Not sure if this should go here, or in 'Shopping', but I just found the best blue cheese I ever tasted. Its a Trader Joe's brand called 'Cave Aged Blue Cheese'. Not only is it the best tasting, it was the cheapest in the store. Anyone here who likes this kind of cheese, and can get to a Trader Joe's should look for it, and if your store don't stock it...ask for it. Anyone who has tried it, and think they found something better, let me know. I'm always looking for a better blue cheese!
Although my wife likes the stuff, I don't normally eat moldy food. I heard on a cooking show that bleu/blue cheese came into being from a cattle drive in Northern Italy many centuries ago. The cattlemen used to drive the beef to market, then spend their returns on food on the way home, some of it going to a local monastery that made wonderful cheese. One year, the entire batch of cheese spoiled and the monks didn't know what they were going to do with all the spoiled and moldy cheese, but someone hatched a plan. They convinced the cattlemen that this years cheese was "special" and that it was a delicacy unknown in those parts. The cattlemen bought the cheese and took it home to their wives who thought it was good. A market for spoiled food was born!
I can tolerate bleu cheese chip dip for potato chips if I have to but, since I rarely eat potato chips and dip anymore, and prefer onion dip, I don't buy that either.
As the poor man might have a champagne taste but a beer pocket, I am a Roquefort lover with a blue cheese wallet. I do not care for sweet anything on my salads or even as a dip but do love the musky taste of the mold laden cheeses. Because I do prefer the higher priced Roquefort, I tend to be a little picky about the more affordable varieties of cheese which are similar to my preference and Sam's has a pretty decent product called "Amish Bleu Cheese." Now, I do not know if the Amish actually produce tons of the stuff for Sam's or if it's just a name someone threw on the container but it is no matter to me because it is the actual product that I like even if it were called something else. The closest thing I can remember that was pretty much equal to the Amish Bleu Cheese came from a place in Sandpoint, Idaho. I think the Mennonites made it but to be truthful, I cannot remember all of the details since it was always @Yvonne Smith who bought it for me.
We don't have any store called Trader Joes'' in the UK 'however I love Blue Cheese....but not too strong My favourite is Stilton... but we can get so many varieties here in Europe it's hard to choose a favourite . I'm not too keen on Gorgonzola tho' @Don Alaska , the most popular story of how blue cheese was invented is this one... ''The history of blue cheese goes back to the 7th century, to a cave outside the village of Roquefort in France. Legend has it that a distracted shepherd forgot his lunch of bread and cheese in the cave. When he returned a few months later, the cheese had become infested with penicillium roqueforti, a mould that was growing in the cave. Today this natural mould is refined and used for almost all blue cheeses. The mould culture is simply added to the cheese milk. For the cheese to turn blue, oxygen must be inserted into the cheese through thin needles or skewers. The blue mould then matures inside the air tunnels, developing flavour as it ages. Most mould cheeses take three to six months to mature. In blue cheese, this happens uniquely from the inside outward.'' Anyway...regardless of how it was invented..like so many other weird things, you just wonder, who was the first person to look at it completely covered in furry mould, and think'' yum, I'll eat that''?
Did you know that Roquefort is aged in caves, Ruby ? When you eventually come and visit I'll have to take you to France and show you
You know a lot (not all) of the mold in blue cheeses is penicillin, so back in the olden days, maybe blue cheese was "special": http://blog.onespotallergy.com/2012...i-eat-blue-cheese-made-with-penicillium-mold/ https://www.chowhound.com/post/blue-cheese-penicillin-mold-483642
Dunno why it's all called bleu or even blue when the stuff I buy is riddled with vert along with some bleu......
I tried Ranch dressing...too bland...no tang. I miss the days when Restaurants offered Roquefort Dressing, but you can still buy it for home use. Hal
We really like bleu cheese dressing also, @Hal Pollner . When we go to Sam’s Club, we get one of the cartons of bleu cheese, and then I make the dressing with nice chunks of cheese in it, which is much better than the kind they serve in most restaurants, which only hint about having bleu cheese in the dressing. Even homemade ranch dressing has a lot more flavor than the kind from a bottle, so I always make some of that, too, as well as Thousand Island, which is one of my favorites.
I don't eat enough salads to make a difference but most any kind of salad dressing is okay with me. I'm sure there must be some that would disgust me, but I haven't come across any. Bleu cheese wouldn't be my first choice but I've had it, and it's okay. What I think is funny is that Miracle Whip is labeled a salad dressing but I don't think very many people use it on salads.