Blue Vein (Australian)

Blue cheese (or bleu cheese) is a semi-soft cheese with a sharp, salty flavour. The Penicillium mold cultures are added at the initial stage of the cheesemaking process, giving it blue or green spots or veins throughout the cheese. The creamy texture and a pungent aroma from mold or cultivated bacteria tend to be the characteristic feature of blue cheese. For some blue cheeses, spores are injected before the formation of curds, and for some cheeses, spores are mixed in with the curds. During ageing, the blue cheeses are kept in temperature-controlled environments such as caves.

Australia has made historic progress in producing a variety of Blue Cheeses. The cheesemakers of Australia have been making blue-veined cheese for over 70 years. The first blue cheese factories were recorded to have started in northern New South Wales and Gippsland in the 1930s and 1940s. At present, more than 22 styles of blue cheese are produced in Australia. Australia produces three basic types of blue cheese – Gorgonzola, Danish and Blue Brie.