Blue cheese is a family of cheeses with blue or green mould running through the paste.
Choose by texture as well as flavour: a creamy blue is useful for spreading or stirring into sauce, while a firmer wedge gives you distinct crumbles for a salad.
There is no single strength, milk type or storage life for the whole family. A named cheese and its current label tell you more than the word blue alone.
In This Article
Which Style of Blue Cheese Should You Buy?
If you prefer a gentler blue flavour, Gorgonzola Dolce is a useful starting point. Its consortium describes a soft, creamy paste, while Gorgonzola Piccante is firmer, more crumbly and stronger in flavour.
Stilton offers another option for crumbling, but a crumbly cut can still feel creamy as you eat it.
The maker's description and a counter sample can help you choose a particular wedge.
| What you want | A useful starting point | What to check |
|---|---|---|
| A soft cheese to spread or stir into sauce | Gorgonzola Dolce | The Dolce name, since Piccante has a different texture |
| Distinct crumbles on a salad | Blue Stilton or Gorgonzola Piccante | A cut that breaks into pieces rather than smearing |
| A sheep's-milk blue | Roquefort | The protected name and the flavour of the particular cut |
Roquefort's protected identity specifies raw sheep's milk. Gorgonzola uses pasteurized cow's milk, so those two examples alone show why you cannot infer milk treatment from blue veining.
Ask about rennet if you are buying for a vegetarian. For example, the Neal's Yard version of Colston Bassett Stilton with animal rennet uses animal rennet, and the name blue cheese does not settle that question.
Why Does Blue Cheese Have Blue Veins?
Selected mould cultures are introduced during cheesemaking, and piercing can admit the air needed for blue mould to develop inside the wheel. Neal's Yard describes that process for its Stilton, including how the timing affects the balance between the paste and the blue mould.
Those intended veins are part of the cheese. They do not mean that any new mould growing on a stored piece is harmless, or that the cheese can be kept indefinitely.
Likewise, the amount of visible blue is not a complete strength scale.
Taste a sample when available rather than choosing solely by the darkest cut face.
How Do You Use Blue Cheese Without Overwhelming a Dish?
Begin with a small amount, mix or scatter it through the dish, then taste before adding more. A creamy dressing spreads its flavour across every bite, while larger crumbles leave some bites without cheese.
For a sauce, break the cheese into small pieces and stir them into warm liquid gradually. Reduce the heat once they melt, since a blue cheese can release oil just as other cheeses can.
Stilton can be used in cooking as well as on a board. It is not limited to cold crumbles, and a soft blue is not automatically the best choice for every hot dish.
For a plate, try pear or a little honey beside the cheese, with walnuts or bread for a different texture.
Sweet accompaniments change the balance of a bite but do not remove sodium from the cheese.
If you need to replace it, choose for the recipe: feta gives salty crumbles without blue aroma, but it will not reproduce a creamy blue sauce. These blue-cheese substitutes by use separate those choices.
How Should You Read Blue Cheese Nutrition Labels?
USDA FoodData Central record 172175, Cheese, blue, is a generic SR Legacy record. It is a comparison reference, not the nutrition label for every Stilton, Roquefort or Gorgonzola.
| Nutrient | Per 100 g | Per 28 g |
|---|---|---|
| Energy | 353 kcal | 99 kcal |
| Protein | 21.4 g | 6.0 g |
| Total fat | 28.7 g | 8.0 g |
| Carbohydrate | 2.34 g | 0.7 g |
| Calcium | 528 mg | 148 mg |
| Sodium | 1,150 mg | 322 mg |
The serving column multiplies the 100 g figures by 0.28 and rounds the result. A full ounce weighs about 28.35 g, so a per-ounce table can show slightly different numbers.
Use your package's label when tracking sodium or other nutrients.
Small portions reduce the amount you eat, but strong flavour does not make the sodium irrelevant.
How Do You Store Blue Cheese and Handle New Mould?
Keep blue cheese refrigerated in its recommended wrapping or a covered container, and follow the package's after-opening instructions.
A container also helps keep its aroma away from other foods.
Do not give every blue the same number of weeks in the fridge. A soft, moist cheese and a firm wedge can have different handling instructions, and their dates also depend on when they were cut or opened.
USDA distinguishes mould used to make cheese from mould that was not part of production. Discard soft blue cheese such as Gorgonzola if it develops mould that does not belong to the cheesemaking process, and discard mouldy shredded, sliced or crumbled cheese.
For a hard blue such as Stilton with unexpected surface mould, USDA advises cutting at least one inch around and below the affected area, keeping the knife clear of the mould. If you cannot identify the cheese or distinguish the growth, ask the seller rather than simply scraping the surface.
Proper cheese storage depends on both refrigeration temperature and how long the cheese stays out.
Smell alone cannot establish that a cheese is safe.
Can You Eat Blue Cheese During Pregnancy?
In the US, CDC lists soft cheese made from unpasteurized (raw) milk, including blue-veined cheese, and dairy products made from raw milk among riskier choices. It lists pasteurized soft cheeses heated to an internal temperature of 165 F or until steaming hot as safer choices.
It also lists unheated cheese sliced at a deli as riskier and deli-sliced cheeses heated to 165 F or until steaming hot as safer. Served cold, a pasteurized blue cheese, soft and creamy or firm and crumbly, is a type the CDC list does not cover, so ask a midwife or doctor.
In the UK, NHS says pasteurised or unpasteurised soft blue-veined cheeses, such as Danish blue, Gorgonzola and Roquefort, must be thoroughly cooked, and that is the line to follow for a firm, crumbly blue as well. It also lists any cheese cooked until steaming hot, including soft or blue cheese, as safe to eat.
Health Canada advises avoiding all blue-veined cheeses during pregnancy, including pasteurized ones. Follow your country's advice rather than applying one retailer's suitability badge to the entire category.
