Speciality Food Magazine -November/December 2025

specialityfoodmagazine.com 35 DYLAN FOURIE MACKNADE DOMINIQUE DELACOUR TOM WALKER & SONS BEN STANSFIELD THE CORNISH CHEESE CO CHARLIE TURNBULL CHEESE EXPERT BILL MATHIESON CLAWSON FARMS MARTIN TKALEZ PEVENSEY CHEESE NED PALMER AUTHOR AND CHEESE EXPERT STEPHEN FLEMING GEORGE & JOSEPH EMILY DAVIES DORSET BLUE VINNY CAROLINE BELL SHEPHERDS PURSE COMMENTATORS SAVOURTHE FLAVOUR OF BLUE CHEESE It’s a cheeseboard must-have and a hero cooking ingredient. Speciality Food discovers how to select and store blue cheese, and what consumers are looking for “You have the Gorgonzola style, the Stilton style and the Roquefort style. Roquefort is soft in nature and the mould presents in little pockets, like mini caves. Then in softer varieties, like Gorgonzola, the mould runs in vertical veins, sometimes breaking out. And in Stilton the blue is much more widespread, like webs. It crawls between the cracks of the curds. All lovely.” An ode to Europe While Britain is rightly proud of its stalwart blues, the traditional blue cheeses of continental Europe bring added pizzaz and intrigue to the counter, says author, cheese expert, and ambassador to the EU’s More Than Only Food & Drink campaign, Ned Palmer. “Spicy, fondant-textured sheep’s milk Roquefort leads them all, and has a venerable history. It received the first ever product protection in the form of a royal charter fromKing Charles VI of France in 1407, and was the first cheese to B lue cheese is a marvel. A miracle even. Its existence is thought to be entirely down to happenstance – legend of yore telling that it was discovered when a piece of cheese was unwittingly left in a damp cave, developing mottled blue veining, and taking on entirely new characteristics. Our cheeseboards would be far less exciting without this discovery. Devoid of the piquancy, umami-ness and spice blue delivers. And of the creamy nature of these varieties, created over time as the penicillium roqueforti breaks down and softens the paste. As Caroline Bell, co-owner of Yorkshire’s Shepherds Purse, says, it’s a cornerstone of the cheese landscape, representing both tradition and innovation. Especially here in the UK. “Britain has some of the world’s most iconic blue cheeses, from Stilton with its PDO status to the wave of artisan blues, like ours.” Unlike Cheddar or even Cheshire, what people forget, says cheese expert Charlie Turnbull, is that blue cheese is a relatively new thing. “Up until around 100 years ago, outside of Roquefort and Bleu d’Auvergne in France, Dorset in the UK and Italy’s Gorgonzola, blue cheese really was unusual. They were a rare phenomenon. Go back 150 years ago and you wouldn’t encounter them outside where they were made. Up until the 1920s to 1950s we didn’t see the introduction of moulds to blue cheeses at all. They were from the natural cracking of the cheese and active encouragement. If you look back at Dorset Blue Vinny, they would run horse harnesses in the vat, which sounds disgusting now, but this is why blue cheeses were such difficult animals,” Charlie explains. “It really is very recent that it’s been mastered by cheesemakers.” There are three styles of blue cheese, Charlie says, and wise cheesemongers should aim to offer at least one of each, enabling them to appeal to a wider range of shoppers. TAKE CARE Look after blue cheese with these expert tips: Dylan Fourie, deli manager at Macknade says you should leave as little of the cheese exposed as possible to prevent it drying out. “And keep blue cheeses in their own section as they can permeate the flavour of other cheeses.” “If your fridge is getting full at Christmas, the salad chiller is the best place for it,” says Stephen Fleming, owner of George & Joseph.