Danablu

Appearance & taste

Danablu is made as a flat, cylindrical wheel about 20 cm in diameter weighing 3 kg or as a rectangular block of about 30 by 12 cm weighing 4 kg, with at least 50 % or at least 60 % fat in dry matter. It does not form a real rind, but a dense, somewhat firmer outer layer. The surface is white to slightly yellowish or faintly brownish and largely free of smear and mould growth; openings of the piercing channels may be visible on the faces. Paraffin or plastic coatings are not allowed.

The paste is white to slightly yellowish and fairly evenly marbled with blue-green veins of mould, which sit in the piercing channels, natural holes and cracks and may decrease towards the edge. It is loose but not crumbly, soft, firm enough to slice and spreadable, somewhat firmer on the outside. The specification describes the taste as clean and sharp, strongly marked by blue mould; it can be pungent, somewhat salty and sour and slightly bitter. Compared with other blue cheeses it is strong, according to the specification.

Production

Danablu is made only from milk produced in Denmark. The milk is homogenised and pasteurised or thermised; according to the specification this gives the cheese its pungent, sharp taste and its sliceable consistency. The cheese ripens for at least five weeks, during which the blue mould develops. All steps of production take place in Denmark; the specification justifies this with the long-established expertise of Danish cheesemakers.

Origin & history

According to the specification, it began with Marius Boel, who experimented with blue mould on the family farm in North Jutland (Salling peninsula), where butter and cheese were made. He had noticed that wheels of cheese sometimes went mouldy, tasted some and found the flavour “at once peculiar and piquant”. He grew the mould on bread, dried and ground it and mixed the powder into fresh curd. In 1927 he tried homogenised milk from a dairy in Odense, inspired by homogenised coffee cream; the cheese became richer, sharper and whiter and held its water better. Homogenisation quickly caught on in the dairies.

Around 1930 demand for Danish blue cheese rose sharply. To safeguard quality, the producers founded an association on 23 June 1934, and on 16 July 1934 the first cheese assessments took place in Odense. On 1 January 1936 a regulation on the state assessment of cheese “of the Roquefort type” came into force. In 1952 the name “Danablu” was officially established by an order of the Ministry of Agriculture, followed in 1958 by an act on the production and marketing of cheese.