Ben Hebert

4 Aug

Today’s sample: Blueberry/lemon chèvre and lemon curd on toasted blueberry bagel

27 Nov 2025

Happy Thanksgiving to the one thousand people who asked me for two cups of Gruyère and four cups of Cheddar yesterday. I hope you enjoy your Mac and cheese.

24 Oct 2025

Blaine likes the chair

15 Oct 2025

It’s hard to get a good picture of Blaine because he reaches for your hand as soon as you get close enough.

11 Oct 2025

This 91 lb. wheel of Parmigiano Reggiano started aging in Italy in Aug. 2023. Today, two years and 5000 miles later, I got to crack it open.

Great question! The short answer is yes. If a cheese is made with mold, that mold is almost always in the penicillium family. However, most people with a penicillin allergy say they are able to eat those cheeses without a reaction. Now for the long answer.

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Some still report having reactions to blues and bries but, if you are in that minority, there’s still a wide world of moldless cheeses available to you. There are a ton of amazing cheeses outside the Blue and Bloomy Rind families. Cheddars, Goudas, Manchegos, and so many more!

And as we always say when we get these questions: I am a not a healthcare professional. I am a cheese care professional.

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The other type is bloomy rinds. Brie, Camembert, and other cheeses with a white fuzzy rind that grows on the outside of the cheese. These are usually made with Penicillium camemberti.

According to the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology, the molds used in cheesemaking don’t create penicillin. Most (not all!) people with a penicillin allergy can eat cheese made with a penicillium mold and not have a reaction.

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There are two types of cheeses that use mold in the cheesemaking process. The most obvious is the Blue family: Blue, Gorgonzola, Roquefort, and other with blue or green mold in the paste of the cheese. That mold is usually Penicillium roqueforti or Pencillium glaucum.

9 Oct 2025

On the Wire: 18-Month Gouda Those little white crystals in the cheese are called cheese crystals. They’re a natural build-up of calcium lactate that grow as the cheese ages. The older the cheese, the larger the crystals, the bigger the crunch.