, grass and occasionally anise are on display as well. Once fearful experimenters get over the sight of blue veins and craters, this cheese will likely become a gateway blue—leading to further experimentation with even more pungent examples of this misunderstood style.
Try it with: Blue cheeses need wines, ports, and beers with big, bold flavors that can stand up to the piquant notes of the cheese. Enjoy this cheese in moderation with a nice port (1999 vintage from the Glunz Family Winery & Cellars, for example). Or pour an aged barley wine (Brooklyn Monster or Three Floyds Behemoth) into a snifter and let the notes of sherry play with the cheese’s nutty flavors.
