# What is bleu cheese supposed to taste like? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 21, 2006, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-bleu-cheese-supposed-to-taste-like/345498 "2006-02-21T17:54:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**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:** [February 22, 2006, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-bleu-cheese-supposed-to-taste-like/345498/21 "2006-02-22T00:05:39Z")
> [@GorillaMan](#): > > Maybe a transatlantic difference…but what the hell is ‘bleu’ cheese? It’s ‘blue’, isn’t it? After all, I’m not the first to mention Stilton, which hardly deserves the indignity of a French adjective. Also, look for other blue English cheeses, especially those which have no pretentions, because these are often those with the simplest of traditions (Buxton Blue is a favourite) Yes, it’s a transatlantic thing; somewhat like ‘urbs’ (herbs). ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2006, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-bleu-cheese-supposed-to-taste-like/345498/22 "2006-02-22T00:33:32Z")
> [@FilmGeek](#): > > I imagine your first mistake was going to Ruby Agreed, I think. I got nothing in the olfactory pipes that even resembled “cheese” from this stuff, in any proximity to my nose. All I smelled and tasted was mold, and it wasn’t some exotic flavorful mold, it was just all musty, breadmoldy odor. I’m thinking certain mass-market restaurants with middling-upscale pretentions are buying off-brand cheese… ---
**Author:** ![Scumpup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce73a5/32.png) [@Scumpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scumpup)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2006, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-bleu-cheese-supposed-to-taste-like/345498/23 "2006-02-22T00:41:02Z")
> [@Trunk](#): > > Some cheeses can smell really really bad with a hint of ammonia, and sometimes like feet or ass. Admit it. You work for the Dairy Council. ---
**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2006, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-bleu-cheese-supposed-to-taste-like/345498/24 "2006-02-22T01:06:05Z")
> [@GingerOfTheNorth](#): > > I’m sure it isn’t supposed to taste like feet, but it does to me. I just can’t get over the smell. Actually, it is supposed to taste like feet. \*Brevibacteria \*is one of the species of bacteria that eat milk and shit cheese. They’re also one of the bacteria that eat the skin cells and sebum between your toes . . . and shit cheese. Many of the bacteria that excrete cheese are bacteria that come from human and animal hosts. Don’t forget that cheese was inventeded when someone put milk inside an animal bladder. The digestive agents–including bacteria–produced the first cheese. Cheese is just recycled milk. It’s pre-digested and -excreted. (Why it’s OK for some lactose intolerants.) Yum. ---
**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2006, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-bleu-cheese-supposed-to-taste-like/345498/25 "2006-02-22T01:07:29Z")
> [@jayjay](#): > > Okay, I’m convinced. I think I’m going to stop off and get some to put on salads on the way home, just to introduce myself to the flavor more. An acquired taste has to be acquired, after all. 🙂 > > Thanks, folks! Personally, I don’t think salads are the way to go. Want to really savor some Gorgonzola? eat a crumble with a slice of ripe pear. Some weird kind of synergy happens, and you just dee eye ee _die_. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2006, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-bleu-cheese-supposed-to-taste-like/345498/26 "2006-02-22T01:10:19Z")
> [@twickster](#): > > I’m not sure I want to eat a cheese named after a washing machine. > > Just sayin’. More for me, then. 🙂 [An NPR story on Maytag Blue.](http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4245627) ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2006, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-bleu-cheese-supposed-to-taste-like/345498/27 "2006-02-22T01:31:17Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > More for me, then. 🙂 > > [An NPR story on Maytag Blue.](http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4245627) Heh! And it actually IS named after the washing machine. Or at least named after the family the washing machine’s named for… ---
**Author:** ![Carnac\_the\_Magnificent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Carnac\_the\_Magnificent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Carnac_the_Magnificent)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2006, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-bleu-cheese-supposed-to-taste-like/345498/28 "2006-02-22T01:36:25Z")
Would you agree that bleu cheese generally has a “piquant” taste? Piquant, not a word I use much. ---
**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:** [February 22, 2006, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-bleu-cheese-supposed-to-taste-like/345498/29 "2006-02-22T01:37:19Z")
> [@lissener](#): > > Personally, I don’t think salads are the way to go. Want to really savor some Gorgonzola? eat a crumble with a slice of ripe pear. Some weird kind of synergy happens, and you just dee eye ee _die_. Ooh, or a nice bit of Stilton with a crisp Cox’s Pippin ---
**Author:** ![TwistyLamp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7ba0ec/32.png) [@TwistyLamp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TwistyLamp)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2006, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-bleu-cheese-supposed-to-taste-like/345498/30 "2006-02-22T01:53:33Z")
_droooooooooooolllllllsssssssssssssssssss_ For a good American bleu, try Great Hill Bleu…it is made right in my hometown! ---
**Author:** ![parsnip](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/parsnip/32/4564_2.png) [@parsnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/parsnip)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2006, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-bleu-cheese-supposed-to-taste-like/345498/31 "2006-02-22T02:20:41Z")
serving at room temperature. I grew up in the midwest USA and didn’t have real cheese experience until a grown-up. Served properly makes _such_ a difference! ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2006, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-bleu-cheese-supposed-to-taste-like/345498/32 "2006-02-22T02:21:06Z")
> [@lissener](#): > > Actually, it is supposed to taste like feet. \*Brevibacteria \*is one of the species of bacteria that eat milk and shit cheese. They’re also one of the bacteria that eat the skin cells and sebum between your toes . . . and shit cheese. > > Many of the bacteria that excrete cheese are bacteria that come from human and animal hosts. Don’t forget that cheese was inventeded when someone put milk inside an animal bladder. The digestive agents–including bacteria–produced the first cheese. > > Cheese is just recycled milk. It’s pre-digested and -excreted. (Why it’s OK for some lactose intolerants.) > > Yum. Yanno, I was okay with leaving my ignorance unfought on this. ---
**Author:** ![even\_sven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dfb087/32.png) [@even\_sven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/even_sven)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2006, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-bleu-cheese-supposed-to-taste-like/345498/33 "2006-02-22T02:49:38Z")
I think blue cheese tastes a lot like feet- and I’m all for it. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2006, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-bleu-cheese-supposed-to-taste-like/345498/34 "2006-02-22T02:55:52Z")
> [@twickster](#): > > Yanno, I was okay with leaving my ignorance unfought on this. But think of the new puzzlers you can hit readers with! “Honey! What’s a 13-letter word for ‘cheese-shitter’?” ---
**Author:** ![Spavined\_Gelding](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/958977/32.png) [@Spavined\_Gelding](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spavined_Gelding)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2006, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-bleu-cheese-supposed-to-taste-like/345498/35 "2006-02-22T02:56:12Z")
Like most of us, I suppose, I was raised and came to some level of maturity eating yellow cheeses, Wisconsin Cheddar, Wisconsin Swiss, Velveeta, and a little bit of fake Parmesan/Romano. Once in a great while I’d get some supposed Roquefort in a salad dressing (as often as not in an aluminum pot with a ladle in it). Then a couple years ago my wife and I took a trip or a top flight canal barge through Northeastern France. Breakfast, noon and evening meals were on the boat and prepared on the boat. The food was spectacular but the high-point for me was that the noon and evening meals were ended with a cheese course – one hard cheese, one soft cheese and one blue cheese – and a different selection every time. It was as if I had never eaten cheese before. Cows milk cheese, sheep milk cheese, goat milk cheese, cheese with a salty rind, double cream cheese, fresh cheese, aged cheese, runny cheese, cheese as hard as a concrete block, cheese with blue veins running through it, cheese with a green vein running through it, thirty-six different cheeses. They were just spectacular. Because almost none of them were pasturized there is not one of them that I can get at the local Hi-Vee store (which thinks its getting pretty uppity if it carries Kraft’s smoked processed Swiss). It quickly got to the point that all my inclinations toward gluttony were fully engaged and I was looking forward to, no yearning and lusting for, that final bite of the evening of a blue cheese on a crust of crunchy bread. If good artisan blue cheese is not a direct boon from The Almighty then it is a taste of the temptation we pray to be spared. Damn, it was good. Maytag Blue, incidentally is made on a dairy farm near Newton, Iowa, and aged in a cellar-cave right on the premises. The place is owned by the same family that built the washing machines – now in the midst of being absorbed by some global kitchen appliance mega-corporation, the more is the shame. Because Fritz Maytag’s cheese is pasturized it does fall a little short. Them cheese eating surrender monkeys do do cheese right. I’ve got to stop this. I’m salivating like one of Pavlov’s dogs. ---
**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2006, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-bleu-cheese-supposed-to-taste-like/345498/36 "2006-02-22T02:58:13Z")
> [@twickster](#): > > Yanno, I was okay with leaving my ignorance unfought on this. Ask me about honey. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![SmartAleq](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smartaleq/32/163_2.png) [@SmartAleq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmartAleq)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2006, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-bleu-cheese-supposed-to-taste-like/345498/37 "2006-02-22T03:14:05Z")
Mmmm, cheesy goodness… It’s almost my birthday, so to celebrate (it being payday and all!) I stopped off at Trader Joe’s after work for the makings of one of my favorite meals–the living room picnic. Bought a bottle of French blended rose and a bottle of Two Buck Chuck Sauvignon blanc, some sourdough bread, some pate (unfortunately, they no longer stock the pork liver pate with the truffles, tant pis… Had to settle for the chicken and pork with port) and a bit of cheese–in this case some nice double cream Brie and some wildly delicious English cheddar with caramelized onions. Heated the Brie with a bit of butter on it and proceeded to go hog wild on the whole mess. We’ve done variations of this particular favorite meal in many places and with many permutations of the basic ingredient set and it just never gets old. Oh, chocolate has to wind up the whole shebang, today it’s dark chocolate covered espresso beans–it was a tossup with those maddeningly addictive house brand truffles… If you’re ever in Portland, I heartily recommend the Blue Cheese burger at the Giant Burger in Lake Oswego, it is so incredibly yummy it makes me like beef for a moment! See how I neatly avoided that hijack there? That was pretty cool, huh?! ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2006, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-bleu-cheese-supposed-to-taste-like/345498/38 "2006-02-22T03:40:22Z")
How can anyone govern a nation that has 246 different kinds of cheese? (Charles De Gaulle) ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2006, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-bleu-cheese-supposed-to-taste-like/345498/39 "2006-02-22T03:59:02Z")
> [@Starving Artist](#): > > **jayjay** , do you like wine? If so, you might try some port wine accompanied by bleu cheese and walnuts. I love bleu cheese served this way. Mmm, that’s how I love my Stilton, although also with pears and gingersnaps. The gingersnaps-and-blue-cheese thing was a hard sell for my boyfriend, but once he tried it he was absolutely hooked. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2006, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-bleu-cheese-supposed-to-taste-like/345498/40 "2006-02-22T04:15:21Z")
Are any of the burgers at Ruby Tuesday’s any good? I hadn’t eaten at any restaurants of that chain for years, and my distant memories were that the food there was mediocre. A couple of months ago, having seen their TV advertisements about their burgers (which seem to run endlessly), I decided to just once go there to check out their hamburgers. I picked some burger from the menu that looked interesting. It was pretty terrible. The meat was bad, the bun was bad, and the toppings were bad. I suspect that going to Ruby Tuesday’s for your first experience of anything is a bad idea. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-bleu-cheese-supposed-to-taste-like/345498.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-bleu-cheese-supposed-to-taste-like/345498.md?page=3)