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Gorgonzola

Gorgonzola is a soft ripening cheese with a blue mold from the northern Italian region of Lombardy. Its name comes from the village of Gorgonzola, where it has been produced since 879.

Gorgonzola cheese is made from cow's milk and is dotted with greenish veins of the mold penicillium glaucum. Some sources mention penicillium roqueforti, which is not green but blue, other sources mention a mixture.

Ripens for 3 to 4 months.

Cultures needed :

Name	Volume	Require
Lactococcus lactis subsp. cremoris		Required
Lactococcus lactis subsp. diacetylactis.		Required
Lactococcus lactis subsp. lactis		Required
Leuconostoc mesenteroides subsp. cremoris		Required
Penicillium glaucum		Required
Streptococcus salivarius subsp. thermophilus		Optional

Step by step :

	Step	Duration
1	Prepare the milk (pasteurize at 65 °C)	00:15:00
2	We will prepare a mesophilic culture and fungal cultures (mix in a small amount of milk at a temperature of 28–36 °C). Some recipes call for a mixture of meso and thermophilic cultures. Pour in milk and wait 30-45 minutes.	00:45:00
3	Add chymosin rennet (and calcium chloride) 28–36 °C, it must last at least 40 min.	00:40:00
4	Cut the coagulated milk into the size of rice or corn and let part of the whey drain away.	00:10:00
5	We put the curd into the molds and let it form, which drains off more whey.	00:10:00
6	Cheeses rest at 20–22 °C with 90–95% relative humidity for 3–4 days
7	The cheeses are dry-salted (2-2.5%) for several days, resting at 18-24 °C between salting.
8	Aging of cheeses at 1–7 °C and a relative humidity of 85–100% min. Sweet version 50-150 days, spicy version 80-270 days, spicy small 60-200 days
9	When the cheese is 3-4 weeks old, we pierce it with a large metal needle with a diameter of 5-6 mm, piercing from both flat sides.
10	When making Gorgonzola-style cheese at home, it is necessary to respect very specific production steps given exactly for this cheese. Otherwise, even when using the same cultures as the original dairy, we will end up with a completely different cheese and not a cheese similar to Gorgonzola.