Welcome back to the Cheese Corner. I’d recommend getting a nose plug because we’ll discuss one of dairy’s most iconic (and infamous) products.
Few cheeses, or even foods for that matter, could have a smell as strong as blue cheese and still taste so good. This extraordinary feat and its history make blue cheeses like Point Reyes’ Farmstead’s Original Blue so special.
Supposedly from France, blue cheese is the shockingly good result of cheese meeting mold. The process varies from cheese to cheese, but spores are thrown into the mix either before or during the formation of curds.
What results is a cheese covered with the titular greenish blue “veins,” which, coupled with bacteria in the cheese, gives it its notoriously strong odor.
The discovery of blue cheese is said to have happened accidentally when cheese was left in caves where harmless mold can grow.
Blue cheese is quite an international phenomenon. Although mainly associated with France, where the Roquefort kind was first discovered, researchers believe that mold and cheese forming together in caves can be traced back across caves as far back as 800 BCE in Austria’s Hallstatt Mine. But blue cheese has an even broader reach, including Italy’s gorgonzola and California’s own Point Reyes’ Farmstead cheese, which the Cheese Corner has chosen to highlight.
Located by a bay just north of San Francisco, Point Reyes Farmstead Cheese Co. was established in 1958. It would win awards for its cheese and create California’s only classic-style blue cheese: Original Blue.
With some assistance from crackers, I was able to try Original Blue and even turned it into a dip.
Original Blue’s overwhelmingly strong smell and taste gradually eased into the mouth by its smooth, soft texture. By the end, all left is a rich taste that resonates in the breath long after.
Those interested in blue cheese can check out kinds like Original Blue and more at places like Swarthmore’s 320 Market.
But be warned: That smell doesn’t go away for a long time or until you try another cheese.
