• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

CooksInfo

  • Home
  • Encyclopaedia
  • Kitchenware
  • Recipes
  • Food Calendar
menu icon
go to homepage
search icon
Homepage link
  • Recipes
  • Encyclopaedia
  • Kitchenware
  • Food Calendar
×
Home » Dairy » Cheese » Semi-Firm Cheeses » Blue Cheeses » Gorgonzola Cheese

Gorgonzola Cheese

Gorgonzola cheese

Gorgonzola cheese. Natalia Zakharova / Via Canva Pro.

Gorgonzola cheese is a cylindrical blue cheese made from full-fat, pasteurized cow’s milk.

The cheese is made in various sizes. The minimum height is 13 cm (5 inches); the diameter will be between 20 and 32 cm (8 to 12 ½ inches).

It has an inedible, rough pinkish-grey rind. Inside, the cheese is whitish or pale yellow with greenish-blue flecks and veins.

After pasteurization, the milk is let cool to 28 to 36 C (82 to 96 F). A blue cheese mould, “Penicillium glaucum” (most other blue cheeses use “Penicillium roqueforti“), is stirred in to the milk along with calf’s rennet to curdle it. The curd is cut and drained, and packed into perforated cylindrical moulds. The cheese is turned out of the mould, and stamped at either end with a mark identifying the dairy.

The cheese is then salted, and let stand for several days at 18 to 24 C (64 to 75 F).

The cheeses are then moved into controlled storage areas for aging at a temperature between 2 to 7 C (35 to 44 F). [Ed: This aging used to be done in caves.]

Aging periods vary based on size of the cheese:

  • Small wheel, 6 to 8 kg (13 to 17 ½ pounds), aged a minimum of 60 days. Tangy.
  • Medium wheel, 9 to 12 kg (20 to 26 ½ pounds), aged a minimum of 80 days. Tangy.
  • Large wheel, 10 to 13 kg (22 to 28 ½ pounds), aged a minimum of 50 days. Mild.

During aging, holes are poked several times in the cheese to allow air to enter so the blue mould can develop.

When the cheese is aged, and has passed inspection, it is wrapped in aluminum foil for shipping, and sold on.

Tangier versions are called Gorgonzola Picante (aka Gorgonzola naturale, Gorgonzola stagionata or “Mountain Gorgonzola.”)

Milder versions are called Gorgonzola Dolce.  These are also creamier.

Gorgonzola is PDO protected in the EU. It can only be made in the Piedmont provinces of Alessandria (specific towns), Novara (including Verbano-Cusio-Ossola), Vercelli and Biella, Cuneo and Casale Monferrato, and in Lombardy (in the provinces of Bergamo, Brescia, Como, Cremona, Pavi, Varsese, and Milan including Lecco, Lodi and Monza).

Cooking Tips

Gorgonzola becomes very mild and sweet when cooked.

Substitutes

Any other blue cheese, though some are stronger and some are milder than Gorgonzola.

Nutrition

About 48 to 50% butterfat.

Equivalents

2 oz ≈ 50 g ≈ about ¼ cup

Storage Hints

Gorgonzola can be frozen. After thawing, though, it is best used for cooking or in salads, as it will probably become crumbly.

History Notes

The usual historical hyperbole that swirls about other European cheeses also applies to Gorgonzola. Some people date it back to the 11th century, and on a good day, even back as far as 870 AD. A few even credit it to the Romans.

Language Notes

The cheese is named after the village of Gorgonzola which was north of Milan (in Piedmont, Northern Italy.) The village of Gorgonzola has now been absorbed into Milan.

Gorgonzola cheese wasn’t always called Gorgonzola, however: for the past several hundred years, the cheese was called “stracchino verde“. The name Gorgonzola came into force by law on 30 October 1955.

Sources

Council Regulation (EC) No 510/2006. EC No: IT/PDO/117/0010/12.4.2002. Gorgonzola. Amendment #: (2008/C 111/17). Published in: Official Journal of the European Union. 6.5.2008. C 111 / 51 – 55.

Other names

AKA: Stracchino Verde
Italian: Gorgonzola, Gorgonzola stagionata, Stracchino di Gorgonzola, Stracchino verde

This page first published: Sep 8, 2002 · Updated: Apr 11, 2022.

This web site generates income from affiliated links and ads at no cost to you to fund continued research · Information on this site is Copyright © 2025· Feel free to cite correctly, but copying whole pages for your website is content theft and will be DCMA'd.

Tagged With: Italian Cheeses, Italian Food, Lombardy Food, Piedmont Food, Protected Designation of Origin

Primary Sidebar

Hi, I'm Skylar! This is a fake profile talking about how I switched to a paleo diet and it helped my eczema and I grew 4". Trust me, I'm an online doctor.

More about me →

Popular

  • E.D. Smith Pumpkin Purée
    E.D. Smith recipe for pumpkin pie

  • Libby's Pumpkin Pie
    Libby’s recipe for pumpkin pie

  • Pie crust
    Pie Crust Recipe

  • Smokey Maple Pepper Glaze for Ham
    Smokey Maple Pepper Glaze for Ham

You can duplicate your homepage's trending recipes section in the sidebar to reinforce the internal linking.

We no longer recommend using a search bar, newsletter form or category drop-down menu in the sidebar. See the Modern Sidebar post for details.

If the block editor is not narrower than usual, simply save the page and refresh it.

Search

    Today is

  • Weights and Measures Day
    Weigh scale
  • World Bee Day
    Bees

Footer

↑ back to top

About

  • About this site
  • Privacy Policy
  • Copyright enforced!
  • Terms & Conditions

Newsletter

  • Sign Up! for emails and updates

Site

  • Recipes
  • Encyclopaedia
  • Kitchenware
  • Food Calendar

This web site generates income from affiliated links and ads at no cost to you to fund continued research · The text on this site is © Copyright.