<<Disclaimer: Verify this information before applying it to your situation.>> 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...]