Danish blue

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About Danish blue
Wikipedia Article About Danish blue on Wikipedia

Danish Blue cheese (also known as Danablu) is a light cheese veined with mould — in much the same way as is Stilton. It is a cheese made from cows' milk and it was invented early in the 20th century by a cheesemaker named Marius Boel. This cheese is characterised by its sharp and almost metallic taste. It has a salty overtone to it and although it is rather firm, it feels creamy once in the mouth.

Typically the cheese ripens in between eight and twelve weeks and has a fat content of around 50-60%.

It is said that Danish Blue cheese is made by having copper wires passed through the cheese as it matures and also that the 'blueness' of Danish Blue is brought about by Penicillium roqueforti.

There is, however, both truth and falsity in both assertions. In all these blue cheeses the fungal or bacterial cult is inserted into the cream by rods whilst it is beginning to thicken. In some cheeses, the culture is found there automatically in the milk or the surroundings (a cave at Roquefort the Baker burns bread and the inside is not cooked the inside is ground up and added to the cheese which makes Roquefort blue, for example.) The treatment by rods, however, ensures a more homogeneous presence throughout the mold. (Note that the French fromage comes by metathesis from formage (as in Forme D'Anvers), which refers to the mold or form in which the cheese is made.)

Originally wooden rods were used in this process, but these easily rotted, pieces broke off, and the result was quite unpleasant. Whilst some cheese makers experimented with early varieties of stainless steel, the makers of Danish Blue tried copper; one day the copper rods were left in a little too long and when the resultant cheese came to be tasted, the manufacturer thought the result satisfactory and so the practice was adopted.