[Sca-cooks] Re: blue cheese? sampling spices?

Kathleen Madsen kmadsen12000 at yahoo.com
Tue May 9 20:16:07 PDT 2006


There were blue cheeses in period but very few had the
veining that you see in today's blues.  The way that
the veins are produced is by seeding the blue
bacterium into the milk when it is still fluid and
then after the cheese is made they are spiked with
what looks remarkably like stainless steel knitting
needles.  This allows the oxygen to get into the
cheese and the blue bacterium to grow.

Most of what you found in period was an unspiked blue,
so when you cut the cheese open it was a white or
ivory colored paste.  After about 15 minutes or so you
would start to see a blush of blue beginning to
develop on the cut surface.  The longer you leave it
exposed to the air the more extensive the blueing
becomes on the surface, it only extends back into the
paste about 1/4 inch.

A good cheese to look up to get an idea of what it
looks like is to google castelmagno cheese.  Here's
what artisanal's photo of a wedge looks like:
http://65.217.230.240/prodinfo.asp?number=10136

Eibhlin

------------------------------

Message: 5
Date: Tue, 09 May 2006 15:25:44 -0600
From: "Kathleen A Roberts" <karobert at unm.edu>
Subject: [Sca-cooks] blue cheese?  sampling spices?
To: sca-cooks at ansteorra.org
Message-ID: <redirect-7986548 at sabik.unm.edu>
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i hate to ask (cuz i know you learn more when you look

yourself-- how many times have i told the students
that!) 
but the first is just for passing info...

would a blue veinded cheese be in period?

what is the best way to taste spices?  i won a
selection 
of of medieval spices (galangal, grains of paradise,
long 
pepper) and would like to find out how they taste.  is

just nibbling good, or should they have a vehicle like

bread or chicken breast.

cailte
(the c stands for curious too)





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