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The New American Blues

Americans are moving beyond blue cheese dressing and exploring American-made blues for the cheese board. The domestic blue category has expanded significantly in recent years, with new and notable options from cow’s, goat’s and sheep’s milk. While the customers who can’t stand blue cheese will always be present, others can’t get enough and will be pleased to see a broader retail selection from American cheesemakers.

Selling blue cheese successfully—and possibly winning some converts—requires knowledge of the product, creative merchandising and careful handling. Let’s start with a few frequently asked questions about blue cheeses, domestic and otherwise:

What makes the cheese blue?
The bluish, greenish or even grayish veins in cheese come from desirable and harmless molds. Cheesemakers inoculate the milk or the curds with selected mold strains, often a strain of Penicillium roqueforti, which stay largely dormant for the first days or weeks of a blue cheese’s life. But early on, the cheesemaker will pierce the young white wheels to create air channels. The molds respond to this breath of fresh air by reproducing, establishing themselves in the openings in the cheese paste.

That’s why blue cheeses are almost never pressed. The cheesemaker wants to create an open texture so that the molds will have somewhere to grow. When the cheese is sufficiently veined, the cheesemaker will slow or halt the blue development by depriving the mold of air, often by encasing the cheese in wax, Cryovac or a loose plastic bag for the remainder of the aging period.

What makes some blue cheese so pungent?
Choice of mold has a lot to do with it, says Monte McIntyre, cheesemaker for Point Reyes Original Blue in Point Reyes, Calif. There are dozens of strains of P. roqueforti and some are known to produce more pungent flavors.

The starter culture and the enzymes it leaves behind also affect pungency, reports Cary Bryant, cheesemaker for Rogue Creamery in Central Point, Ore. “You can get sharpness that’s not related to blue molds and sharpness very related to blue molds,” he says. Cheesemakers can also influence pungency by crafting a particularly open-textured cheese, which allows lots of room for mold development.

How to Handle Blue Cheeses
Retailers say blue cheeses demand more attention to keep them in shape and more thoughtful merchandising to lure the hesitant taster. Here are some pointers:

1. Give them air.
If the cheese is encased in Cryovac, get it out. “It’s important to open those bags up and let the cheeses develop,” says Steve Ehlers, proprietor of Larry’s Market in Milwaukee. “If they sit in the bag, they sour. You end up with a half-cup of juice in the bag that’s not supposed to be there.”

That’s whey he’s talking about, of course. Blues tend to weep, or release whey, once they begin to warm up. Tayler Hawes, a buyer with Artisanal Cheese in Manhattan, recommends letting an unwrapped wheel drain for a while on paper towels before you start to cut it. “It won’t be as messy,” says Hawes.

2. Keep blues cold.
Most blues are aged at cold temperatures and keeping them cold will prevent rogue yeasts or molds from growing, says McIntyre. He recommends 40 degrees F. or lower; Hawes suggests 36 degrees F. to 38 degrees F., although blue cheeses with natural rinds, such as Bayley Hazen Blue, are fine up to 48 degrees F. or 50 degrees F. Keep them in the coldest part of your cheese case and near the drain to handle the inevitable moisture loss.

3. Monitor the condition often.
“I check everything in my case daily,” says Lori Cyrus, a cheese specialist with Kowalski’s Markets in St. Paul, who oversees a pre-cut cheese department. “So many blues are high moisture, and they can get oozy, for lack of a better term. They’re more likely to need a rewrap or trim (than other cheeses).”

4. Watch hygiene to keep blue molds from “traveling.”
Train your staff to clean implements and boards well after cutting blue cheeses. At Pastaworks in Portland, Ore., Cheesemon-ger Katie Eshleman goes one step further. Blue cheeses are cut only in one area and on designated cutting boards, which are blue as a reminder. At Larry’s Market, staffers put a sheet of waxed paper on the counter before cutting blues. Cleaning the case often can also help keep blue molds from contaminating other cheeses.

5. Subdivide by type.
Most merchants group their blue cheeses in the case but don’t distinguish them further, leaving consumers in the dark. “To most people, (blues) all look alike,” says Laura Werlin, author of several books on cheese. Werlin suggests further categorizing by style (tangy, strong, mellow, creamy) or by usage (salads, cooking, cheese board). “Providing any kind of hint as to their strength or mildness and what they’re used for is tremendously helpful,” says Werlin.

6. Cross merchandise.
Blue cheese can help you sell other items in the store, and other items can help you sell blue cheese. Kowalski’s Cyrus has a satellite display for Black River Blue crumbles and Black River Gorgonzola crumbles in an ice chest by the bagged salads, with Marcona almonds and caramelized walnuts nearby. Eshleman of Pastaworks samples blue cheese with sliced pears, or uses it to stuff dried dates or fresh figs. “It’s a good way to communicate with people what they can do with blue cheese,” she says. Honeys, fig preserves, fig or date cake, dessert wines, walnut bread and fresh walnuts or hazelnuts in season are all natural companions for blue cheese.

7. Stock a “starter blue” for the reluctant.
Make a convert by introducing blue-cheese avoiders to the mildest blues. Cyrus recommends the Schwarz und Weiss Natural Rind Blue. “A lot of people hang on to their childhood palate and never venture beyond that,” says Cyrus, “but you can help them make the transition with an approachable, mellow blue.”

Janet Fletcher is a staff writer for The San Francisco Chronicle and author of The Cheese Course.