Eating mold can be a tricky thing. There is a fine blue line between a perfectly ripe cheese and one that has gone on to wilder pastures. Cheese is a living food--not the kind with a heartbeat but one that ages and changes and goes through a life cycle. I tasted the cheese I'm writing about today, Fourme d'Ambert au lait cru, twice. Not different pieces either but the same chunk. Each time was at a different stage of the cheese's life and a vastly different experience.

The name is a little pretentious if you don't know French. "Fourme" comes from the Latin word for "form", a in which the cow's milk curds were held or pressed. The Italian word for cheese itself, "formaggio", has the same origin. In some French dialects "fourme" simply means cheese. So Fourme d'Ambert is cheese that originated in the town of Ambert. "Au lait cru" means "from raw milk" or unpasteurized. It is a blue cheese, a moldy molded cheese of France.

Fourme' d'Ambert is often called French Stilton. The grayish-green veins of blue mold run thick throughout. When I bought it, the cheese was cut to order (a good sign) and wrapped in cheese paper instead of plastic (a very good sign). When I opened it the next day after bringing the cheese to room temperature for an hour the texture was moist but still crumbled when cut. Spread on a cracker it was creamy and sweet yet pungent with the blue cheese flavor. Strong but not overpowering. It was a delicious cheese. My fiancée Fleming and I ate half of it then I wrapped it in plastic and returned it to the refrigerator.

Three days later I took the cheese and a few crackers with me to work for my lunch. By the time I unwrapped the cheese it had been at room temperature for a few hours. The smell, fungal and overpowering, almost knocked me out my chair. This was not the same cheese I had eaten days before. Undeterred by the pungency I cut of a chuck and spread it on a cracker. Even before it reached my mouth I could feel the fumes of something--mold maybe--entering my nose. The creaminess and sweet milk flavors were gone, consumed by the living cultures that had taken over. I ate the last of it but it left a bad taste in my nose and mouth.

Lesson: Cheese or any great food product must be taken care of properly and prepared and served at the peak of ripeness or freshness. Buying in bulk, even a bulk of two servings, may be fine for some ingredients, but not all and especially not some really great cheeses.

Name: Fourme D'Ambert Au Lait Cru
Type of Milk: Cow, Unpasteurized
Type: semi-soft
Produced in: France
Date Produced: Unknown
Date Purchased: 10/23/2006
Date Eaten: 10/24/2006, 10/30/2006
Purchased Where: United States, North Carolina, Chapel Hill, A Southern Season
Price: $9.99/lb.

Here is a wonderful cheese from the Italian Alps, Fontina Valle d'Aosta. Another of my favorites. True fontina has great natural flavor, the good tastes and odors of the farm--hay, grass, milk, straw, air. The alpine Italians have been producing it for hundreds of years. Look for the name on the cheese paper or the blue Matterhorn stamp to get the real thing.

Fontina Valle d'Aosta melts well (think baked pastas or on warm bread) but is delicious at room temperature with a hearty red wine and sliced salumi.

Name: Fontina Valle d'Aosta, DOP
Type of Milk: Cow, Unpasteurized
Type: semi-hard
Produced in: Italy
Date Purchased: 11/23/2006
Date Eaten: 11/23/2006
Purchased Where: United States, North Carolina, Raleigh, Whole Foods
Price: $14.99/lb.

Yes, it LOOKS like brie. No, it is not brie. Yes, in many ways, especially appearance, it is very similar to brie. No, if you mistake it for brie as most people will do I will not throw a hissy fit(I'm not sure I could tell which was which in a strictly visual lineup). Fromage d'Affinois is a little softer and creamier than a brie of the same age, due mainly to the extra cream added to enrich this flavorful cheese. We sampled it alongside several other cheeses, one being the triple cream Explorateur. And yes, triple cream is creamier than double, but Fromage d'Affinois holds it own. Spread it on a great cracker or some fresh baguette.

Name: Fromage d'Affinois
Type of Milk: Cow, Pasteurized
Type: soft ripened, double cream
Produced in: France
Date Purchased: 12/22/2006
Date Eaten: 12/23/2006
Purchased Where: United States, North Carolina, Chapel Hill, A Southern Season
Price: $/lb.