Guiding your homestead milk to it's destiny as a farmstead cheese can
seem onerous enough without contemplating the role of our
dairy-related fungal friends. Certainly all of the cheese books out
there will tell you to hold off on crafting the mold-ripened varieties
until you are a master of the fresh and pressed/aged types. While I
agree that you will want some experience in transforming milk into
curd - the proper perspective can allow even the novice cheese maker
to craft a stunning blue-veined frommage.
The History of Gorgonzola
Like most
traditional cheese, the origins of Gorgonzola are shrouded in myth and
debate. The town of Gorgonzola sits in the lush valley surrounding
Milan, in northern Italy. Just south of the Swiss Alps, herdsman
would usher their brown swiss cattle into this valley, offering milk
to the landowners in the surrounding towns in exchange for the
plentiful flush of late fall grass. Local towns still argue over
where the "original" Gorgonzola was crafted. Today, the Italian Denominazione
di origine controllata (DOC),
or rule of origin, declares over 12 provinces within the valley as
approved for the production of this blue-wonder.
Another facet of Gorgonzola mythology links the internal blue-veined
quality of the cheese to the story of a young cheese maker in love.
Apparently the apprenticing casaro was left alone to finish the
cheese make, when he decided to skip out early to meet up with the
apple of his eye. Returning late, he found his creamery a mess - with
curds he could not recover. Fearful his master would discover his
indiscretion, he started the next day's cheese make early. Mixing in
the crumbled curd from the day before, he was able to effectively hide
his irresponsible tryst...for the time being that is. As that batch
aged, the now characteristic blue-veins marbled the interior in ways
his other cheeses did not, exposing his secret - and giving birth to a
new class of cheese.
While the blending of young love and good cheese makes for a great
story, I am not convinced of it's absolute truth. I have heard
variations on this story for the creation of Roquefort and several
others in the family blue. Accurate or not, this story, like many
myths, contains important lessons for the modern day aspiring cheese
maker.
Mycelial Misconceptions
A quick google search for "making blue cheese" will give you a rich
diversity of mis-information regarding these majestic delicacies.
Penicillin has no part in the process, nothing, per se, is "injected"
into the cheese, and the critical "blue" is a fungus, not a bacteria.
Most of these myths are rooted in some level of truth. And like the
story of the lovestruck Italian casaro, understanding the reasons
behind these stories can help us craft better cheese.
The Fungal Farming Paradigm
The maker of blue
cheese is, in fact, a farmer of fungi. When you set out to create the
intense flavors we seek from this family of cheese, you are
cultivating either the Penicillium glaucum or Pencillium
roqueforti species of molds. Much like a gardener grows a plant
from seed-to-seed, the cheese maker grows these molds from
spore-to-spore. Instead of soil, your growth substrate is curdled
milk. Just as in gardening, your responsibilities are the same- to
provide the desired species with the proper environmental growth
parameters, allowing them to express their full genetic potential.
The penicillium molds, like many other fungi, require oxygen to
breathe, and a high moisture environment.
The oxygen is
supplied in two ways. First through developing an "open" body within
the cheese. That is, ensuring an abundance of physical air spaces
throughout - achieved through the make process described below.
Secondly, through stabbing the cheese. Many mistakenly think this
action is injecting the blue culture into the cheese. In fact, by the
time the stabbing takes place, the spores have already germinated and
mycelia have begun coarsing through the fat and casein matrix that is
your cheese. This piercing is merely creating air channels to enhance
this growth and help distribute the blue more evenly.
Moisture is a bit
trickier, and while cave design is beyond this article, some advice is
included in the aging management section.
The intent of this article is not to hand you a recipe or step-by-step
instructions for producing the perfect Gorgonzola or blue cheese.
Rather, what is offered here is a set of perspectives and key concepts
that will empower the hobbyist cheese maker to gain a more complete
understanding of what blue cheeses really are, and the important
considerations to account for during their production.
