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Fermentation Atlas

Cheese from France, Massif Central

Bleu d'Auvergne PDOBleu d'Auvergne

Cow milk, raw, thermised or pasteurised, is seeded with Penicillium roqueforti and set with rennet at 30–34 °C. The curd is cut, stirred until each grain has a thin skin, and drained in moulds without pressing; then it is salted all over and pierced once. It ripens bare in humid cellars, and blue-green veins grow along the air channels; it may be sold from day 28. Made in 8 steps over 56 days. The longest step, hold cold until day 28, takes at least 28 days (Ministère de l'agriculture 2016) and runs at 0–6 °C (Ministère de l'agriculture 2016). Penicillium roqueforti and Lactococcus, more abundant in very bitter cheeses do most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main stepat least 28 daysSet[bleu-cdc-2017]Hold cold until day 28
Temperature0–6 °CSet[bleu-cdc-2017]Hold cold until day 28
AciditypH 4.9–5.1 → 6.11Measured[trieu-cuot1983]Ripen bare in a humid cellar
Fully documentedCheese56 daysPDO (EU, 1996); appellation d'origine since 1975Family: Blue-veined cheese family (Roquefort as template)More blue cheesesMore from France

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedThe specification fixes the steps, temperatures and times, not amounts.
Cow milk · Raw, thermised or pasteurised; protein standardisation is banned[bleu-cdc-2017]
Penicillium roqueforti · The milk or curd must be seeded with it[bleu-cdc-2017]
Other cultures of bacteria, yeasts and moulds · Only cultures shown to be harmless by use[bleu-cdc-2017]
Rennet[bleu-cdc-2017]
Salt and calcium chloride[bleu-cdc-2017]
Starter: Penicillium roqueforti plus lactic cultures; rennet

Total time across the recorded steps: 56 days

Start
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6–14 °Cshapes, not to countPenicillium roquefortiLactococcus

What changes: Milk is held at 6–14 °C for at least 4 h, with or without cultures added

Step 1 of 8
Pre-ripen the milk cold (dairy make)
Time
at least 4 h
Set
Temperature
6–14 °C
Set
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Penicillium roqueforti
Lactococcus
Lactic acid bacteria
Moulds

On farms, the milk of at most two milkings is used and renneted within 16 h of the oldest milking instead. Output: pre-ripened milk.

Flavour
Not documented
Texture
Not documented
Colour
Not documented

Microbes at work in this step

cultures may be added at this stage

Method

Measured measured in a studySet fixed by a specification or tested recipeReported one source reports itTypical a general value, not sourced for this fermentUnconfirmed not yet checked against a source

What makes this one different

Bleu d'Auvergne is a cow-milk blue, unlike Roquefort, which uses sheep milk. Its grains are stirred until they skin over, so they stay apart in an unpressed curd. A single piercing then lets air in, which gives fine, evenly spread veins.

Milk
Cow milk only, raw, thermised or pasteurised; cows graze at least 150 days a year
Shape and size
Flat cylinder 19–23 cm across and 8–11 cm high, 2–3 kg
Fat
At least 50 % fat in dry matter; dry matter at least 51 %
Ripening
At least 28 days from renneting

Related ferments

Variants

  • Farm (fermier) Bleu d'AuvergneMilk of at most two milkings, renneted within 16 h of the oldest
  • Dairy (laitier) Bleu d'AuvergneMilk pre-ripened at 6–14 °C for at least 4 h before renneting

Safety

The paste starts acid, near pH 5, and becomes less acid as the mould grows, reaching about pH 6.2 by two months in one study. Freezing the milk, curd or fresh cheese and modified-atmosphere storage are banned.

History and sources

Every number is labelled with how it is known. How this atlas is made

Bleu d'Auvergne appeared in the mid-19th century in the Puy-de-Dôme, west of the Monts d'Auvergne. It began on farms and spread to dairies in the second half of that century, helped by Antoine Roussel, who introduced piercing. The ministry of agriculture defined it in 1934, and it became an appellation d'origine in March 1975. It was long an outlet for small farms that had too little milk to make a Cantal.

  1. [bleu-cdc-2017] Ministère de l'agriculture, Cahier des charges de l'appellation d'origine « Bleu d'Auvergne », homologated 16 Dec 2016, consolidated version approved by Implementing Regulation (EU) 2017/1931spec
  2. [trieu-cuot1983] Trieu-Cuot P., Gripon J.C. 1983, Étude électrophorétique de la protéolyse au cours de l'affinage des fromages à pâte persillée du type bleu d'Auvergne, Le Lait 63:116–128paper
  3. [michel2024] Michel-Maynier E. et al. 2024, A multiomic microbiome approach to decipher drivers of bitterness in French blue-veined PDO Bleu d'Auvergne cheeses, IDF Cheese Science & Technology Symposium, Bergen (abstract), HAL hal-04601131paper