Blue cheese mold would form. According to legend, Roquefort was discovered when a youth, eating a lunch of bread and ewes' milk cheese, abandoned his meal in a nearby cave after seeing a beautiful girl in the distance. When he returned months later, the mold ("Penicillium roqueforti") had transformed his cheese into Roquefort. Gorgonzola is one of the oldest known blue cheeses, having been created around 879 AD, though it is said that it did not actually contain blue veins until around the 11th century. Stilton is a relatively new addition becoming popular sometime in the early 1700s. Many varieties of blue
Valençay cheese Valençay cheese Valençay is a cheese made in the province of Berry in central France. Its name is derived from the town of Valençay in the Indre department. Distinctive in its truncated pyramidal shape, Valençay is an unpasteurised goats-milk cheese weighing and around in height. Its rustic blue-grey colour is made by the natural moulds that form its rind, darkened with a dusting of charcoal. The young cheese has a fresh, citric taste, with age giving it a nutty taste characteristic of goats cheeses. The cheese achieved AOC status in 1998 making Valençay the first region to achieve AOC status