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You are here: Home / Odds / Why Is Blue Cheese Blue?

Why Is Blue Cheese Blue?

June 26, 2020 by Karen Hill

Sometimes food that’s been in your refrigerator for a long time may become covered with a colored fuzzy substance.

This fuzzy stuff is actually made up of tiny fungi called molds, which grow on most foods. Certain types of molds are also responsible for the blue parts of the cheese we call blue cheese.

Blue cheese makers let certain types of mold grow through the cheese as it ripens. These molds help to cure the cheese, and give it its tangy taste. Some molds leave green veins in cheese instead of blue veins, but all cheeses of this type are called blue- vein, mold-ripened cheese.

One of the most popular of these cheeses is called Roquefort. According to a legend, this cheese had its beginnings when a boy left a lunch of rye bread and sheep’s milk cheese in a cave in France.

When he found the food later, he noticed that the cheese had become streaked with blue veins. We know now that the cheese became blue because it was ripened by molds that grow on rye breadcrumbs.

Today, all real Roquefort cheese is ripened in caves near Roquefort, France.

All Roquefort cheese is made not from cow’s milk, but from the milk of sheep!

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  • What is the Difference between Processed Cheese and Real Cheese and How is Artificial Cheese Made?
  • Where did Cream Cheese and Cottage Cheese come from and How are they made?
  • What is the Difference between Whole Milk, Skim Milk, 2 Percent Milk, and 1 Percent Milk?
  • How Is Scandinavian Blue Cheese Toxic In Large Quantities and Is Mold On Cheese Poisonous?
  • What does the percentage sign on the label of a Brie cheese mean?

Filed Under: Odds

About Karen Hill

Karen Hill is a freelance writer, editor, and columnist. Born in New York, her work has appeared in the Examiner, Yahoo News, Buzzfeed, among others.

Previous Post: « Where Was the Tomato Once Considered Poisonous?
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