I recently bought a round of bleu cheese, mostly for snacking with crackers. When I know I’m going to have some I chop off a piece and let it warm up to room temperature. I’m convinced the warmer temp brings out more flavor.
I also think this is true for any cheese.
Agree or disagree?
Most definitely. I don’t really eat chilled cheese anymore.
Ditto. Same deal with chocolate. I’ve never understood people who put chocolate in the fridge, or sometimes even the freezer so they can eat it while it’s cold, hard and crumbly.
I can’t say if it’s true for any cheese, because I don’t eat a wide enough variety of cheeses to say. But IME, cheese has flavor at room temperature, but doesn’t have much flavor coming right out of the fridge.
Even cottage cheese is better warmed up a tad.
Yes, very much so. Cheese that is too cold loses some of its taste and its tactile attraction.
And did you mean to use “bleu” rather than “blue”? I can’t imagine those english, dutch, spanish, italian etc. cheese makers being thrilled to have a french term applied to their products.
I remember some cheese shops would recommend the temperature challenge. Take half of your cheese and let it get to room temp, then keep the rest in the refrigerator. Taste and compare.
From Zingerman’s website:
“Serve it at room temperature, warming for 20 minutes before you bite. You really can taste the difference.”
Tomatoes, too, and certain wines.
I lived in France briefly some years ago, and the idea of keeping cheese in the refrigerator is greatly looked down upon there. We just kept it on the counter, wrapped in plastic wrap.
Of course, a hunk of cheese would only last two or three days at most, so spoilage (can cheese spoil?) wasn’t an issue.
You know, I don’t know where exactly it came from, but there is a tendency in the US for many people to spell it “bleu” cheese for some reason. I spell it “blue” these days, but I definitely remember “bleu” being my spelling when it came to cheese. I think I was influenced by salad dressings like this. I swear the big brands like Wishbone or Kraft or whatnot used to spell it as “bleu” back in the 80s or so, but every link I see now has it as “blue” cheese. Maybe I’m having a Berenstain/Berentstein Bears moment.
Same for most uncooked vegetables and fruits. I never prefer them refrigerated.
Great God, what sort of monster would put a ripe August tomato into the refrigerator in the first place?
It works the same way with beer, too. There is one American beer who’s advertising consists entirely of showing how cold it is. Warm it up to room temperature, God forbid, and you find out what it actually tastes like.
Like pulykamell I too learned that blue or bleu cheese was spelled “bleu.” No offense to the English, Dutch, Spanish, Italians, etc. intended.
At my local beeratorium, if there is a beer in the cask system it is at the perfect temperature. With the regular draft system you see people warm the glass of beer in their hands before tasting it.
A cicerone did a demonstration where he had us try several beers at various temperatures. For certain beers you’d swear you were drinking different beers.
“Bleu cheese” comes from France. “Blue cheese” comes from anywhere else. The French would be very offended if you called cheese from another country “bleu cheese.”
I assume this is tongue in cheek, but if not, I don’t really think that’s the distinction. I’m pretty sure the “bleu” cheese dressing above is made with domestic cheese. It just became associated with France somewhere early on and retained the spelling in regards to cheese for whatever reason,
Offending the French isn’t on my list of things I’d like to avoid doing.
Well now, I love my gallic cousins but “being offended” is pretty much a national pastime, especially when you point out to them that the UK has a wider variety of cheeses than the French, that really annoys them.
Before my family had central air conditioning, Mama Plant kept my chocolate in the refrigerator so that it wouldn’t melt.