Blooms, wash rinds, and blues—all soft cheeses—each carry a distinctive type of mold. Today we will learn about these rinds and their accompanying molds that make them taste so divine.
Brie blooms (i.e., camembert, Mt. Tam, Humboldt Fog) include a beautiful fluffy white mold called penicillium candidum or penicillium camberti. The process begins when the cheesemakers place the curds in their forms. Slowly the curds start to turn to cheese. The cheesemakers wait for the newly formed cheese to mature before spraying mold onto their rounds, then pat the rounds down and do it all over again. The mold begins to make a fuzzy shell and sometimes forms distinctive blue spots, which are safe to consume.
* This is the natural process of mold growth
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* If you see blue spots on bloomies on the shell and not the inside, the cheese is still good to eat.
Is vegetarian and vegan-friendly brie available?
Vegetarian and vegan-friendly nut cheese blooms like bries exist. Give these beauties a try. Kite Hill makes excellent nut cheeses, fresh cheeses, and yogurts. They also do raviolis, check it out they should be in the fresh pasta section in a specialty department.
How do you know when brie has gone bad (aka turned)?
Smell:
- A distinctive ammonia smell is present.
- A fishy smell can permeate from the wrapper or accompany the ammonia smell.
Appearance:
- The rind is brick or rose color.
- The consistency is soupy or foamy.
- The packaging is bloated.
- The cheese wheel is cracked.
Brushed with brine or spirits, wash rinds (i.e., Epoisse, Mont d'Or, Red Hawk, Pont L'Eveque) possess orange and red colors. Their mold, Brevibacterium linens, aka B linens, forms a beautiful red mold. One of my favorite wash rinds, Brebirousse, is not a funky wash rind cheese, and it's bloomy with B linens. It's made of sheep's milk and tastes heavenly. Try it. Both brick cheeses and stinky cheeses use B linens. Its job is significant in metabolizing cheese, going from yeast and mold flora to bacterial flora.
* Delicious cheese, sheep's milk brie with b. linens, I don't think you will have any problems with this cheese, since it has been known to be eaten right after buying it from the cheese shop.
How do I know when my stinky cheese has gone bad (aka turned)?
Smell:
- A distinctive ammonia smell is present.
- It smells like Windex.
Appearance:
- The cheese is red.
- The consistency is grainy.
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* it goes from smooth, to changing colors, then it starts to get grainy then turn slimy. If the outside is starting to look like the inside, The cheese is dead. I wouldn't eat since the outside flavor will be all over the cheese and inside.
* this is what you don't want, you can cut it off , but the flavor would be dead. Once you cut into a wheel of any cheese, the maturity will stop and the true flavor will start to diminish.
Blues (i.e., Stilton, Roquefort, gorgonzola) include molds Penicillium Roquefort and Penicillium glaucum, whereas most blue cheeses use Roquefort and gorgonzola use glaucum. Cheesemakers inject the molds into the cheese, then place the cheese forms inside caves or someplace dark and damp for the mold to grow. When the cheese wheel is open, the insides have a veiny green appearance and spew a natural liquid—the whey—also the mold oxidizes, turning from green to blue.
How do I know if my blue cheese has gone bad (aka turned)?
Smells:
- A foul ammonia smell is present.
Appearance:
- The cheese is red or pink.
When it comes to these cheeses that have mold incorporated into since if you were to cut a bloomy rind and then cut a semi-hard cheese or any other cheese without these mold will result in your cheeses looking like this picture below. To avoid, cut the bloomies last, or douse your counter, hands, and cheese tools in distilled vinegar since a very small trace can destroy your cheese.
*These are bad to eat, you can cut, but they're too far gone!
I'm not a doctor, but cheese lovers with a penicillin allergy and pregnant women should avoid bries, soft wash rinds, and blue cheeses since these foods can cause harm. Always follow your doctor's advice.