I met my first wheel of Stilton cheese during a trip to England when I was twelve years old. One taste of that strange-looking cheese shot through with veins of blue, and I was hooked—I couldn’t seem to get enough of that bold, funky flavor.

从那以后，我品尝了许多其他蓝色奶酪，而且我还没有尝试过我真的不喜欢的奶酪。我发现它们都与明确的蓝纹奶酪汤一样有关，但是每个品种都基于变量，例如它的牛奶类型以及它的老化。I’ve also learned that while blue cheeses are great for eating out of hand along with some crackers and fruit or nuts, they’re even better when they’re used as an ingredient in cooking because their intense flavors both accentuate and stand out against the flavors of other ingredients.

提单ue cheeses are versatile partners

提单ue cheeses complement a surprisingly broad range of foods. They’re pungent and assertive, so they combine really well with starchy, rather bland foods like potatoes, pasta, and polenta. They also pair beautifully with beef; both are full-flavored, rich foods, and they harmonize perfectly. Grilled flank steak, rib steak, hamburgers, and roasts of beef all get an extra kick from a topping of blue cheese. And then there are salads, like the classic Cobb (smoked turkey, avocado, bacon, lettuce, tomato, and blue cheese) or a salad of watercress with blue cheese and poached figs. Blue cheeses are creamy and salty, which is why they complement the bright flavors of so many vegetables and fruits.

Gentle heat only, please

Almost all blue cheeses are quite high in fat, so they act in cooking more like a ripened, creamy butter than a cheese. For this reason, if you’re going to involve heat, it’s best not to truly cook blue cheeses but rather to gently melt them. If the heat gets too high, the cheese will break and leave oily puddles in whatever you’re cooking. So if you’re making a cream sauce, pull the sauce from the fire and then stir in bits of the cheese until melted. If necessary, you can put the pot back on the heat just long enough for the cheese to finish melting.

Your finished dish will only be as good as the cheese,特别是在涉及热量的情况下。加热时，蓝纹奶酪会变得特别浓烈，因此奶酪的任何负面品质（苦味，压倒性的发霉和清晰度）都会突出。这就是为什么我不建议用商业生产的廉价蓝调烹饪，这些布鲁斯经常出售。

One last tip: I like to maintain the veined look of the blue cheese in my cooking. Even when I make a blue cheese dressing or dip, I purée only part of the cheese and fold in crumbled bits at the end. When making a sauce, I stir in the bits of cheese just before serving. This way I still have attractive bits of blue showing, rather than a uniformly grayish sauce.

My five favorite blues

经过大量的实验，我将自己的最爱范围缩小为烹饪和吃饭的简短清单：意大利Gorgonzola，French Roquefort，English Stilton，Spanish Cabrales和American Maytag Blue。如果您可以选择，请从知名的奶酪奶酪中购买奶酪，并使用下面的指南来帮助您识别商业生产，熟悉和存储不当的版本中的高质量奶酪。

Roquefort制成的Roquefort（法国）Roquefort将具有通风，易碎的质地，但仍将保持在一起。奶酪应具有象牙色，没有任何黄色的色调。绿色蓝色模具的静脉将很丰富，并将到达奶酪的边缘。避免过多的水分从中泄漏出来（当奶酪在铝箔上重新包裹时，就会发生这种情况）。由于Roquefort没有果皮，因此您可以使用整个奶酪，尽管它在边缘附近会更咸。如果愿意，可以在冷水下轻轻冲洗奶酪以除去多余的盐。

戈贡佐拉（意大利）Gorgonzola有两种：山（老年）和Dolce（甜）。两者都是用牛奶制成的。山戈贡佐拉（Gorgonzola）具有易碎，干燥的质地和有效的蓝色味道，如果不加热并配上梨，苹果，坚果和甜葡萄酒，可以抵消其强度。Dolce Gorgonzola既甜美又温和，具有丰富的奶油室内装饰，使其成为烹饪的绝佳选择。它具有象牙色的内部，可以在层中轻轻或厚实地条纹。当年龄超过六个月时，戈贡佐拉的风味和香气可能非常强烈 - 有时由于其盐水洗净的果皮而截然不同。由于这种趋势，请特别注意您购买的任何Gorgonzola的质量（比象牙更黄的内饰是过度衰老的另一个迹象）。

斯蒂尔顿（英国）Made from cow’s milk, Stilton has extremely fine veins of mold in a characteristic radial pattern that can look like shattered porcelain. This trait gives Stilton its overall blueing—not just in pockets like other blue cheeses—and allows for even flavor. Good Stilton has a dry, rough, brown rind and a creamy, ivory interior with plenty of blueing right to the edge. The cheese should be crumbly but moist enough to hold its shape. Avoid Stilton that has poor blue veining or a darkened or dry interior. The best Stilton for cooking comes from the inner core of the cheese, where it’s creamiest. Buy Stilton in larger pieces so you’ll end up with a good-sized section of interior. The rind and the hard portion near the rind aren’t good for cooking, though some people like to eat them.

Cabrales (Spain)由山羊，绵羊和牛奶的混合物制成，Cabrales（发音为Kah-Brah-lays）是辣，酸性的和奶油的。良好的cabrals完全通过深层模具拍摄。浓烈的果皮粘稠且黄色。内部紧凑，有很多孔和蓝色的静脉。卡布拉莱斯易碎，比roquefort更干燥，咸少。它非常强大，比其他奶酪比其他奶酪更高（可能更接近紫色的紫色）。如果内部变成灰色，请避免出现。奶酪应该以强烈，紫色的蓝色静脉而不是阴暗或泥泞的静脉，看起来新鲜。寻找用天然枫木，橡木或梧桐叶包裹的工匠奶酪，而不是更常见的箔纸包裹。

Maytag Blue（美国）A sharp, biting, salty flavor and crumbly texture make this handmade Iowa cow’s milk blue cheese a great choice for dips and sauces. Maytag Blue should have a creamy but crumbly texture. A light dispersion of blue veining is normal for this cheese.