Bluebonnet
- Producer
- Westfield Farm
- Country
- United States
- Region
- Massachusetts
- Size
- 2 ins diameter, 2 ins high
- Weight
- 2-3oz
- Website
- www.chevre.com
- Milk
- Goat
- Treatment
- Pasteurised
- Classification
- Blue
Semi Soft - Rennet
- Microbial
- Rind
- Mold Ripened
Blue - Style
- Blue
Soft-Ripened (Brie-like)
This diminutive button is a stellar example of a growing niche in the cheese industry: the externally-rinded blue.
Some say the style itself was invented at Westfield Farm in Massachusetts, originally owned by Bob and Lettie Kilmoyer. The self-taught cheesemaking couple had a penchant for experimentation, and decided to use Penicillium roqueforti—the mold that gives classic blues its inside veins—to colonize only the rind of the cheese. While initially confronted with skepticism, the style caught on, and was eventually granted its own American Cheese Society Judging & Competition category. Soon after, Westfield's externally-rinded blues began winning scads of awards.
Since 1996, Bob and Debby Stetson have run Westfield Farm, continuing production of its originals and expanding the cow's and goat's milk cheese repertoire.
Bluebonnet is an adapted version of Westfield Farm's famous classic Blue Log, a surface-ripened blue goat's milk cheese. To make it, freshly-formed chèvre curds are inoculated with the Penicillium roqueforti mold. They're then formed into log shapes that either remain as such for production of Blue Log, or are sliced into three sections for production of the Bluebonnet, forming a small crottin-shaped cheese.
After production, cheeses are transferred to a maturing room where they age for about one or two weeks, losing some moisture and developing an exterior covering of blue mold. Unlike traditional blues, which are pierced so that oxygen flows into the cheese and promotes blue mold growth, these buttons are soft and compact, discouraging the growth of mold in the paste.
Tasting Notes
With age, the soft, bone-white, featherlight core of this button is gradually overtaken by an expanding creamline. Flavors are milky, clean, and bright with notes of citrus and stone, melding into a bitter finish with a piquant blue tang.
