Blue Cheese

Blue Cheese: Nutrition, History and Cooking Guide

Blue cheese is a family of cheeses characterised by the presence of blue-green veins or pockets of Penicillium roqueforti or related mould species throughout the paste, producing the distinctive earthy, pungent, intense flavour that makes blue cheese one of the most recognisable and polarising foods in the world. The major examples include: Roquefort (France, sheep's milk, produced in the caves of Combalou near Roquefort-sur-Soulzon — the oldest still-producing PDO cheese in the world, documented from the eleventh century); Gorgonzola (Italy, cow's milk, with sweet Gorgonzola dolce and aged piccante varieties); Stilton (England, cow's milk, produced only in Derbyshire, Leicestershire, and Nottinghamshire — one of Britain's greatest cheeses); Danablu/Danish Blue (Denmark, cow's milk); and Bleu d'Auvergne (France, cow's milk). The blue-green veins develop when the mould introduced during cheesemaking grows along the channels created by piercing the cheese with needles, allowing oxygen to penetrate and the mould to develop. The complex flavour of blue cheese comes from the breakdown of proteins and fats by the mould enzymes, producing an array of flavour compounds including butyric and capric acids.

Nutritional Value of Blue Cheese

Blue cheese provides 353 kcal and 21.4 g of protein per 100 g, with 28.7 g of fat — substantial in both protein and fat. Calcium at approximately 530 mg per 100 g is very good. It provides vitamin A, vitamin B12, phosphorus, zinc, and sodium (typically around 1.3 g per 100 g from the salting process). The fat includes short-chain and medium-chain fatty acids from the mould activity alongside the normal saturated dairy fat.

Health Benefits and Culinary Uses

Blue cheese provides excellent calcium, protein, and B12 alongside a complex fatty acid profile. The mould enzymes produce bioactive peptides during ageing that may have modest anti-inflammatory properties, though this research is preliminary. The intense flavour means a little goes a very long way — 20–30 g of strong Stilton or Roquefort provides outstanding flavour alongside meaningful calcium and protein at reasonable caloric cost. Use blue cheese in salad dressings (celery and Stilton soup is a British classic), crumbled over beetroot salad, in pasta sauces, in quiche, melted into steaks as a sauce, on cheese boards with walnuts and pears, and on crackers.