Glenn Hidalgo Has an Addiction to Blue Cheese and So Do I
So I absolutely adore blue cheese. I don't like to think about it's relationship to mold, but I can get over it. The only one I know that loves blue cheese more than me, is Glenn Hidalgo.
What do you do when you are addicted to cheese? You read about it. You learn, you study, maybe if you get good at it you can make it. But you don't want to accidentally poison yourself. So I think I'll just buy it from the good marketplaces we have here in NYC.
I asked Glenn Hidalgo what is it about blue cheese that you like so much? He said, "well it's the color blue of course." Surprise, always an artist.
Glenn wants you to know that Blue cheese is a general classification of cheese that have cultures of the mold Penicillium added so that the final product is spotted or veined throughout with blue mold. This carries a distinct smell, either from that or various specially cultivated bacteria. Some blue cheeses are injected with spores before the curds form, and others have spores mixed in with the curds after they form. Blue cheeses are typically aged in a temperature-controlled environment such as a cave. Blue cheese can be eaten by itself or can be spread, crumbled or melted into or over a range of other foods.
The characteristic flavor of blue cheeses tends to be sharp and salty. The smell of this food is due to both the mold and types of bacteria encouraged to grow on the cheese: for example, the bacterium Brevibacterium linens is responsible for the smell of many blue cheeses,[1] as well as foot odour and other human body odors.[2]
History[edit]
Blue cheese is believed to have been discovered by accident when cheeses were stored in natural temperatures and moisture-controlled caves which happen to be favorable environments for many varieties of harmless mold. It was moist in the cave so the mold would form. According to legend, one of the first blue cheeses, Roquefort, was discovered when a young boy, eating bread and ewes' milk cheese, abandoned his meal in a nearby cave after seeing a beautiful girl in the distance. When he returned months later, the mold (Penicillium roqueforti) had transformed his cheese into Roquefort.[3][4]
Gorgonzola is one of the oldest known blue cheeses, having been created around AD 879, though it is said that it did not contain blue veins until around the 11th century.[5][6] Stilton is a relatively new addition, becoming popular sometime in the early 1700s.[7] Many varieties of blue cheese that originated subsequently, such as the 20th century Danablu and Cambozola, were an attempt to fill the demand for Roquefort-style cheeses that were prohibitive due to either cost or politics.[citation needed]
Glenn Hidalgo wants you to share in his blue cheese addiction. Here's how the cheese is made. It uses a special mold that has been scraped from the walls of French cave. How anyone figured out how to do this is so crazy.
Production[edit]
Similarly to other varieties of cheese, the process of making blue cheese consists of six standard steps. However, additional ingredients and processes are required to give this blue-veined cheese its particular properties. To begin with, the commercial scale production of blue cheese consists of two phases: the culturing of suitable spore-rich inocula and fermentation for maximum, typical flavor.[8]
Penicillium roqueforti inoculum[edit]
In the first phase of production, a Penicillium roqueforti inoculum is prepared prior to the actual production of blue cheese.[9] Multiple methods can be used to achieve this. However, all methods involve the use of a freeze-dried Penicillium roqueforti culture. Although Penicillium roqueforti can be found naturally, cheese producers nowadays use commercially manufactured Penicillium roqueforti. First, Penicillium roqueforti is washed from a pure culture agar plants which is later frozen.[9] Through the freeze drying process, water from the frozen state is evaporated without the transition through the liquid state (sublimation). This retains the value of the culture and is activated upon the addition of water.
Salt, sugar or both are added to autoclaved, homogenized milk via a sterile solution. This mixture is then inoculated with Penicillium roqueforti. This solution is first incubated for three to four days at 21–25 °C (70–77 °F). More salt and/or sugar is added and then aerobic incubation is continued for an additional one to two days.[8] Alternatively, sterilized, homogenized milk and reconstituted non-fat solids or whey solids are mixed with sterile salt to create a fermentation medium. A spore-rich Penicillium roqueforti culture is then added. Next, modified milk fat is added which consists of milk fat with calf pre-gastric esterase.[10] This solution is prepared in advance by an enzyme hydrolysis of a milk fat emulsion. The addition of modified milk fat stimulates a progressive release of free fatty acids via lipase action which is essential for rapid flavor development in blue cheese.[9] This inoculum produced by either methods is later added to the cheese curds.[9]
Production and fermentation[edit]
First, raw milk (either from cattle, goats or sheep) is mixed and pasteurized at 72 °C (162 °F) for 15 seconds.[11] Then, acidification occurs: a starter culture, such as Streptococcus lactis, is added in order to change lactose to lactic acid, thus changing the acidity of the milk and turning it from liquid to solid.[12] The next step is coagulation, where rennet, a mixture of rennin and other material found in the stomach lining of a calf is added to solidify the milk further.[12] Following this, thick curds are cut typically with a knife to encourage the release of liquid or whey.[12] The smaller the curds are cut, the thicker and harder the resulting cheese will become.[12]
After the curds have been ladled into containers in order to be drained and formed into a full wheel of cheese, the Penicillium roqueforti inoculum is sprinkled on top of the curds along with Brevibacterium linens.[12] Then, the curds granules are knit in molds to form cheese loaves with a relatively open texture.[9] Next, whey drainage continues for 10–48 hours in which no pressure is applied, but the molds are inverted frequently to promote this process.[11] Salt is then added to provide flavor as well as to act as a preservative so the cheese does not spoil through the process of brine salting or dry salting for 24–48 hours.[11] The final step is ripening the cheese by aging it. When the cheese is freshly made, there is little to no blue cheese flavor development.[9] Usually, a fermentation period of 60–90 days are needed before the flavor of the cheese is typical and acceptable for marketing.[9]
During this ripening period, the temperature and the level of humidity in the room where the cheese is aging is monitored to ensure the cheese does not spoil or lose its optimal flavor and texture.[12] In general, the ripening temperature is around eight to ten degrees Celsius with a relative humidity of 85–95%, but this may differ according to the type of blue cheese being produced.[11] At the beginning of this ripening process, the cheese loaves are punctured to create small openings to allow air to penetrate and support the rich growth of the aerobic Penicillium roqueforti cultures, thus encouraging the formation of blue veins.[12]
Throughout the ripening process, the total ketone content is constantly monitored as the distinctive flavor and aroma of blue cheese arises from methyl ketones (including 2-pentanone, 2-heptanone, and 2-nonanone)[13] which are a metabolic product of Penicillium roqueforti.[14][15] Once the specified level of total ketone production is attained, the blue cheese is sterilized at ultra high temperature/short time at 130 °C (266 °F) for four seconds.[9] This heat treatment also inactivates the Penicillium roqueforti, inhibiting further fermentation.[9]
Toxins from the production of blue cheese[edit]
Penicillium roqueforti, responsible for the greenish blue moldy aspect of blue cheese, produces several mycotoxins. While mycotoxins like roquefortine, isofumigaclavine A, mycophenolic acid and ferrichrome, are present at low levels, penicillic acid and
