The Amablu® family of blue veined cheese
The historic sandstone caves of Faribault Dairy are home to three premium blue veined cheese available under the Amablu® product label. The three cheese share similar pedigrees: raw cow’s milk, hand made in traditional open vats, hand salted and then cave aged in the hand dug sandstone caves.
The three cheese vary in degree of ageing (affinage), physical attributes and flavor profile. Faribault Dairy’s cheese makers vary the types of starter cultures, processing conditions and ageing temperatures to attain the desired profile. Variation from cheese to cheese is to be expected, as each of our natural artisanal cheese wheels are produced by hand from whole milk, not machine made under standardized conditions.
Amablu® Blue Cheese
Faribault Dairy’s “mainstay” is our 75 day old cave aged blue cheese. Limiting the ageing to 75 days creates a blue cheese with a pleasant, tangy, “not too sharp” flavor profile. Amablu® Blue Cheese comes in convenient exact weight crumbles and wedges for sprinkling on salad or melting over a hamburger.
Amablu® Gorgonzola Cheese
The blue veined Gorgonzola cheese is “sweeter” (less acid) and drier than our blue cheese. Cave aged a minimum of 90 days, the cheese is somewhat sharper in flavor but still “cleans up” well. The sweeter flavor profile pairs up well with dried fruit and nuts or cut as a table dessert cheese.
Amablu® “St. Pete’s Select” blue cheese
Named after the type of sandstone that forms the caves, St. Pete’s Select is our signature super premium American blue cheese. Available only in limited quantities, wheels of St. Pete’s are hand selected during each of the four grading steps, and then cave aged a minimum of 100+ days.
The flavor profile of St. Pete’s has been described as “complex, complicated yet delightfully intimate™”. A deliciously creamy mouth feel and pronounced piquant sharp are the hallmark characteristics of this classic American blue.
