How Blue Cheese Is Made
Raw milk is pasteurized and then acidification occurs when a starter culture is added to convert lactose to lactic acid, changing the milk from liquid to solid. Rennet is added to help coagulate the milk, and the curds are cut to release the whey. The curds are drained and formed into wheels. At this stage, Penicillium roqueforti is sprinkled over the cheese, and the cheese is salted to prevent spoilage. The cheese is left to age for 60 to 90 days. The cheese’s signature blue veins are created during the early aging stage when the cheese is “spiked” with stainless steel rods to let oxygen circulate and encourage the growth of the mold. This is also referred to as “needling.” This process softens the texture and develops the cheese’s distinctive blue flavor.
While the mold cultures and needling contribute largely to the flavor and texture of blue cheese, other factors are always at play. The type of milk that is used , what the animals were eating before they were milked, and the slightly different cheesemaking techniques used by each cheesemaker ensure that every blue cheese around the world will have its own distinct flavor.
Buffalo Chicken Sandwiches Made With Castello Burger Blue Cheese
Disclaimer: I received a coupon from BzzAgent.com and Castello® for a nearly free package of Castello® Burger Blue Cheese for the purpose of this review and campaign. The following are my own thoughts and experiences on the product.
Buffalo chicken and blue cheese are a match made in heaven, but the downfall of this tasty treat is that it is usually messy, very messy! Most places if you order a Buffalo Chicken sandwich it is served with blue cheese or ranch dressing, blue cheese crumbles, or some other cheese The dressings are messy and get everywhere, the crumbles roll everywhere if not melted and its uneven and well, come on if youre going to use cheese it should be blue cheese!
Emporium Selection Cabra Goat’s Milk Cheese $266 Per 100g
73/100
Looks very similar to manchego, but this Spanish cheese is made from goat’s milk, not sheep’s.
Williamson: The acidity is right and there’s a nice level of saltiness.
Redhead: It’s a good honest cheese. There’s nothing outstanding about it but there’s nothing bad either.
Best with: A cold can of easy-drinking ale.
Available: Aldi
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With A Vital Distinction Front And Center The Cheesemaker Brings Authenticity To The Shelf As It Bolsters Its Brand
BASKING RIDGE, NJ
The specialty cheese set can be an overwhelming experience with countless options of cheese type and origin. Castello is helping consumers find authentic Danish favorites with the rollout of its Protected Geographical Indication seal.
In October 2019, the European Union granted exclusive PGI rights to Denmark for Havarti cheese production, Castello Brand Manager, Leah Sbriscia states. For PGI status, Havarti cheese must be produced from Danish milk at approved dairies. The PGI seal helps communicate quality and authenticity on the shelf.
The PGI seal can be found on the companys Havarti products. Castellos Havarti portfolio includes eight different varieties such as Creamy, Aged, and Dill. The cheese is authentically Danish, as it is produced in Denmark using traditional cheesemaking methods.
Since 1893, Castello has brought a balance of innovation and tradition to the art of cheesemaking, continues Sbriscia. Castello cheeses cover a wide range of traditional, regional recipes, and our own uniquely crafted cheeses are always made with natural ingredients and great attention to detail.
Found nationwide in major retailers, Castello Havartis footprint distribution includes Walmart, Publix, H-E-B, Shop Rite, Meijer, Albertsons, and more. In addition, Castello meets many foodservice needs as the cheese is available in a convenient 9 lb loaf.
The Origin Of Castello Blue Cheese
Historically, bleu cheese was first made in 1893 by a Danish named Rasmus Tholstrup. His successor, Henrik managed to receive a recognition award in 1963 for his massive effort in making Castello blue cheese popular not only in Denmark, but all over the world. Later on, Castello was acquired by Arla who then started to sell more Castello blue cheese in North America region.
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Jindi Camembert $3 Per 100g
68/100
Oozy, buttery cow’s milk cheese from Gippsland. Something of an Australian classic.
Williamson: I like it. Really nice and ripe. There’s freshness and milk flavour to it.
Redhead: Out of all the white cheeses we’ve had, this one is the most developed in flavour.
Best with: A light Tassie pinot noir.
Available: Coles and Woolworths
Emporium Selection English Blue Stilton $298 Per 100g
58/100
Made in England, this blue is lovely to look at with its mouldy, sexy rind. It’s a shame it tastes so bland.
Shearston: The texture’s quite nice and there’s a good level of mould spread throughout it. It’s not too punchy and would suit someone who’s not a big blue cheese eater.
Williamson: That acidity is quite volatile too.
Best with: A sipper of port on Christmas Eve .
Available: Aldi
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Castello Havarti With Caraway
Denmark’s Finest Havarti with Caraway has a slightly savory flavor due to the zesty nature of the caraway seeds. Pairs with fruit and whole grain breadstuff. Serve with a chilled Chardonnay for a special treat.
Havartiwas first developed by a 19th century Danish dairy pioneer named Hanne Nielsen.The cheese was named after Hanne Nielsen’s dairy farm: Havarti. Today it is oneof the most popular cheeses for snacking and entertaining. Danish Havarti has been popular in the USA for many years. Denmark’s Finest is the original, imported Danish Havarti. It is your guarantee of exceptional quality, consistency and authenticity.
INGREDIENTS:
Pasteurized milk, salt, caraway seeds, culture, microbial rennet.
DIRECTIONS:
Celebrate National Cheese Day With A Havarti Giveaway From Castello
Youll want to head on over to the CASTELLO website, to get in on this epic giveaway which offers cheese lovers a chance at a wide variety of prizes including a years supply of CASTELLOs Havarti Cheese, and even $1,000!
According to the brand manager for CASTELLO, Leah Sbriscia, We think cheese should be celebrated every day of the year, but we are especially excited to ring in National Cheese Day by helping cheese fans everywhere discover Havarti. Our Havarti cheese has a smooth, creamy texture and rich buttery flavor that makes it a delicious addition to any cheeseboard or recipe and, of course, the perfect way to elevate any National Cheese Day celebration!
If you love cheese this is the ultimate giveaway for you. And whether you have tried Havarti before or this is the first time, CASTELLO is the perfect brand to get your fix with.
This National Cheese Day we are celebrating with the good stuff and that means lots of cheese, crackers, and of course a giveaway.
What do you think of this giveaway? Are you going to enter for a chance at a years supply of CASTELLO Cheese? Are you celebrating National Cheese Day with us? Let us know in the comments.
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Coles Triple Cream Brie $250 Per 100g
66/100
The supermarket’s house-brand Australian-made cow’s milk brie. Have to give Coles credit for displaying the optional “one star” health rating on the label.
Shearston: It’s very salty, but I like the rind on it. It has a nice crunch.
Redhead: There’s a nice flavour here, but it’s dominated by too much salt.
Best with: An unapologetically silly sparkling red on Christmas morning.
Available: Coles
Castello Launches Interactive Tool For Users To Create Personalized Cheese Boards
Castello, a cheese brand owned by Alra Foods, has launched an interactive tool for users to create a personalized cheese board based on their taste and dietary preferences.
The new tool allows users to prepare their own board featuring unique cheeses, food pairings and beverages.
To create a board, users have to mention their preferences such as bold or mild flavors, traditional or unexpected pairings, and creamy, blue or aged cheeses on the tool.
It also has an option for users to indicate if the board should be gluten-free, vegetarian, low-sugar or non-alcoholic.
After taking the inputs, the tool generates a cheese board image by analyzing the users’ data.
Arla Foods USA Castello brand manager Amy Woodbridge said: “The Castello Cheese Board Builder helps cheese lovers make their boards truly spectacular.
“It features creatively crafted ingredients, inspiration for how to cut your cheeses and arrange food pairings, as well as truly interesting facts about the items on your board. And the grocery list makes shopping for your board a quick and easy process.”
Users can save the board for reference in future, download or print a shopping list of the cheese board ingredients or share it via social networking sites and email.
To include flavorful pairings to enable users to amplify their cheese board, Castello partnered with complementary brands lesley stowe raincoast crisps and Folie á Deux wine.
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South Cape Vintage Club Cheddar $429 Per 100g
26/100
Club cheddar is made by putting cheddar through a mincing machine or blender. It’s then pressed to come out square-looking, but has a super crumbly texture. South Cape’s vintage version is aged for a minimum of 12 months.
Shearston: I’m not a fan of cheddars being slightly creamy like this is.
Foley: No, it’s too rich. It needs to be sharper.
Best with: Two bottles of wine under your belt on Boxing Day.
Available: Coles and Woolworths
Castello Creamy White $399 Per 100g
83/100
A soft white cow’s milk with the slightest hint of funk from a Danish company more than a century old.
Williamson: It’s almost like a really light washed-rind flavour.
Shearston: I love it.
Foley: Yeah, there’s a really nice sourness to it.
Best with: Riesling on a verandah.
Available: Coles and Woolworths
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Emporium Selection Aged Cheddar Cheese 20 Month $160 Per 100g
43/100
A pale yellow brick that holds its shape. Made from the milk of Australian cow’s milk and aged for 20 months.
Williamson: It’s sharper than most of the other cheddars.
Foley: It’s not changing any lives though, is it?
Best with: A blended scotch whisky like Johnnie Walker Black.
Available: Aldi
Le Secret De Scey $580 Per 100g
75/100
More or less the poor cousin of comte, and made in the same region of France. A cow’s milk semi-hard with a natural brine washed rind that’s almost exactly the same as morbier cheese. When the Appellation d’Origine Controlee decreed morbier must be made with raw milk only, this pasteurised sibling was born.
Redhead: It has a depth of flavour most of the other cheeses today don’t.
Best with: Dry sherry and muscatels.
Available: Coles
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Cracker Barrel Gold Release Cheddar $330 Per 100g
36/100
Deep yellow and aged for more than 40 months. These days, Cracker Barrel is made in Australia by Warrnambool Cheese and Butter .
Redhead: Out of all the cheddars, I personally think this is the best one.
Williamson: It’s bloody sharp, I’ll give it that.
Best with: A big oaky chardonnay.
Available: Coles and Woolworths
Tarago River Cheese Company Shadows Of Blue $667 Per 100g
86/100
Cow’s milk double-cream blue vein out of Gippsland. Aged for up to three months and wrapped in natural bee’s wax. Sometimes described as “the brie eater’s blue”.
Foley: It’s delicious. I really like it.
Williamson: Yeah, me too. It’s super creamy. An entry-level blue.
Redhead: There’s a lovely contrast between the blue and the brie elements.
Best with: A clean, crisp, slightly tart cider
Available: Coles
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Emporium Selection Australian Washed Rind $319 Per 100g
65/100
A molten French cheese you can smell from six feet away.
Williamson: That’s f–king disappointing. It doesn’t taste like washed rind! It’s not strong enough.
Redhead: That’s where Australia is at right now though. There’s only a small percentage of people who want that smelly, rotten socks flavour with their cheese.
Williamson: If I had a blindfold on, I wouldn’t pick that as a washed rind.
Redhead: You’re absolutely right. There’s no washed rind flavour. I suspect they may have used annatto, an orange dye, on the outside of the cheese to make it look like a washed rind.
Best with: Your second favourite beer and third favourite relative.
Available: Aldi
Consumption And Other Uses
The regional cuisine in and around Aveyron includes many Roquefort-based recipes for main-course meat sauces, savory tarts and quiches, pies, and fillings.
Contrary to popular belief, Penicillium roqueforti does not produce penicillin. However, due to the presence of other anti-inflammatory proteins, it was common in country districts for shepherds to apply this cheese to wounds to avoid gangrene.
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What Is Blue Cheese
Blue cheese is thought to have been invented by accident when cheese was stored in temperature- and moisture-controlled caves during the Middle Ages. It’s believed that at one point a half-eaten loaf of bread was left behind in a cave by a cheesemaker in Roquefort, France, and, upon his return, he discovered that the mold covering the bread had transformed the cheese into blue cheese.
There are many varieties of blue cheese. Early versions were produced in France and Italy, and later versions evolved throughout Europe and North America. Depending on the blue cheese, the texture and flavor vary from crumbly, weepy, salty, and sharp to softer, creamy, and mildly earthy. Some versions are enriched with cream and have a soft middle and a bloomy rind. No matter the version and flavor profile, blue cheese is characterized by green, blue, gray, or black veins or spots of mold throughout the body. Many varieties are available in supermarkets and specialty shops and range from inexpensive to pricey, depending on the source.
Arla Canadas Milestones Since 1961
1961: Subsidiary established under the name Dofo Cheese Co. in Toronto1987: First Danish Havarti Recipes Production in Canada1991: Havarti Production start at Amalgamated Dairies Limited 1992: First Danish Feta Recipe production in Canada 2000: Merger Between Swedish Arla and Denmark MD Foods, new company name Arla Foods Inc.2004: Arla Foods Inc. acquires National Cheese Company Ltd. and the Tre Stelle brands2007: First production of Blue Cheese in Canada 2008: First production of Gorgonzola Cheese in Canada 2011: 20th Anniversary of ADL and Arla partnership
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Fromager D’affinois $690 Per 100g
73/100
Cow’s milk double-cream soft cheese from France that’s so creamy it will practically turn into puddle if left out too long.
Shearston: It’s not very challenging. It’s creamy, it’s soft, there’s a bit of bite, but nothing that makes you say “wow”. A good cheese if you’re not that into cheese.
Redhead: There’s no defects but there’s nothing outstanding either. It’s just a good, pleasant cheese.
Best with: A slice of nice, crusty sourdough.
Available: Coles
Meredith Dairy Plain Goat Cheese $599 Per 100g
84/100
Fresh, milky, snow white chevre from Meredith, Victoria.
Foley: Phwoar, yeah. I love that texture. So light.
Shearston: For goat’s cheese, it’s not too goaty. Some of them taste like you’re licking the barnyard floor.
Best with: Great by itself but you could also throw it in a piping bag and do some cool stuff over beetroots and walnuts.
Available: Coles and Woolworths
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Emporium Double Cream Camembert $225 Per 100g
58/100
Australian-made in Gippsland with bright, white rind. Not the softest camembert you’ll ever encounter.
Foley: It’s a crowd-pleasing cheese. It’s not an offensive cheese.
Shearston: I just feel that if I ate it, I’d be like “why did I waste a wheel of calories on that?”.
Williamson: Yeah, you certainly wouldn’t bother trying to wine match with it.
Best with: Healthy slices of green apple and pear.
Available: Aldi
Mersey Valley Ploughmans Club Cheddar $317 Per 100g
11/100
Onions have been used to flavour the Tasmanian company’s “ploughman’s” club cheddar, which is meant to be eaten with pickles and ham.
Williamson: This one smells like that corner of your cupboard where an onion’s gone wrong.
Shearston: It’s horrible. Absolutely disgusting.
Best with: Your drunk uncle in the corner.
Available: Coles and Woolworths
A big thanks to Gerard’s Bar & Charcuterie in Brisbane for letting me slice supermarket cheddar on the counter.
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Mon Pere Brie $480 Per 100g
31/100
A classic double-cream French brie sold in wedges the size of door stoppers.
Shearston. I do not like this. That rind is overpowering and bitter.
Redhead: Whereas the other white cheeses are very milky, this has an earthy, unclean, farmyard flavour.
Best with: Neighbours you don’t particularly care for.
Available: Coles and Woolworths
Castello Is Celebrating National Cheese Day By Giving Away Havarti
Its a Havarti party for National Cheese Day! Thats right we are all about the cheese on June 4, as it is a day dedicated to our favorite snack.
Did you know that June 4 is National Cheese Day? CASTELLO Cheese wants to make sure that you do and how better to do that than with a cheesy giveaway.
In honor of this day of cheese, CASTELLO is giving away Havarti to their fans. But this giveaway is only good through June 5 so if you are looking to get in on this Havarti Party then youll want to be quick.
Want to know more?
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King Island Dairy Phoques Cove Camembert $6 Per 100g
46/100
Named after a cove on King Island’s north-west tip, this nutty Tasmanian camembert has an attractive white mould that looks swell on any plate.
Redhead: You can tell by the yellow-ish centre, this is made from the milk of a jersey cow.
Foley: It’s pretty boring. I don’t mind the soft texture, but there’s not much else to it.
Best with: Inexpensive rosé and an aunt you haven’t seen for a while.
Available: Coles and Woolworths.
Woolworths Gold English Blue Stilton $533 Per 100g
38/100
Like all cheeses carrying the name Stilton must be, Woolworths’ home-brand blue is made in England. This guy is very crumbly.
Williamson: What is this? The club cheddar of blues?
Redhead: I don’t rate either of the Stiltons we’ve had today.
Shearston: That pasty texture. Ugh.
Best with: Celery sticks nicked from the dip platter.
Available: Woolworths
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