Expert's Guide to Blue Cheese 

My love of blue cheese started when I stopped at a friend's home (1972) on my way from home in Pa, heading back to my base in Virginia. He was stationed in Thailand at the time, but I usually stopped to see his parents when I was traveling through Winchester Va. When I went in, his dad was sitting at the table with a big block of blue cheese, a loaf of black bread, and a pitcher of dark beer. We sat there for quite a while with that trio. A bite of bread, a bite of cheese, and a swallow of beer. The three strong flavors, played off each other so well. It was the first time I had tried any of them and I really think that if I had ever had one or two before, it still wouldn't have affected me like all three of them together. I've loved dark beer, dark bread, and blue ever since. Thanks for the video.

Not surprised Stilton ‘won’. In the U.K. it’s called ‘the king of cheeses’ for a reason.

I learned a great trick with bleu cheese years ago. There was a great deal of cheese sort of stuck to the wrapper, so I put the wrapper in the freezer. I discovered that the smear of cheese became powdery but full of the same great flavor, making it a delicious “dusting” on crisp salad greens or sliced tomatoes. Works with goat cheese too.

I am always happy to see a Jack segment!

If you love blue, try softened creamy blue on corn on the cob. Incredible.

I've loved blue cheese since my first bite back when I was a kid. The stronger, the better!

I got my education about blue cheese working in a restaurant supply house. Huge blocks of blue cheese kept at 40 degrees F. I absolutely adore the stuff!

I knew as soon as she responded the way she did that the 3rd cheese was blue Stilton...that stuff is outrageously delicious.

I live in Iowa close to Maytag. Everyone here thinks it the best but I thought your review was spot on.

I grew up eating Roquefort dressing on salads over 60 years ago. Over the decades I've tried each of the ones in your video and none can touch the original and still the best: Roquefort. I admit I like my bleu cheese strong which is why I find the others lacking. It may be the order of comparison, I was initiated with the strongest flavor.

Being originally from the Leicestershire/Nottinghamshire county border it’s great to see Stilton being heralded here across the pond. One little tip if you like stilton, try Stratford Blue. Just as delicious if not a little more softer than stilton. 👌🏻

I was in the cheese dept. at a Whole Foods. I went up to a worker who seemed a little less than enthusiastic about being interrupted from whatever she was doing. I told her I wanted the stinkiest cheese she had. Suddenly she got very animated. She gave me a piece of blue cheese. She warned me not to smell it, just eat it. It was heavenly. I got a pound. She was right about not smelling it before eating it.

Until about 15 years ago or so, I wouldn't have touched blue cheese for anything. But something happened. Maybe it was age, but now I really enjoy blue cheese. I make my own dressing and it's wonderful! So much better than that gloppy stuff in with all the other salad dressings at the grocery store. I'm very picky about dressings. I eat oil and vinegar or Italian that I make myself, or blue cheese that I make myself. I'm not a picky eater. I'm just extremely picky about ingredients.

I love blue cheese and especially when you throw it on a salad. I don't know when I went from hating it to loving it, but it is great!

Blue Stilton the King of cheese. Love it at Christmas with crackers.

Be on the lookout for Shropshire Blue, an orangy-colored blue which is mild and creamy and simply the most approachable blue I've ever had.

I've made a blue cheese a few times. I adore all of them. Thank you!!!!

No surprise Stilton "won". I lived in that part of the world, surrounded by towns and areas with names like Cheddar, Stilton, Gloucester, Leicester, and Cheshire. Much as I love many blue cheeses, Stilton is always my go to blue cheese. Huntsman is the best of both worlds (double Gloucester layered with Stilton). My only regret (now I'm no longer in the UK) is the inability to get (a) a truly good farmhouse cheddar and (b) a proper scrumpy cider. Both of which I could pick up from local farmers or a roadside stand (i.e. NOT mass produced) within 15 miles of my home.

The minute I saw the one Julia liked, I thought, that's Stilton! I fell in love with it when stationed in England. It's price prevents me from having it very often here in the States.

Very interesting to know the mold used in making blue veined cheese is all the same. Stilton is a real favorite of mine and nothing pares better with it than a very good London Dry Gin.

I'm from Iowa. thrilled to see Maytag!

My favorite blue cheese is an Irish variety called Cashel Blue. It has the same yellowish tinge to it as the Stilton and a lovely buttery finish to it.

I like the creamier blues, flavorful but not overbearing, and good on a slice of baguette. Saint Agur is my go-to.

It’s such a high experience watching any ATK taste testing segments. A lot of fun for all involved! Nice job, team!

I love blue cheeses. My favourite, which I eat every day, is Stilton!

I am coming to appreciate blue cheeses. I can understand her liking the Stilton because it's one of my favorites too. My all time favorite was a Spanish three milk cheese, cow, sheep and goat. It was pungent and earthy and paired remarkably well with ripe pears. Sadly it is no longer available in the US because of import issues.

One of my recent food discoveries is Danish Blue on a seasoned home made beef burger with slices of apple. Or Cambazola with ripe bosc pears.

My favorite blue is Stilton. I love it crumbled in a salad, I don't even need dressing. For some strange reason, I've never cared for Gorgonzola, not sure why. But for me, Stilton is king.

Love blue Stilton. My daughter, married to a Brit, calls it stinky cheese. Less available in US, but Roquefort is a nice sub.

Love Jack and his presentations!

I thought the Gorgonzola was going to be Cambozola, which really is the love child of Brie and blue. One of the glorious moments in my food life was ordering a ploughman's lunch at a pub in England which came with the most massive slab of Stilton I've ever seen.

I love any type of blue cheese, my fave is gorgonzola dolce, but I’m definitely getting the stilton next time I go to the store

I had to travel to France for work. At dinner one night, the server brought out the cheese course and it had a large chunk of Roquefort. When I tasted it, I thought I died and went to heaven. Yum!

The taste test I have been waiting for. I love all of these. For anybody who can get their hands on it: the Rogue River Blue from Rogue Creamery in southern Oregon is to die for (and I think they have a store locator on their site for people out of state)!

That was interesting. I've liked blue cheese since I was a teenager and my Dad gave me a few crumbs to try and it was definitely an acquired taste. I'll have to look for those brands and try them out with my family and see what they think.

Cabrales, La Perel, St. Auger, Ewes Blue, Black & Blue, Amish Blue, Buttermilk Blue, and Cambozola are some of my other favorites!

I once left a piece of fresh feta in the back of my fridge and forgot about it. I retrieved it 3-4 months later. It had blue veins in it and looked just like blue cheese. Adventurous and stupid, I tasted it then ate the whole thing - it toasted just like proper blue cheese.

I adore blue cheese. My favourite (and cheapest) is Danish Blue. I don't know what the US equivalent is, but the Maytag does look very similar. I also love Dolcelatte (literally means sweet milk). I've never really gone for Blue Stilton in the past, but my dad had one last Christmas and it was really gorgeous. The funny thing is, I don't like the plain white part of blue cheese - it's too sour for my personal taste. Decent Danish Blue is getting much harder to find, and these days seems to have a lot less of the veining in it. I have had some batches which were so dry and crumbly they were just bland upon bland, and others which were quite wet and the smell alone would blow your socks off!! But spread onto freshly baked bread of buttered toast is just divine. I've also been known to eat it off the block with a teaspoon!! There's a French one Bleu de Bresse which is also quite nice, but I tend not to favour French cheese - apart from Roquefort which was amazing atop a steak I had in France once. And if anyone is interest, in French it is pronounced 'rock-for' (you don't pronounce the 't'). You can get various artisan (and very expensive) blue cheeses in supermarkets these days - especially around Christmas), but I haven't seen Gorgonzola for a while now.

I was visiting Quebec and stumbled upon the ‘Bleu d’Elisabeth’ at the Fromagerie du Presbytère. It was INCREDIBLE

Learned a lot! Thank you. Did not realize some of my favorite cheeses are all in the same blue family. Roquefort? Love it! Blue Stilton? Gotta try it!

So cool to know, thanks for sharing ❤.

I am so glad to see her pick Stilton as her fav…….absolute best cheese on the planet…..although I might give Roquefort a close second. However there is a bleu Brie and that spread on a warm slice of baguette is heavenly. I will admit to regularly eating bleu cheese by itself and it really doesn’t matter the style or brand but I will say that Gorgonzola is the lowest of them all and doesn’t really belong in the style of cheeses…..after all it is kinda green,not bleu.

Ive had so many different blues from cheese plates selections working in kitchens for 22 years. i dont remember the name but it had raw milk, very high fat content (nice and yellow) salty ,creamy yet firm, and a perfect funk.. massarated strawberry with basil and mint, grilled crusty bread... Blue goats are cool, but im more partial to Sheep, and cow

ATK cookbooks are awesome. I have one I have been using for years. Very thoughtful cook books.

I’m glad she picked the Stilton. My favorite, also.

I love all of them. I am British but live in France. Many wonderful cheeses here.

Stilton is divine! I once sprinkled a bit of grated stilton into quesadillas out of curiosity. It was a revelation.

I just tried Societe Roquefort for the first time, and it’s definitely one of my favorites!

Stilton was the one that made me fall in love with blue cheese. And i recenlty discovered Maytag and its bacone one of my favorites.

I'm a little surprised Cambazola wasn't included as an atypical blue cheese. I love mixing Gorgonzola with mayonnaise to produce a paste that is awesome when put on a hamburger bun or paired with a roast beef sandwich.

Papillon Roquefort from the Auvergne region of France is one of the best.

Thank for the information on blue cheeses now I understand more

Stiltons are king! 😋

This was a great video! Over the years I've come to appreciate cheese more, but I don't think I've ever really tried a nice blue cheese... The Stilton and Gorgonzola sounded right up my alley, and now I know what I might like trying!

I love bleu cheese. Its my absolute favs of all the cheese varieties. I will gladly eat any variety of bleu. My favorite though is the Blue Stilton. The taste and texture, perfection.

When I was a kid I used to think blue cheese tasted a little bit like a crayon and that would probably be from the movie and that would probably be from the moldy type taste but now I learned to love it

That was very useful because I'm just getting into making my own cheese and my next project is a blue cheese. Stilton was definitely being considered so now I'm pretty sure that's what I will try first.

I would have loved to have been on that tasting panel!

I'm not necessarily a huge fan, but as a SE Iowa girl...Nauvoo and Amana Colonies shaped my blue cheese tastes. Maytag 💙 is probably my perfect Bleu.

I grew up eating blue cheese (and blue cheese dressing) b/c my mom loved it. I don't think she had any favorite brands/types but my favorite is Cambozola which is a camembert and gorgonzola cheese. Smells like stinky feet but it's so delicious on a fresh baguette

Danish blue is a cheese I don't see much of in the United States, but is popular in Britain.

I love Maytag! Fell in love with it years ago, but it's getting hard to find in my area.

Roquefort and blue Stilton are my favs. Hard to find the latter in coastal Georgia

I loved watching this and really learned a lot! Like Bridgette, I’d take any one of these.

I've always been a big fan of Stilton, but I've gotta try me some of that Roquefort!

This video inspired me to buy some Stilton today - Colston Bassett Stilton from Neal's Yard dairy in U.K.

It's amazing how difficult it is to find a really good tasting blue cheese at grocery stores! So far the best is at Whole Foods and it's their Buttermilk Blue Cheese. I'm still looking for one at Safeway or Kroger that's higher end....rich, strong tasting crumbly! Any suggestions??!!

I've always kind of defaulted to Gorgonzola, or occasionally Maytag. But now I'm gonna try to find me some Stilton. I've had Roquefort, but it was a bit over the top for me. Great video. Thanks.

Very educational and I interesting, I wa t to run out and buy the Stilton.

Very interesting 🙂 I buy my Blue Cheese from a local French Artisan Bakery. They bring in cheeses from all over Europe. Next time I go there, which will be in about a week, I'm going to check the Blue Cheese, I bought, the last time. They generally carry 4 or 5 different ones. By the amount of mold and the flavor strength, I suspect that it is a Roquefort. Anyway, I make my own, Blue Cheese Salad dressing... I'm told it is to die for 🙂 Thanks for the insights. It's all great info to know... 🙂

Enlightening! I could have sworn that Gorgonzola was the creme de la creme of blue cheeses, but it's really a good cheese for beginners. Love a good Bleu and is wonderful in a cream based dressing but also love it on crackers or slices of apple (much like Brie) and it's good by itself. Thankfully, I'm not a picky eater, but more of an adventurist eater, thankfully and without any food allergies that I'm aware of.

What a great taste test. For my friends that avoid blue cheese, I think I'll introduce them to gorgonzola

My bleu cheese dressing: 1/2 cup mayo; 1/2 cup sour cream; 1/3 cup buttermilk; 1 tsp garlic powder; 1 tsp onion powder; 1/2 tsp salt; 1/2 tsp pepper; 1/2 tsp thyme; 1 container crumbled bleu cheese (Treasure Cave or similar). You can put it on lettuce, veggies, top a steak or just eat it like soup!---It thickens with time and is best the next day.

I always wondered about the “crystals” I could pick up sometimes in blue cheese, because it is so wonderful, and now I know to look for well aged Roquefort

On a side note, Stilton makes for a very interesting tasting cheeseburger.

Thank you for the review. I have avoided bleu cheese due to a lack of knowledge and not wanting to incur the expense and be disappointed. Now I know where to start!

Omg Cambozola should have been an offering. That stuff is amazing!

Pt. Reyes blue (CA.) and Rogue River blue (Oregon) which won the Grand Champion worlds best cheese award in 2019/2020, a first for an American made cheese are our favorites. A panel of over 250 of the worlds foremost cheese connoisseurs chose Rogue River Grand Champion.

My favorite is Societe Roquefort, sometimes it's gotten so rotten is it develops hints of apricot and that's when it's best.

I've only had the crunchy or crystalline once and always wondered what it was. Now I know to look for Rockford

I also grew up loving blue cheese, which isn't so typical for American kids, I suppose, but I grew up in Minnesota which is a cheese loving state.

I love Maytag Blue, the perfect blue cheese for me!

Steak salad with blue cheese dressing. Must try!

IYKYK! Love blue

I sometimes make fettuccini with gorgonzola sauce. It's basically the same as alfredo sauce, but with a different cheese.

My favourite sandwich is blue cheese (such as St. Agur) with spring onions and mayonnaise 😊

Amazing 🥰 Thank you for sharing 👍 great information

I am going to look for Roquefort. They used to have a dressing that was called that, but have not seen it for years.

My cousin brought Rogue River to Thanksgiving weekend and I realized what is meant by the phrase _BLEU HEAVEN._ That cheese slaps you upside the taste buds and leaves you begging for more!

We said it, Stilton!

Fun video! Informative but fun! Great job, y'all. Really enjoyed it.

My favourite is Cambazola, which is a soft cheese. I also love Stilton. Regular blue cheese doesn’t do it for some reason….seems to harsh.

One of lifes pleasures is a really good port and a really good blue cheese

gotta try Stilton... thanks

Something for everybody!

Cheese nerds! I just had Stilton for the first time here in the US. It almost tasted dusty, which was surprising since I rather enjoy blue cheeses though I’ve only had Maytag and Gorgonzola. I almost grabbed Roquefort but decided that I wanted something English. Should I have tried Roquefort instead?

I could tell what was what only by looking at it. Gorgonzola looks very different and roquefort and stilton are quite recognizable too. Except for Maytag, i didn't know what this one was.

try the Irish cashel blue

A good Stilton and Granny Smith apple slices are a match made in Heaven

I love Maytag blue.