Mild blue cheeses

For Easter dinner I will attempt to prepare individual portions of Beef Wellington for 10. This recipe is not a classic version and does not include foie gras, but calls for Gorgonzola.

However, I myself am not a fan of super strong cheeses and want a mild blue cheese to use in the recipe. I'm thinking Gorgonzola is a strong blue.

I'm not familiar with blue cheese outside of having crumbles on my salad, so forgive my ignorance. Can an expert out there provide this novice some advice?

I am in Wisconsin on vacation, so if anyone has WI recommendations I could seek those out while I am here.

Castello Bleu Cheese is my favorite among the milder bleus. Its a triple-cream bleu, very smooth, also much softer than gorgonzola. You should be able to find it at Whole Foods.

Another favorite of mine, and my go-to bleu for salads, is the Montchevre Goat's Bleu - its not as tangy as gorgonzola, and if you're looking for a firmer bleu, this one will do nicely.

Neal's Yard makes a nice goat blue cheese. Only $40/lb at Whole Foods.

How about Gorgonzola Dolce? It's a much younger and milder version of regular Gorgonzola. I tend to favor stronger blues such as Cabrales but I can't get enough of this stuff.

It's easily spreadable and will work very nicely as an ingredient in Wellingtons.

I can think of a couple of good options.

First, Palladin Bavarian Blue is a milder, smooth, almost laid back cow's milk blue from Germany. It has somewhat of a soft texture which can be both crumbled and sliced.

My second suggestion for the particular dish you are making would be a Australian Roaring 40s blue cheese. It is a cow's milk cheese also. So, it will be significantly milder than a sheeps milk blue. It has an, almost nutty flavor which gives it a complexity that many blues don't have. Unlike many other blues, it is finished in wax rather than a rind. So, the cheese stays quite moist and holds together. I think that the nuttiness and creaminess of this cheese would really add even more richness to your Wellington than a drier, flakier blue cheese.

Personally, I love either of these cheeses both on their own and in recipes.

I'm pretty much with YourPalWill: Roaring 40s is wonderful stuff. It can be hard to find, tho'—you'll need a pretty good cheese shoppe. It's at The Better Cheddar in Kansas City, and I'd bet that they would ship it to you pretty fast.


Blue cheese from Bavaria is also lovely stuff, but I like a different brand:



which is really super creamy.

Tell us how things work out!

Geo

The Better Cheddar
604 W 48th St
Kansas City, MO 64112, United States
(816) 561-8204

FWIW, Whole Foods in Boystown had a few wheels of Roaring 40s a week or so ago. It might be worth calling ahead to see if they still have it. They have the Palladin on a pretty consistent basis.

The King's Mark Danish blue at Costco is really nice. And it's Costco, so you have to buy more, but it's so much cheaper than Whole Foods ($6.17/lb.) that you can buy more and still pay less.

I save Whole Foods for the exotica that I can't get at Costco. For something like a nice, mild blue to be cooked in a recipe, Costco rocks.

Geo wrote:I'm pretty much with YourPalWill: Roaring 40s is wonderful stuff. It can be hard to find, tho'

Fox & Obel usually carries Roaring 40s (the only other Australian cheese they carry regularly is the Yarra Valley Persian Fetta in a can, which seems to be pretty standard in the Chicago area--if a store carries any Australian cheeses at all, it's most often those two). I'm not a big fan of blue cheese, but I think it's actually the milder versions that are harder for me to tolerate. They remind me more of blue cheese salad dressing, which I've always really disliked. That said, do folks familiar with Roaring 40s really think that it's an appropriate cheese for a blue cheese novice? It is milder than a lot of blue cheeses, but it's complexity makes it somewhat unusual...maybe too unusual for someone unsure about blue cheese? I don't know... I was off put by Roaring 40s when I tried it from a NYC Whole Foods two years ago, so much so that I had no interest in sampling it when I was in Melbourne this past December.

IMHO, Roaring 40s is even better than Stilton with port. I first had it 4 yrs ago when we visited my wife's best friend in Brisbane. We had it with port and it just blew me away: you're right, it's a *very* complex cheese.

I've been freezing the Bavarian Blau for years, so I reckoned I could do the same with the R40s. Bought half a dozen wheels, brought 'em home and popped 4 into the freezer. Bad call. They popped their wax cases and crumbled like cheddar does when frozen. Whipped it into some cream cheese, which was the only solution I could think of, so to say. Not good, but it worked.

Geo

I like Maytag blue for a mild, creamy blue cheese. It doesn't cost nearly as much as some of the other options mentioned.

What about Stilton? I think of it as milder than a Maytag...though it's a bit different than a traditional blue in other ways as well...

I vote for Gorgonzola Dolce as well -- however -- I'm dying to hear more abou the recipe!!!! I love Beef Wellington in all permutations and this is intriguing to me! Do you coat the puff pastry with it instead of the mushroom mixture?

I like Roaring 40s, too. It is regularly stocked at Provenance. In fact, I think I saw it there over the weekend, but you might want to call first.

Thank you for all the suggestions. Wish The Cheese Stands Alone was still open....

Beef Wellingtons With Gorgonzola recipe

Katie wrote:I like Maytag blue for a mild, creamy blue cheese. It doesn't cost nearly as much as some of the other options mentioned.

Second.

You can't go wrong with Maytag, it's my go to for sauces and dips.

(If someone identifies a better thread to add this to, please advise)

The History of Roquefort French Dressing

Roquefort cheese has been made in the caves of Combalou, Roquefort-sur-Soulzon, at least since Gaul was occupied by the Romans — Pliny the Elder spoke highly of it, and he was not the sort who normally gushed gourmet superlatives. By 1411, Les Causses had been granted the exclusive right to the name “Roquefort,” and all other blue-veined cheeses had to make their own reputations. Salads, of course, go back much further — they were known to the ancient Greeks — but didn’t have an entire book devoted to them until 1699, when Robert Evelyn published his Acetaria: A Discourse on Sallets.

When salad and Roquefort cheese first got together is somewhat more mysterious. Usually, recipes just “happen,” they evolve — often in several places at the same time — in response to new tastes, the availability of new ingredients, etc. Recipes, or “receipts,” have only found their way into print after a sufficient number of people found them useful. Only rarely can we provide, with any certainty, the “who, what, where, when and how” of a recipe’s creation
...

Might as well add my two cents to this ancient thread reanimated by Cathy2:

Of the Roqueforts available-domestically, I prefer either a Papillion, or, moreso, the Coulet. Once unwrapped the Coulet oozes with a thick slime of whey. Coulet Roqueforts are ripened much deeper in the caves than, the, to my mind, common, Societie Bee. Of course, Roquefort is a king of European Blues, the French brother of Italian Gorgonzola Piquante'(aka Mountain Gorgonzola), and, a cousin of the Spanish Valdeon, or Cabrales(both the stronger of the aforementioned blues).

Speaking of gorgonzola and the milder blues. I'm sure many of you know the yin to Mountain Gorgonzola's yang is Gorgonzola Dolce: a "sweet" gorgonzola. Two of the best of these dolce(and some of the best blues period) both by Guffanti(the great Italian affineurs and distributors) are Gorgonzola Dolce and Gorgonzola Cremificato. Often mistaken for one another, the luscious cremificato has mascarpone mixed into the paste. In fact, a vendor for Guffanti, sometimes reps his wares by mounding gorgonzola cremificato into those little ice cream cones. Fun.

The following is a list, by no means definitive, of milder blues:

gorgonzola dolce of any maker, but especially Guffanti
gorgonzola cremificato, see: Guffanti
Point Reyes blue
Maytag (only this past year available once more after a health scare)
Rogue Creamery Smokey Blue(I love smoked cheeses and this is one of the best)
Jersey Blue, rock star affineur Rolf Beeler's, gorgeous marbled Jersey Cow milk, seasonal Swiss blue
Blauschimmel (a rare, buttery blue)
Cambozola and Cambozola black (both easily-sourced)
Cashel blue
fourme d'ambert
fourme d'ambert with sauternes