Just wanted to jump on this thread and say THANK YOU to Boofer on the Blue tasting exercise, which I will read carefully. I've made Ricki's plain "blue cheese"with flavor success, other than letting it get too dry ... then tried several "Castle Blues" from the 200 cheeses book, both of which failed.
Same PV Roqueforte mold on each, but the Castle yielded a mostly Camembert/Geo like 'stinky' flavor and seemed to over ripen and turn ammonia-ish very quickly. I can't describe the taste well (though friends loved it) but I don't care to replicate it in a blue. So I've been gun-shy and am waiting on my Nubian does to freshen for more milk to experiment with ... making small Valencay batches in the meantime.
Tiarella and I will have to coordinate our blue mold decisions and do a tasting!
Dirigoma