How To: Serve Blue Cheese
Blue cheese can sometimes be daunting to serve to guests, but it can be one of the tastiest varieties of cheeses you can offer! From mild to strong, creamy to crumbly, there is a blue cheese that even the pickiest of cheese enthusiasts can enjoy. Interested to know what all the hype is about? Here are some tips on how to get into the world of blue!
Veining
The easiest way to tell which blue will be the strongest tasting is by checking out the veining. Veining is the fancy term for the amount of blue mold inside the cheese.
Milder blues will have visibly less veining than the more pungent ones.
Texture
As any other cheese, blue cheese can vary from creamy and spreadable to dry and crumbly - there is no hard or fast rule about which is better, and it all comes down to your preference. Cheeses such as St. Agur and Roquefort (both from France) are two extremely popular blues that both happen to be very creamy, but other blues such as Shropshire and Stilton (both from the UK) are drier, crumblier but just as delicious!
If you're just starting to get into blue cheese, keeping your textural preferences in mind when selecting is important, but definitely make sure to choose a milder blue to ease your way in.
Roquefort from France - a.k.a. the King of Blues
Pairings
Blue cheese is an incredible vessel for pairings - especially if you're new to the blue!
Blues almost always love being paired with something sweet - whether it's honey, maple syrup, jam/jelly or fresh fruit, sweetness with blue cheese really brings out the delicious fruity notes in the veining. The mold in the veining can sometimes be a little bitter, so adding something sweet is never a bad idea. Pears, strawberries, blueberries and apples are very common fruit pairings with blue, because they elevate the flavours of the blue! Also, blues are generally on the saltier side, so the sweetness helps mellow that out.
Texturally, really creamy blues do great with a nice, crunchy cracker. Normally it's best to have a plain cracker when you want to show off your cheese, but flavoured crackers work really well with blues because it gives a little bit of sweetness, a great crunch, and a complimentary flavour.
As for wine pairings, blue cheese pairs best with a medium-bodied red wine, but when pairing cheese with wines preference always comes first. Don't like red wine? You won't miraculously love because you're drinking it alongside blue cheese! Always approach pairings with your personal tastes in mind.