I am aging a couple of Gorgonzola’s, and they have a nice blue mold in various cracks on the outside of the cheese, but they keep growing a slightly reddish color mold. The Ricki Carrol recipe says to scrape the outside once a month to remove excess mold or smear and I assume that this red color is a smear.

I’ve never made a blue cheese before and I’ve never seen the red color mold before.

I have poked the holes in it, but can’t tell if there is any blue on the inside or not.

Is red smear normal? I scraped it off, so I can’t post a picture. I should have taken the picture first.

Can it be a cross contamination from other cheeses? I once had a pressed blue that developed a lot of blue at the outside, which later turned into a bit blue-brownish smear. It became better when I developed the habit of getting them out of the cave every day for about an hour.

Check your temps and humidity. Salt the surface for extra protection.