Constance
Master Chef
A butcher told me years ago that blue cheese has natural penicillin in it. Does anyone know if that's true? And is it blu or blue?
Love your explination Michael, very concise! I'm not on the other hand, a big fan of blue cheesePenicillin is an antibiotic drug derived from Penicillium chrysogenum (also known as Penicillium notatum). Penicillium is a family (genus) of fungus/mold that has several members (species) - some good, some not so good, some deadly.
There are other pathogenic species of genus Penicillium that you don't want to eat or inhale - the storage molds on bread and on cheese, such as Penicillium cyclopium and Penicillium viridicatum, for just a couple of examples, the black molds in a building that has been damp, etc.
The Cheese Molds: These are the good bugs!
The blue molds Penicillium roqueforti, obvious one - Roquefort cheese, Penicillium glaucum, what makes Stilton and Gorgonzola so special, and the white mold Penicillium camemberti which gives us Camambert, Brie, and Neufchatel.
And just think - when you had to study taxonomy in biology you just knew it was something that you would never use!
Oh, yeah - bleu is the French spelling for blue. In French cooking, it's also a term/technique for an undercooked steak.