Mold can take on the most adventurous colors and shapes on cheese, so that the cheese sometimes looks like a little furry animal ... in most cases, however, the mold is not bad, but absolutely intentional. Just think of the white noble mold of Camembert or the many delicious blue cheeses ...
Based on various French and Italian raw milk cheeses, we explain to you in this video what types of mold there are and whether you can eat it or rather not. Enjoy watching and don't be afraid of mold!
Here are a few hard facts at a glance:
- The well-known white noble mold (as in Camembert, Brie, Chaource, etc.) bears the name Penicillium candidum. It is sprayed specially on the cheese and the cheese is stored so that the white mold can grow perfectly. This mold is therefore absolutely intentional and harmless and should definitely be eaten.
- Blue mold, such as in Roquefort or Bleu d’Auvergne, is also an intentional mold that is specially added. In this case, the Penicillium Roqueforti. The mold spores are added to the milk during cheese making and, like with the white mold, everything is done to ensure that the mold grows optimally. Since the blue mold is inside the cheese, of course you don't think of removing it, but eat it and enjoy it.
- Other harmless mold types that spontaneously form on some cheeses such as aged goat cheese or Brin d’Amour are in the aging cellars and settle on the cheese – the blue-green ones are again a Penicillium.
- The so-called Mucor Mucedo, also a Penicilium, can take on all shades of white, gray, and black and is a pretty hairy affair. In cheese jargon it is called Poil de Chat (Cat's Hair). It looks wild, but is completely harmless and perfectly safe. If it bothers you visually, you can easily press it down with your fingers.
- The white fluffy and mold-like texture on cheeses such as Saint-Marcellin is not mold. Rather, it is yeast cultures.
- On red-washed cheeses with their sticky rind, no mold grows due to daily washing with brine, but a bacterium – the Bacterium Linens. This provides the red coloring of the rind and the taste. Definitely eat it :-)
- On some cheeses, such as the Italian Salva Cremasco, but also on many Tommette varieties, neon-yellow or neon-orange dots form. These are various good mold species that do not settle and grow there artificially and are a sign that the respective cheese comes from a traditional and artisanal cheese production and from an aging cellar in which there are many natural materials such as wood and stone.
