Blue Cheese Muffins Recipe with Shropshire Blue - Pong Cheese (2024)

FAQs

What is best with blue cheese? ›

Blue cheese is the perfect dessert cheese. Grab some fruit cake or some fresh apples and peaches to finish off any meal. To balance some of the bolder blues, caramelised onion jam, or fruit pastes like quince or fig are also a perfect combo. Also try a drizzle of honey, that is a personal favourite.

As the curds are formed into wheels, a blue cheese mold (Penicillium roqueforti) is added to the cheese before it is left to age for 60 to 90 days. During the aging process, the cheese is spiked with stainless steel rods that allow oxygen into the middle of the wheel and encourage the mold to grow.

Blue cheese is a generic term used to describe cheese produced with pasteurized cow's, sheep's, or goat's milk and ripened with cultures of the mold penicillium. Blue cheese generally has a salty, sharp flavor and a pungent aroma. It is often relatively low in fat but has a high sodium content.

Serve it as it is – One of the best ways actually, serve it with salty crackers, fresh figs, some roasted almonds maybe and some jam or marmalade. Great marmalades to go with the cheese is rosehip, fig, pear, quince but most work great. Also a sweet vinegar or pickled fruits can work good, and don't forget the wine.

Roquefort: A Blue Cheese Icon

Hailing from the picturesque caves of Roquefort-sur-Soulzon in Southern France, Roquefort is widely renowned as the king of blue cheeses. Its distinctive blue veins, resulting from the growth of Penicillium roqueforti mold, infuse Roquefort with an intense and complex flavor profile.

Researchers have proved it's actually good for you. Along with other aged cheeses, blue cheese is great for your gut health and therefore you're over all well-being. Cheese is one of the foods many dieters ditch in the new year, thinking it's calorific because of the high fat content and will cause weight gain.

Like other types of cheese, blue cheese can go bad if it's not properly stored. Therefore, it's important to store blue cheese tightly wrapped in the refrigerator. If stored properly, blue cheese can last 3–4 weeks in the refrigerator. You can also freeze blue cheese to help extend its shelf life even further.

If you notice any signs of spoilage on your blue cheese, you should discard it immediately. In particular, fuzzy white, green, pink, or grey spots growing on the surface of blue cheese may indicate that it has gone bad. Additionally, cheese that develops a strong odor similar to ammonia may be spoiled.

How to store it. Stored carefully and appropriately, blue cheese should last a few weeks in your refrigerator. Store it in the coolest, driest part — some experts recommended the crisper — and keep it well wrapped in the cheese paper it came in, if possible.

There are dozens of varieties of blue cheese. The four classics are French roquefort, English stilton, Italian gorgonzola, and Spanish cabrales. But today, blue cheese is made in many countries and in a growing variety of styles.

Is blue cheese anti inflammatory? ›

Not only does blue cheese reduce cholesterol, but studies have shown that the anti-inflammatory properties of blue cheese can improve heart health. It prevents inflammation in the arteries and blood clotting in the veins and arteries, therefore eliminating the risk of many heart diseases like stroke.

blue cheese, any of several cheeses marbled with bluish or greenish veins of mold. Important trademarked varieties include English Stilton, French Roquefort, and Italian Gorgonzola. How is Gorgonzola cheese made? Most blue cheeses are made from cow's milk, but Roquefort is made from the milk of the ewe.

A blue cheese isn't “spoiled,” it is aged. If you buy a quarter pound, you'll want to keep it in the fridge. If you buy a full wheel, you can keep it for months in your cold storage room at 35 to 45F.

But classic sweet fig jam with a bit of spice to it works best with sharp blue cheese (Roquefort, Cabrales, Gorgonzola Piccante) and mature hard cheese like Parmigiano Reggiano or Manchego Viejo.

Cheese Types with Edible Rinds

The rinds of these styles of cheese are safe and delicious to eat: Bloomy rind cheeses like Brie, Camembert, and Trillium. Washed rind cheeses like Taleggio, Epoisses, and Lissome. Natural rind cheeses like Tomme de Savoie, Bayley Hazen Blue, and Lucky Linda Clothbound Cheddar.

Penicillium roqueforti and Penicillium glaucum are the stars here. These molds are added during the cheese-making process, and as the cheese ages, they grow to create the characteristic blue or green veins. But fear not, these molds are perfectly safe to eat and are responsible for the cheese's unique taste and aroma.

Blue Cheese goes well with red or sparkling wine. It also pairs well with dried fruits such as apricots or raisins, fresh figs and pears. I like to pair blue cheeses with whole grain crackers and almonds as well. If you're looking to pair it with meat, it goes best with beef, preferably steak.

Since blue cheese is high in calcium, a nutrient necessary for optimal bone health, adding it to your diet may help prevent bone-related health issues. In fact, calcium deficiency may be linked to decreased bone strength and an increased risk of osteoporosis, which causes bones to become weak and brittle.