Les Filles go online – Télé Gourmet by Maître Philippe & Filles. Good mold, bad mold.

Mold can take on the most adventurous colors and shapes on cheese, so that the cheese sometimes looks like a small hairy animal... in most cases, however, the mold is not serious and is absolutely intentional. Just think of the white mold of Camembert or the many delicious blue cheeses ...

Using various French and Italian raw milk cheeses, we explain in this film what types of mold there are and whether you can eat it or not. Have fun watching and don't be afraid of mold!

Here are a few hard facts at a glance:

• The well-known noble white mold (as in Camembert, Brie, Chaource, etc.) bears the name Penicillium candidum . It is specially sprayed on the cheese and the cheese is stored in such a way that the white mold can grow perfectly. This mold is therefore absolutely wanted and harmless and should definitely be consumed.
• blue mold such as B. in Roquefort or Bleu d'Auvergne is also a wanted and specially added mold. In this case the Penicillium Roqueforti . The mold spores are added to the milk during cheese production and, as with white mold, everything is done to ensure that the mold grows optimally. Since the blue mold is inside the cheese, you don't think of removing it, but eat it and enjoy.
• Other harmless types of mold that spontaneously grow on some types of cheese, e.g. B. matured goat's cheese or Brin d'Amour, are in the maturing cellars and settle on the cheese - the blue-green ones are also a Penicillium .
• The so-called Mucor Mucedo , also a Penicilium , can take on all shades of white, gray and black and is quite a hairy affair. In cheese-making jargon it is called poil de chat (cat hair) . It looks wild, but is completely harmless and completely harmless. If it bothers you visually, you can easily press it with your fingers.
• The white, fluffy and moldy texture on cheeses like Saint-Marcellin is not mould. Rather, they are yeast cultures .
• Due to the daily washing with brine, no mold grows on red-smeared cheeses with their sticky rind, but a bacterium - the Bacterium Linens . This is responsible for the red coloring of the bark and the taste. Definitely eat :-)
• Neon yellow or neon orange dots form on some cheeses, such as the Italian Salva Cremasco, but also on many types of tommette. These are various good types of mold that cannot be settled and bred there artificially and are a sign that the respective cheese comes from a traditional and artisanal cheese production and comes from a maturing cellar in which there are many natural materials such as wood and stone .