What Is Blue cheese and How Can I Use It?

Wondering what to do with blue cheese? This guide covers how to pick it, cook it, store it, and swap it, plus 95 recipes to put it to work.

Key Points

Blue cheese is veined with Penicillium mold, giving a sharp, salty, peppery punch from cow or sheep milk.
It crumbles more than it melts; fold it in late or melt gently into cream.
Pair with sweet partners like honey, pear, fig, and port to balance the salt.
Gorgonzola is the closest swap: dolce milder and creamier, piccante firmer and sharper.
Wrap in wax paper or foil, not tight plastic; a wedge keeps two to three weeks.

What is blue cheese?

Blue cheese is any cheese veined with blue or blue-green mold, the streaks you can see running through a wedge of Roquefort or Stilton. That mold, usually a strain of Penicillium, is what gives the cheese its sharp, salty, almost peppery punch.

Most blues are made from cow's milk. Roquefort and a few others use sheep's milk for a richer, more mineral flavor.

The texture ranges from crumbly and dry to soft and spreadable, but the common thread is intensity. A little goes a long way.

This is a cheese you reach for when you want a jolt of flavor.

Cooking with blue cheese

Blue cheese rarely melts into a smooth sheet the way cheese like mozzarella does. Its high salt and crumbly structure make it want to soften and break rather than flow, so treat it as a punch of flavor you fold in near the end.

Crumble it cold over a salad and the firm bits keep their shape. That is the whole appeal of a Beet & Walnut Salad, where the salty cheese plays against sweet beets and earthy walnuts.

For a sauce, melt it gently into warm cream rather than over direct high heat. A splash of cream loosens the cheese and tames its bite at the same time, which is the move behind a glossy Port Wine, Fig & Bleu Cheese Sauce spooned over steak.

It also bakes well when it is bound to something. Mashed into a dip with cream cheese and sour cream, it holds together instead of seizing, the reason the classic Frank's RedHot Buffalo Chicken Dip leans on it.

Pairing and common mistakes

Blue cheese begs for a sweet partner. Honey, fig, pear, and port all soften its salt and bring out a caramel side you miss when you eat it plain, which is why a Pear & Blue Cheese Pizza works so well.

It also stands up to bold proteins like steak and buffalo wings.

The most common mistake is using too much. Blue cheese is far saltier and sharper than a melting cheese, so an ounce that would be timid in cheddar will dominate a whole dish. Start with less than you think and taste.

The second mistake is cooking it hard. Push blue cheese to a fast boil and it turns grainy and bitter, the good funk curdling into something harsh. Keep the heat low and add it at the end.

Substitutes

Swap blue for blue when you can, since nothing else brings that mold-ripened tang. Gorgonzola is the easiest stand-in: the dolce style is creamier and milder, the piccante firmer and sharper, so pick by how much punch you want.

Roquefort and Stilton trade places with generic blue too, each a little more refined and a little pricier. For a milder result, Danish blue is the gentlest of the common supermarket blues.

If you have no blue at all, feta gives you the salt and crumble but none of the funk, so it covers the texture in a salad while missing the signature flavor. There is no real non-blue substitute for the taste itself.

Buying and storing blue cheese

Look for clean, distinct veining and a fresh, milky smell under the sharpness. A blue that smells strongly of ammonia is over the hill and will taste bitter. The paste should look moist, not dried out or browned at the edges.

Wrap it loosely so it can breathe. Press plastic wrap straight onto the cut face and the trapped moisture makes the mold spread and the cheese turn slimy, so use wax paper or foil with a little air around it instead.

Stored well in the warmest part of the fridge, a wedge keeps about two to three weeks. Because blue cheese is already mold-ripened, the usual cut-around-the-mold rule does not apply the same way.

A little surface fuzz of the same blue or white is normal, but fuzzy pink or black mold means toss it. You can freeze blue cheese for cooking, though it comes back more crumbly than before.

Nutrition

Nutrition Facts

Serving Size 1 oz (28g)

Amount per Serving

Calories 98Calories from Fat 72

% Daily Value *

Total Fat 8.0g 12%

Saturated Fat 5.2g 26%

Trans Fat ~

Cholesterol 21mg 7%

Sodium 390mg 16%

Total Carbohydrate 0.7g 0%

Dietary Fiber 0g 0%

Sugars 0.1

Protein 6.0g

Vitamin A 4% Vitamin C 0%

Calcium 15% • Iron 0%

* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet. Your daily values may be higher or lower depending on your caloric needs.

recipeland.com/nutrition

Quick facts

Where to find blue cheese: Blue cheese is usually found in the cheeses section or aisle of the grocery store or supermarket.

Food group: Blue cheese is a member of the Dairy and Egg Products US Department of Agriculture nutritional food group.

In Chinese: 蓝乳酪
British (UK) term: Blue cheese
en français: le fromage bleu
en español: queso azul

How much does blue cheese weigh?

Amount	Weight
1 ounce	28 grams
1 cubic inch	17 grams
1 cup, crumbled, not packed	135 grams

Dairy and Egg Products

Butter 14585 Ghee (clarified butter) 240 Blue cheese 95 Havarti cheese 6 Cheddar cheese 1679 Cheese 557 Cheddar cheese, very old, sharp 334 Cheddar cheese, medium 23 Cheddar cheese, mild 32 Colby cheese 26

Recipes using blue cheese

There are 95 recipes that contain this ingredient.

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