Bleu d'Auvergne

The cheese

Born in mid-19th-century Auvergne mountains, AOP Bleu d'Auvergne is a blue-veined cheese milder and less salty than Roquefort, made from raw or pasteurized cow's milk. The 2-3 kg cylinder is pierced with needles to let in oxygen and encourage the Penicillium roqueforti, creating marbling of blue to blue-green veins. Ageing of at least four weeks in a cool cellar produces an unctuous paste with a clean flavour, balanced between creamy richness and a salty edge, over butter, mushroom and undergrowth aromas. More accessible than its ewe's-milk cousin, it works as well on a board as in the kitchen: blue-cheese sauce for steak, pear tart, soufflé, poultry stuffing. Pair with red Côtes d'Auvergne or a sweet wine.