Dairy & Eggs

Blue Cheese

Cheese veined with Penicillium mold — pungent, salty and creamy-to-crumbly; melts into a sharp sauce or crumbles cold over salads and steak.

Blue cheeses are a family defined less by the milk they come from than by the blue-green veins of Penicillium roqueforti (or related strains) that marble their interior. Wheels are pierced with needles during aging to admit oxygen, which wakes the dormant mold and lets it colonize the paste from inside out. The result spans everything from soft and spoonable to semi-hard and crumbly, with flavor that runs from milky-tangy to sharply pungent as the cheese ages.

In the kitchen, blue cheese behaves as both a condiment and an ingredient: crumbled cold, it delivers a salt-and-umami punch that anchors a wedge salad or a steak, and warmed gently with cream it melts into one of the most satisfying sauces in Western cooking. Because the cheese is naturally high in salt and assertive in flavor, a little goes a long way — taste the dish before reaching for the salt shaker. Bringing it to room temperature before serving is the single biggest improvement most home cooks can make.

The category runs from raw sheep's-milk Roquefort aged in limestone caves to mild cow's-milk Gorgonzola Dolce aged only a couple of months, and includes protected names such as Stilton, Cabrales, and Fourme d'Ambert. Outside Europe, Danish Blue, Maytag, and Point Reyes have become everyday workhorses for their balance of character and approachability.

Measured in: g
Storage: Refrigerate

Allergens

Milk

Find it in

DairyCheese

Suits

Vegetarian

Types & varieties

Roquefort

French AOC, raw sheep's milk (Lacaune), aged in the natural limestone caves of Roquefort-sur-Soulzon; dense, crumbly, intensely salty and sharp.

Gorgonzola Dolce

Italian DOP, cow's milk, soft and creamy with a mild, slightly sweet tang; aged about 2 months.

Gorgonzola Piccante (or Naturale)

Italian DOP, cow's milk, firmer and more pungent; aged 3–4 months or longer.

Stilton

English PDO, pasteurized cow's milk; crumbly but moist, balanced and nutty. Made only in Derbyshire, Leicestershire, and Nottinghamshire.

Cabrales

Spanish DOP from Asturias, traditionally a blend of cow, goat, and sheep milks; aged in mountain caves wrapped in sycamore leaves, very sharp.

Bleu d'Auvergne

French AOP, cow's milk from the Massif Central; creamy, moist, robust but slightly less sharp than Roquefort.

Fourme d'Ambert

French AOP, cow's milk, tall cylindrical shape (fourme); mild, mellow, slightly sweet — a good gateway blue.

Bleu des Causses

French AOP, cow's milk, aged in the limestone caves of the Causses; close cousin of Roquefort in style.

Danish Blue (Danablu)

Danish, cow's milk, semi-soft and creamy with a salty bite; affordable everyday cooking blue.

Maytag Blue

American, cow's milk, made by Maytag Dairy Farms in Iowa since 1941; dense, crumbly, peppery.

Point Reyes Original Blue

American, cow's milk from California; creamy, mild, slightly sweet.

Cashel Blue

Irish, cow's milk from County Tipperary; mild, creamy, well-balanced.

Saint-Agur

French, cow's milk, double-cream style; very creamy, mild, popular on cheese boards.

Cambozola

German (Bergader), cow's milk; a Camembert–Gorgonzola hybrid with a soft bloomy white rind.

Valdeón (Picón Bejes-Tresviso)

Spanish DOP, traditionally a mix of cow and goat milk; wrapped in maple or chestnut leaves, intense and moist.

Shropshire Blue

English, cow's milk, dyed orange with annatto; smooth and creamy with a sharp finish.

Safety and dietary notes

Two points are worth flagging before service. First, aged blue cheeses have been linked to reactions in people with severe penicillin allergy — trace compounds can persist through aging, and the FDA removed a required warning label in 1989 only because residual levels were deemed low, not because reactions have stopped. Treat an aged wheel as risky for anyone with a serious allergy. Second, several flagship blues (Roquefort, some Cabrales) are made from raw milk; standard food-safety guidance is to avoid them during pregnancy and to keep them away from young children and anyone immunocompromised.

Common uses

Crumbled cold over wedge, Cobb, or steakhouse salads with bacon and a creamy dressing.Melted over steak, burgers, or grilled lamb chops, or worked into a compound butter with shallot and black pepper.Stirred into warm heavy cream or milk to make a blue-cheese sauce for steak, gnocchi, ravioli, or roasted vegetables.Folded into mashed potatoes or soft polenta just before serving.Whisked into dressing for buffalo wings with buttermilk, mayonnaise, garlic, and chives.Baked into soufflés or savory cheesecakes, often paired with pears or walnuts.Layered on pizza with caramelized onions, sliced pear, or prosciutto.Served on a cheese board with fruit, honey, and nuts, and matched with port, Sauternes, or late-harvest Riesling.Crumbled over roasted beets, butternut squash, or warm pears as a starter or side.Melted into a rarebit-style sauce with beer and mustard, spooned over toast.

Tips & pitfalls

Always bring blue cheese to room temperature before serving — cold mutes both flavor and aroma.
Use a dedicated cheese knife, or warm a blade in hot water and wipe it dry between cuts, to avoid streaking the paste black.
Wrap loosely in parchment or aluminum foil with a few small holes; airtight plastic suffocates the cheese and accelerates ammonia notes.
Store on a shelf above other foods — its aroma migrates, and its mold will cross-contaminate soft cheeses if they touch.
For sauces, crumble into warm cream off the heat and whisk gently; overheating makes the cheese grainy and bitter.
If a wheel smells strongly of ammonia, slice off the outer 5 mm and discard; the paste beneath is usually fine.
Crumble over finished dishes rather than baking for long where possible — prolonged dry heat overpowers the live-funky aromatics.
Freeze only for cooked applications (sauces, dressings, baked dishes); thawed texture is grainy and unsuitable for cheese boards.
Taste before salting any dish containing blue cheese — its sodium content is high.

Nutrition

353kcal

Energy

1477 kJ · per 100 g

Where the calories come from

Protein 24%Carbs 3%Fat 73%

Protein

21.4g

43% DV

Carbs

2.3g

1% DV

Fat

28.7g

37% DV

Fiber

0% DV

Sugars

0.5g

of which

Sodium

1146mg

50% DV

Notable micronutrients

Vitamin B1251% DV

Calcium41% DV

Phosphorus31% DV

Riboflavin (B2)29% DV

Selenium26% DV

Zinc24% DV

Source · USDA FoodData Central · Cheese, blue

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In the shops

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Good to know

Curd culture: Penicillium roqueforti or related Penicillium strains, introduced into milk or curds and activated by oxygen — which is why wheels are pierced with needles during aging.
Milk base: Cow (most common), sheep (Roquefort and other sheep's-milk blues), goat (sometimes in Cabrales), or buffalo (rare).
Texture range: From creamy and spoonable (Gorgonzola Dolce, Saint-Agur) to semi-hard and crumbly (aged Roquefort, Gorgonzola Piccante).
Fat and calories: Typically 45–60% fat in dry matter; a 30 g serving delivers roughly 100 kcal.
Flavor profile: Sharp, salty, pungent, sometimes grassy or metallic; pungency rises steadily with age.
Protected status: Roquefort, Gorgonzola, Stilton, Cabrales, Bleu des Causses, Bleu d'Auvergne, Fourme d'Ambert, and Picón Bejes-Tresviso all carry PDO/AOP protection in the EU.
Storage: Wrap loosely in foil or parchment (never airtight); refrigerate 1–4 °C; best within 2–3 weeks of opening; can be frozen up to 3 months though texture suffers.
Service: Bring to room temperature 30–60 minutes before serving for fullest flavor and aroma.

Substitutes

Gorgonzola (Dolce or Piccante) — Best all-purpose substitute for most blue cheeses; creamier Dolce works for sauces, firmer Piccante stands in for Roquefort.
Stilton — Nuttier and slightly less aggressive than Roquefort; good on cheese boards and salads.
Danish Blue (Danablu) — Affordable, accessible choice for dressings, dips, and burger toppings.
Feta — Not a blue but crumbly and salty; works for cold salads when a non-blue alternative is needed.
Goat cheese mixed with crumbled feta and a pinch of salt — Rough approximation for mild blue flavor in recipes where mold is undesirable.
Vegan blue-style cheese (cashew- or tofu-based) — Use when serving vegans or those allergic to penicillin molds.
Cream cheese with a few drops of blue cheese flavoring — Last-resort mimic for sauces and dips; lacks the genuine funk.

Pairs with

PearsApples and grapesHoney or fig jamWalnuts, pecans, hazelnutsBaconSteak, especially ribeyeBuffalo wingsBalsamic vinegar or balsamic glazeEndive, watercress, arugula, friséeRoasted beetsPort, Sauternes, Banyuls, late-harvest RieslingDark chocolate DatesCaramelized onions

Also called

bleu cheese · Roquefort · Gorgonzola · Stilton · blue-veined cheese