Here's How You Can Use Blue Cheese To Take Savory Foods To Another Level

If you're not a fan of the funky, blue cheese can be a little polarizing. It's strong, and can be a little overpowering. However, if you use the right ingredients to balance it out, it can blend easily. Try making a blue cheese butter as a decadent topping for your steak, or mix blue cheese with sour cream and mayo to make a dip to cut the spice of your chicken wings. It's pretty adaptable; you just need to know how to get the flavor right.

Even if you're not a fan, there are some unexpected uses for blue cheese that might hit your palate just right. Try it in cookie dough for a perfect blend of sweet and savory, for example. If you're a cheese fan that's been avoiding the pungent blues, we're here to show you that there is a blue for you. For some more help on the subject, we reached out to an expert to give us some blue cheese advice for a Chowhound exclusive. Roberta Muir is a cookbook author, gourmet tour guide in parts of Italy, Switzerland, and Australia, and runs the website Be Inspired by Roberta, offering eating, drinking, and travel tips. One aspect to consider is the pungency of your blue cheese. Muir advises home cooks "match the strength of the blue cheese to the dish, using stronger cheeses for things like a sauce on steak and milder cheeses for a delicate pasta sauce."

For blue cheese newbies, Muir recommends dipping your toes into the blue with something mild, such as a nice Cambozola (a mix of Camembert and Gorgonzola originally from Germany). When you want to up the funky flavor, Muir says something truly pungent, such as a Roquefort, goes nicely with heartier flavors, such as steak or pork chops.

But pungency isn't the only attribute at play here; texture can also dictate how you pair this cheese with your next meal. Roberta Muir explains, "Blue cheese is versatile, partly because there are so many different types." 

When making risotto or pasta, Muir recommends choosing a soft blue cheese such as Gorgonzola, which melts beautifully into the hot dish. He suggests pairing the flavors of the cheese with sweet pumpkin — either freshly roastedor a canned puree work. The cheese mixed with pumpkin and hot Italian arborio rice gets beautifully thick and creamy, giving you a hearty bite with every forkful.

For salads, opt for firmer blue cheeses, cutting them up into larger chunks and tossing them in with your greens. Muir also recommends adding some fruit into the mix. "A little sweetness helps balance the spiciness of stronger blue cheeses," Muir says. "This could be in the form of grapes, slices of apple or peach, or dried fruits such as figs."

Blue cheese dressing can be delicious on a salad, yes, or used for dipping chicken wings, celery, carrots, or pretty much any crunchy vegetable. Just chop your choice of blue cheese (based on your desired pungency) into small pieces and add it to some combination of sour cream, mayo, milk, or buttermilk, add a little fresh parsley, and salt and pepper to taste.