Shropshire Blue

This cow's milk cheese was first made in the 1970s at the Castle Stuart dairy in Inverness, Scotland by Andy Williamson, a cheesemaker who had trained in the making of Stilton in Nottinghamshire. The cheese was first known as 'Inverness-shire Blue' or 'Blue Stuart', but was eventually marketed as 'Shropshire Blue', a name chosen to help increase its popularity, despite it having no link to the county of Shropshire.

An alternative claim to the first production of the cheese, from the Shropshire-based company Westry Roberts, suggests that the cheese originated in the county that it bears the name of in the 1970s; an archived article from 1977 would appear to back up this claim.

A variant, called Ludlow Blue, is now also being made in the county of Shropshire in a small artisan dairy. Ludlow Blue uses carotene as a colouring agent rather than annatto, which makes the colour more yellow.

It is a blue cheese made from pasteurised cows' milk and uses vegetable rennet. The orange colour comes from the addition of annatto, a natural food colouring. Penicillium roqueforti produces the veining.

The cheese has a deep orange-brown, natural rind and matures for a period of 10–12 weeks with a fat content of about 48%. Made in a similar way to Stilton, it is a soft cheese with a sharp, strong flavour and a slightly tangy aroma. It is slightly sour but sharper than Stilton and generally creamier.

Harrogate Blue

Harrogate Blue is matured for a minimum of 10 weeks, the optimum time for a cheese to develop a right depth of flavour and creaminess. It was launched in 2012 and has won a number of awards. It is produced by the company Shepherds Purse, which was begun by Judy Bell in the late eighties, and was the first cheese co-produced by her daughters, Katie and Caroline, after taking over the running of the speciality cheese company from their mother. It was judged to be the 11th best cheese in the world at the World Cheese Awards in London in 2017/18. Like all Shepherds Purse cheeses it is made with pasteurised milk and vegetarian rennet.

Blue Monk

Award winning Blue Monk is a soft, creamy, blue cheese made in individual pieces, around 230g in weight. They are made with raw cow's milk and are pierced twice and turned as they mature for up to 28 days before wrapping. They then continue to mature and soften as they age becoming softer and creamier with time. They are produced by Monkland Cheesemakers in Herefordshire.

Trefaldwyn Blue

Trefaldwyn Cheese is made by dairy farmer Glenn Lloyd and his wife Sandie, on their organic farm near Llandyssil, Montgomeryshire. The cheese was initially crafted by Clare Jones, a former primary school teacher who began making cheese in 2018. She identified a gap in the local artisan food market and began developing Trefaldwyn Blue on her kitchen table. Her dedication led to a creamy, full-flavoured blue cheese made from pasteurised cow’s milk.

Trefaldwyn is the ancient Welsh name for the town of Montgomery, meaning Town of Baldwin. Baldwin de Boulers was a Marcher Lord in the 1130s before Montgomery’s stone castle was built. Montgomery was always a key strategic town located in the heart of the Welsh Marches at a key access point along the Welsh-English border.

In August 2023, Clare entrusted the legacy of Trefaldwyn Cheese to the Lloyds. Glenn, a third-generation dairy farmer, and Sandie have embraced the opportunity to continue producing Trefaldwyn Blue, using organic milk from their own herd. Under this new stewardship, Trefaldwyn Blue continues to be celebrated for its creamy texture and bold, savoury tang, securing its place as a distinguished product in the Welsh artisan cheese landscape.

Cambozola

Cambozola is a cow's milk cheese that is a combination in style of a French soft-ripened triple cream cheese and Italian Gorgonzola. The combines the words Camembert and Gorgonzola. There is also a reference in there to Cambodunum, the Roman name of Kempten, the city where Champignon is located.

Cambozola was patented and industrially produced for the global market by the German company Hofmeister-Champignon. The cheese has been sold since 1983 and is still produced by Champignon. In English-speaking countries, Cambozola is often marketed as blue brie.

It is made from a combination of Penicillium camemberti and the same blue Penicillium roqueforti mould used to make Gorgonzola, Roquefort and Stilton. Extra cream is added to the milk, giving Cambozola a rich consistency characteristic of triple crèmes, while the edible bloomy rind is similar to that of Camembert. Cambozola is considerably milder than Gorgonzola piccante and features a smooth, creamy texture with a subdued blue flavour.

Abaty Glas

I am in Aberystwyth and so a trip to Ultra Comedia is part of the deal. This time round I picked up some Abaty Glas (Blue Abbey). Very creamy. I enjoyed it. It is made with unpasteurised organic cows' milk by Roger Yorke of Caws Penhelyg in a nearby micro-dairy. He apparently developed it after having great success with his raw milk Brie. He is one of very few cheesemakers in the UK currently making unpasteurised soft and blue cheeses. Abaty Glas has won awards, including at the Royal Welsh Show in 2023.

Creamy Blue

Inspired by the mild and delicate nature of white mould cheeses and the intense profile of a traditional blue cheese, the Creamy Blue is sadi to be a classic itself. Braced with tones of toasted hops, the flavours are mild, bordering on tangy, with a creamy consistency to garnish and complete the profile. Its ivory-coloured body, imbued with blue veins is distinctive.

First introduced in 1969, the traditional ways of making the Creamy Blue are still maintained today, ensuring the same level of quality. A harmonic blend of light aromas and mild flavours make this cheese a nuanced and intricate experience. Having a milder profile than a Danablu, it is the perfect choice for audiences that are unversed in blue mould cheeses.

Serve at room temperature by removing the cheese from the refrigerator at least half an hour before serving.

This Danish cheese is made in mid-Jutland, where Danish Jersey and red-pied cows provide fresh milk to the Gjesing dairy. The pasteurised milk is poured into traditional open vats, with added enzymes and a special blend of cultures encouraging the development of blue mould. Once the milk has curdled with the help of rennet, it is cut and milled to release excess whey, allowing for a smoother consistency. Placed in moulds, the curd is drained once more, before finally receiving a coating of salt to shield it from unwanted mould. Workers then pierce the rind with steel needles, allowing the mould to develop and breathe from the centre of the cheese. After the aging process, the cheese has fostered its marbling and achieved its soft and pliable texture.

Gorgonzola

Gorgonzola is a veined PDO Italian blue cheese, made from unskimmed cow's milk. It can be buttery or firm, crumbly and quite salty, with a "bite" from its blue veining. Outside the EU and the countries recognising the geographical origin protection, the name "Gorgonzola" can legally be used for similar cheeses, with only the full Italian name unambiguously referring to PDO Gorgonzola. It is a famously pungent cheese.

Historically, Gorgonzola has been produced for centuries in Gorgonzola, Milan, acquiring its greenish-blue marbling in the 11th century. However, the town's claim of geographical origin is disputed by other nearby localities.

For example, another possible place of origin is the well known cheese-making area known for ancient dairy traditions, Pasturo nella Valsassina. This is because of the presence of superb natural caves that stay at the perfect temperature (6-12 degrees Celsius) to make Gorgonzola and many other cheeses. Gorgonzola was supposedly created in the Middle Ages in the years 879-1007 AD.

There is a Lombardy legend of Gorgonzola’s origin where a cheese maker added new fresh curds to a vat and left it open all night. He apparently forgot about the curds because he was in a rush to meet his lover. He attempted to fix his mistake and added fresh curds to the vat and a few months later he was surprised with a new bluish mould that had grown on his cheese. He tasted this and realised the surprisingly great and unique taste of the cheese. This was also the first discovery of the process of erborinatura, the creation of mould.

Ever since the beginning of the 20th century, the popularity of the cheese has been steadily increasing, more so abroad with past exports breaking the tens of thousand tons per year. Exports include the UK, France, and Germany. Each country has specific types of the cheese it prefers. British people enjoy the softer white and spicy Gorgonzola, while French and Germans like blue veined strong Gorgonzola.

After World War II, the new technique called the “one-curd” processing method was introduced. This production fixed the prior problems of the production with hygiene, quality, and costs. However, during the 1970s when hundreds of cheese factories modernised to do this, it caused various smaller producers to go out of business since they were not able to bear the costs of modernising.

Today, Gorgonzola is mainly produced in the northern Italian regions of Piedmont and Lombardy. The whey is removed during curdling and the result is aged at low temperatures.

During the ageing process, metal rods are quickly inserted and removed, creating air channels that allow the mould spores to grow into hyphae and cause the cheese's characteristic veining. Gorgonzola is typically aged for three to four months. The length of the ageing process determines the consistency of the cheese, which gets firmer as it ripens. There are two varieties of Gorgonzola, which differ mainly in their age: the less aged Gorgonzola Dolce (also called Sweet Gorgonzola), which can have a less salty taste and a slightly sweet finish, and the more aged Gorgonzola Piccante (also called Gorgonzola Naturale, Gorgonzola Montagna or Mountain Gorgonzola).

Under EU law, Gorgonzola has been registered as a Protected Designation of Origin (PDO, or Denominazione di Origine Protetta (DOP) in Italy) since 1996. This means that Gorgonzola sold in the EU can only be produced in the provinces of Novara, Bergamo, Brescia, Como, Cremona, Cuneo, Lecco, Lodi, Milan, Pavia, Varese, Verbano-Cusio-Ossola and Vercelli, as well as several comuni in the area of Casale Monferrato (province of Alessandria). As a Geographical indication, Gorgonzola produced in parts of Italy is protected in certain countries based on bilateral agreements of the EU, membership of the Lisbon Agreement or national registration as a certification mark.

Over time, production of the cheese outside Europe has led to the genericisation of the term "gorgonzola" in certain parts of the world, including in Australia. Gorgonzola cheese made outside of the EU is a family of blue cheeses made from cows' milk and inspired by the original Italian cheese. Whole cow's milk is used, to which starter bacteria are added with spores of the mould Penicillium glaucum.

The USA's FDA has established what is known as standards of identity (SOIs). SOIs establish the common name for food and define the basic nature of that food and its ingredients. The US Code of Federal Regulations Title 21- Food and Drugs, Chapter I - Food and Drug Administration, Subchapter B - Food for Human Consumption establishes the production process of "gorgonzola" cheese. This SOI, in addition to establishing "gorgonzola" as the product name for this type of cheese for production in the US, would also apply to any "gorgonzola" cheese imported from non-US countries.

Gorgonzola may be eaten in many ways, as with all blue cheeses. It is often added to salads, either straight or as part of a blue cheese dressing. Combined with other soft cheeses, it is an ingredient of pizza ai quattro formaggi (four-cheese pizza). It is often used as a topping for steak, sometimes as a sauce with Port or other sweet wine. It may be melted into a risotto in the final stage of cooking, added to gnocchi, or served alongside polenta.

Nutrition is as follows: 1 ounce (28 grams) of gorgonzola contains 100 calories, 9 g of fat, 375 mg of sodium, 1 g of carbohydrate and 6 g of protein. It contains 5.3 g of saturated fat.

James Joyce, in his 1922 novel Ulysses, gives his hero Bloom a lunch of "a glass of Burgundy and a Gorgonzola sandwich". In his 1972 book Ulysses on the Liffey, critic and Joyce scholar Richard Ellmann suggests that "Besides serving as a parable that life breeds corruption, Gorgonzola is probably chosen also because of Dante's adventures with the Gorgon in the Inferno IX. Bloom masters the monster by digesting her."

Blue Stilton

Stilton is produced in two varieties: white and blue. Blue has penicillium roqueforti added to generate a characteristic smell and taste. Both have been granted the status of a protected designation of origin (PDO) by the European Commission, requiring that only such cheese produced in the three counties of Derbyshire, Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire may be called Stilton. The cheese takes its name from the village of Stilton, now in Cambridgeshire, where it has long been sold. Stilton cheese cannot be made there because it is not in any of the three permitted counties.

Frances Pawlett (Paulet), a cheese maker of Wymondham, Leicestershire, has traditionally been credited with setting up the modern Stilton cheese shape and style in the 1720s but others are named. Early 19th-century research published by William Marshall provides logic and oral history to indicate a continuum between the locally produced cheese of Stilton and the later development of a high turnover commercial industry importing cheese produced elsewhere, under local guidance. A recipe for a Stilton cheese was published in 1726 by Richard Bradley, later first Professor of Botany, Cambridge University.

Another early printed reference to Stilton came from William Stukeley in 1722. Daniel Defoe in his 1724 work A Tour thro' the Whole Island of Great Britain notes, "We pass'd Stilton, a town famous for cheese, which is call'd our English Parmesan, and is brought to table with the mites or maggots round it, so thick, that they bring a spoon with them for you to eat the mites with, as you do the cheese."

According to the Stilton Cheesemaker's Association, the first person to market Blue Stilton was Cooper Thornhill, owner of the Bell Inn in Stilton, Huntingdonshire (now in Cambridgeshire). Tradition has it that in 1730, Thornhill discovered a distinctive blue cheese while visiting a small farm near Melton Mowbray in rural Leicestershire – possibly Wymondham. He fell in love with the cheese and made a business arrangement that granted the Bell Inn exclusive marketing rights to Blue Stilton. Soon thereafter, wagonloads of cheese were being delivered there. The village stood on the Great North Road, a main stagecoach route between London and the north, so Thornhill could promote sales and the fame of Stilton spread rapidly.

In 1936 the Stilton Cheesemakers' Association (SCMA) was formed to lobby for regulation to protect the quality and origin of the cheese. In 1966 Stilton was granted legal protection via a certification trade mark, the only British cheese to have received that status.

Blue Stilton's distinctive blue veins are created by piercing the crust of the cheese with stainless steel needles, allowing air into the core. The manufacturing and ripening process takes some 9-12 weeks.

For cheese to use the name "Stilton", it must be made in one of the right county and use pasteurised local milk. PDO was grabted in 1996. The cheese remains protected by its PDO even after Brexit. Some six dairies are licensed (three in Leicestershire, two in Nottinghamshire, one in Derbyshire).  Four are based in the Vale of Belvoir.

On average, finished Stilton cheese has a typical fat content of 35% and protein content of 23%.

Roquefort

Roquefort, a well known blue cheese, is made using sheep milk in Southern France. Similar items are produced elsewhere but EU law says only those aged in the natural Combalou caves, Roquefort-sur-Soulzon may be called Roquefort. It is a recognised geographical indication or has a protected designation of origin.

White, tangy, creamy and slightly moist, it has distinctive veins of blue mould and a characteristic fragrance and flavour with a notable taste of butyric acid. The blue veins provide a sharp tang. It has no rind; the exterior is edible and slightly salty. A typical wheel of Roquefort weighs 6 or 7 lb and is about 4 inches thick. Each kilo of finished cheese requires about 4.5 litres of milk to produce. In France, Roquefort is often called "King of Cheeses" or the "Cheese of Kings", although so are others.

Legend has it that it was discovered when a youth, eating his lunch of bread and ewes' milk cheese, saw a beautiful girl in the distance, abandoned his meal in a nearby cave and ran to meet her. When he returned a few months later, the mould (Penicillium roqueforti) had transformed his plain cheese into Roquefort.

In 79 AD, Pliny the Elder praised the cheeses of Lozère and Gévaudan and reported their popularity in ancient Rome. In 1737, Jean Astruc suggested this was a reference to an ancestor of Roquefort. The theory was widely taken up, and by the 1860s was being promoted by the Société des Caves. Others have dismissed the idea, as Pliny does not clearly identify a blue cheese and so he could be referring to fromage frais, cheese pickled in grape-juice or even fondue.

By the middle ages, Roquefort had become a recognised cheese. On 4 June 1411, Charles VI granted a monopoly for the ripening it to the people of R-sur-S, as they had been doing for centuries.

By 1820, Roquefort was producing 300 tonnes a year, a figure that steadily increased throughout the next century so that by 1914 it was 9,250 tonnes.

In 1925, the cheese was the recipient of France's first Appellation d'Origine Contrôlée when regulations controlling its production and naming were first defined.

In 1961, in a landmark ruling that removed imitation, the Tribunal de Grande Instance at Millau decreed that, although the method for its manufacture could be followed across the south of France, only cheeses ripened in the natural caves of Mont Combalou, Roquefort-sur-Soulzon were permitted to bear the name Roquefort.

The mould that gives Roquefort its distinctive character is found in the soil of the local caves. Traditionally, cheesemakers extracted it by leaving bread in the caves for six to eight weeks until it was consumed by the mould. The interior of the bread was then dried to produce a powder. In modern times, the mould can be grown in a laboratory, allowing greater consistency. The mould may either be added to the curd or introduced as an aerosol through holes poked in the rind.

Roquefort is made entirely from the milk of the Lacaune breed. Prior to AOC regulations in 1925, a small amount of cow's or goat's milk was sometimes added.

The cheese is produced throughout the Département of Aveyron and part of the nearby départements of Aude, Lozère, Gard, Hérault and Tarn.

As of 2009, there are seven Roquefort producers. The largest-volume brand by far is Roquefort Société made by the Société des Caves de Roquefort (a subsidiary of Lactalis), which holds several caves and opens its facilities to tourists, It accounts for around 60% of all production. Roquefort Papillon is also a well-known brand. The five other producers, each hold only one cave, and are Carles, Gabriel Coulet, Fromageries occitanes, Vernières and Le Vieux Berger.

Around three million were made in 2005 making it, after Comté, France's second-most-popular cheese.

Production of Roquefort involves 4,500 people who herd special ewes on 2,100 farms producing milk in a carefully defined oval grazing area across the Larzac Plain and up and down nearby hills and valleys. Total production in 2008 of about 19,000 tons was reported. The proportion of Roquefort exported to the USA remains small (450 tons out of 3,700 tons in total exports). Spain (with purchases of 1,000 tons) was by far the largest foreign customer.

The regional cuisine in and around Aveyron includes many Roquefort-based recipes for main-course meat sauces, savoury tarts and quiches, pies and fillings.

Contrary to popular belief, Penicillium roqueforti does not produce penicillin. However, due to the presence of other anti-inflammatory proteins, it was common in country districts for shepherds to apply it to wounds to avoid gangrene.

The Appellation d'origine contrôlée regulations that govern the production of Roquefort have been laid down over a number of decrees by the INAO. These include:

1. All milk used must be delivered at least 20 days after lambing has taken place.
2. The sheep must be on pasture, whenever possible, in an area that includes most of Aveyron and parts of neighbouring départements. At least 75% of any grain or fodder used must be local.
3. The milk must be whole, raw (not heated above 34 °C) and unfiltered except to remove microscopic particles.
4. The addition of rennet must occur within 48 hours of milking.
5. The Penicillium roqueforti used must be produced in France from the natural caves of R-sur-S.
6. The salting process must be performed using dry salt.
7. The whole process of maturation, cutting, packaging and refrigeration must take place in the commune of R-sur-S.