# Shake your money, Maker. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\ **Created:** [November 9, 2004, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shake-your-money-maker/273925 "2004-11-09T23:39:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Staggerlee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/staggerlee/32/3134_2.png) [@Staggerlee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Staggerlee)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2004, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shake-your-money-maker/273925/1 "2004-11-09T23:39:57Z")
In regards to that[What makes blue cheese blue](http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mbluecheese.html) column, could I just ask this: Couldn’t I make Roquefort(style) cheese fairly easily with a rotten bucket of local milk, and a morsel of Genuine-Roquefort to infect it with the traditional bacteria? Obviously have to make some sort of authentic shepherds cave in the garden to ripen the bastard… ---
**Author:** ![John\_W.Kennedy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_w.kennedy/32/1031_2.png) [@John\_W.Kennedy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_W.Kennedy)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2004, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shake-your-money-maker/273925/2 "2004-11-10T03:07:12Z")
> [@Staggerlee](#): > > In regards to that ‘What makes blue cheese blue’ column, could I just ask this: > > Couldn’t I make Roquefort(style) cheese fairly easily with a rotten bucket of local milk, and a morsel of Genuine-Roquefort to infect it with the traditional bacteria? > > Obviously have to make some sort of authentic shepherds cave in the garden to ripen the bastard… [ul] [li]You’d need ewe’s milk.[/li][li]If you _started_ with “rotten… milk”, you’d be starting out with a lot of _wrong_ bacteria.[/li][li]The Roquefort agent is a mold, not a bacterium.[/li][li]I have no idea of whether the mold is still alive in the end-product cheese.[/li][/ul] ---
**Author:** ![Una\_Persson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/una_persson/32/346_2.png) [@Una\_Persson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Una_Persson)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2004, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shake-your-money-maker/273925/3 "2004-11-10T03:20:57Z")
In addition to what Mr. Kennedy said, much of the Roquefort that we get is pasteurized, which I assume kills off all of the mold that’s in the cheese. I am uncertain as to whether or not unpasteurized cheese mold would actually work well as a starter. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2004, 11:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shake-your-money-maker/273925/4 "2004-11-10T11:56:44Z")
I think ‘pasteuris(z)ed’ in the context of cheese means that the process is carried out on the milk, before the starter is even added; pasteurising mature, ripe cheese would ruin it completely and render it unrecognisable. ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2004, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shake-your-money-maker/273925/5 "2004-11-11T02:42:11Z")
Since this is actually a report by SDSAB staff member Una, let’s move it to the proper forum. ---
**Author:** ![RM\_Mentock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e274bd/32.png) [@RM\_Mentock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RM_Mentock)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2004, 11:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shake-your-money-maker/273925/6 "2004-11-12T11:40:01Z")
> [@John W. Kennedy](#): > > If you _started_ with “rotten… milk”, you’d be starting out with a lot of _wrong_ bacteria. Staggerlee probably meant curdled milk, which is necessary for cheese production. If someone found a jug of curdled milk in their pantry, they’d probably refer to it as rotten. Back to the staff report, the origin legend has someone leaving their curds in a cave for weeks, coming back to find them covered with blue gunk, and eating it. Must have been a cousin to the guy who discovered cider–“Hey, we drank the juice that he left in the cave for weeks, and that was a PARTY. I’m going to try this, no matter how strong it smells.” ---
**Author:** ![ouryL](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ouryl/32/6067_2.png) [@ouryL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ouryL)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2004, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shake-your-money-maker/273925/7 "2004-11-12T17:36:10Z")
> [@RM Mentock](#): > > Staggerlee probably meant curdled milk, which is necessary for cheese production. If someone found a jug of curdled milk in their pantry, they’d probably refer to it as rotten. > > Back to the staff report, the origin legend has someone leaving their curds in a cave for weeks, coming back to find them covered with blue gunk, and eating it. Must have been a cousin to the guy who discovered cider–“Hey, we drank the juice that he left in the cave for weeks, and that was a PARTY. I’m going to try this, no matter how strong it smells.” It was probably more like: “Who’s the idiot who left the cheese out!! Sheesh, now we have nothing else to eat…Oh well, I’ll try cutting around the funky parts…Hey, this ain’t half bad…In fact it’s good!!”