Cheese Database

Castelmagno vs Gorgonzola

Castelmagno

Facts

Milk
Cow
Texture
Semi-hard
Type
Pressed
Rind
Natural rind
Country
Italy
Place
Piedmont
Status
PDO

Castelmagno is a semi-hard cow's milk cheese from Italy, and the name is protected. Wheels are pressed, with a thick natural rind that runs from reddish brown to gray. The paste is crumbly rather than elastic, ivory when young and deeper straw as it ages. There are no large eyes. Older wheels can show blue-green veins that arrive on their own in the cellar, and those veins are a known face of the cheese, not a separate recipe.

Gorgonzola, field guide plate
Gorgonzola, photographed

Gorgonzola

Facts

Milk
Cow
Texture
Semi-soft
Type
Blue
Rind
Natural rind
Country
Italy
Place
Lombardy
Status
PDO

Gorgonzola is a blue cow's-milk cheese from northern Italy. The town of Gorgonzola, east of Milan, gave it a name. The protected zone is wider, across Lombardy and Piedmont.