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It has been discussed here in the past that the mold in bleu cheese comes
from bread. It hasn't been discussed recently, so I thought this excerpt
from a newsgroup article would be a good time to bring this subject up
again, as it isn't something that is at all obvious. Don Wiss.
 
 
Newsgroup: rec.food.cooking
Subject: Re: Bleu Cheese mold question
From: [log in to unmask] (Henry Hillbrath)
Date: Tue, 13 Aug 1996 13:00:51 GMT
 
[snipped...]
 
I didn't emphasize that, but, it is not accidental, probably, that in the
story, the boy left *bread* and cheese.
 
Up until maybe 50 years ago, the cheese makers of Roquefort made loaves
of a special bread, with course rye flour. These loaves were left in the
aging caves, and when they were well molded, they were ground up into a
fine powder. The cheeses were pierced with a bunch of needles, stuck in a
board, sort of like a pin cushion. Then the bread powder was dusted on
the cheese, and down into the needle holes. This rapidly produced a
consistent and uniform mold in the cheese. (In some cases in Roquefort,
and in other areas, the mold culture is added directly to the curd, but,
the needle process is still used.)
 
Believe it or not, in other areas, Cheshire, Stilton, and Cheddar, for
some examples, it was considered a lucky accident when the cheese
molded, and Blue Cheshires were very rare, and highly sought after. In
Stilton, (well, in the production area, not actually Stilton.) they
learned how to make as many blues as they wanted, and now white Stilton is
rare, but, in Cheshire, they hardly make blue now.
 
More recently, in Roquefort, they have gone to a virtually industrial
process, in which a liquid culture is prepared, and sprayed on the cheese.
[snipped...]