Blue cheese, in Aajonus Vonderplanitz's framework, is not a separate or exotic food category, it is raw butter or raw no-salt cheese that has been intentionally or naturally allowed to develop blue-green mold (Penicillium-type fungus) through a cold, damp aging process. Aajonus treats blue cheese as a superior, pre-digested form of both butter and cheese, and regards it with genuine enthusiasm and affection, stating repeatedly that he loves blue cheese and deliberately makes it himself at home. It occupies a special position in the Primal Diet as both a culinary pleasure and a therapeutic food, one that combines the detoxification properties of raw no-salt cheese with the additional benefit of fungal pre-digestion, dramatically increasing the proportion of the food that the body can actually absorb and utilize.

Within the Primal Diet framework, all cheese and butter are already classified as medicines rather than ordinary foods. Cheese is described as a dehydrated product with no biologically active enzymes of its own, meaning it will not digest on its own without the addition of honey, pineapple, papaya, or another enzyme-rich substance. However, when cheese or butter has been pre-digested by mold, as occurs in blue cheese, the mold's enzymatic activity has already begun the process of breaking the food down, making it substantially more digestible and biologically available than fresh, unmolded cheese or butter. This makes blue cheese butter in particular one of the most efficiently absorbed fat sources Aajonus discusses.

Aajonus positions blue cheese as something that any person on the Primal Diet can make at home, at essentially no extra cost, by simply allowing their raw butter or raw no-salt cheese to develop mold in cold, damp conditions, specifically a refrigerator.

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The fundamental property that distinguishes blue cheese from ordinary raw cheese or raw butter is the presence of living mold, a fungus, that has already partially broken down the food before it is consumed. Aajonus explains that mold introduced to raw dairy performs the same function as bacteria introduced to make cultured products: it pre-digests the food, breaking it into smaller molecules that the human body can actually absorb. He states:

This is the key mechanism: hard cheeses that would otherwise be nearly indigestible, because any dehydrated substance lacks bioactive enzymes, become digestible when mold has done the enzymatic work that the food itself cannot do and that the human pancreas cannot easily accomplish on its own.

Aajonus gives a specific and striking figure for the difference in absorption between plain raw butter and blue cheese butter:

This is a substantial upgrade, from 70% absorption to 96% absorption, achieved simply by allowing the butter to develop blue-green mold in the refrigerator. Aajonus notes that some people do not enjoy the taste of molded butter, but offers a solution: making a dressing out of it, which he himself does and describes as "delicious."

Aajonus makes a categorical and absolute statement about the safety of mold on raw dairy:

His explanation for why this is so extends from his foundational principle about bacteria and mold: microorganisms that feed on raw, living food are healthy, non-mutant organisms that produce beneficial or at least non-harmful byproducts. Microorganisms that feed on cooked, pasteurized, or processed food, however, are themselves mutants and produce more toxic byproducts. He states:

This explains why Aajonus has no concern about eating blue-green mold on raw butter or raw cheese, while he would view the same mold on pasteurized or commercial dairy as genuinely problematic.

Aajonus draws a direct connection between blue cheese mold and the pharmaceutical drug penicillin, noting that they are the same substance in different contexts:

He clearly regards the natural, food-form version as preferable and does not advocate for eating isolated penicillin. The point is that the mold has known biological activity in the body, and in its food form, embedded in raw butter or cheese, that activity is expressed in a biologically appropriate, non-isolated manner.

Aajonus draws a careful and specific distinction between the interior mold (mycelium) and the surface mold (spores) of blue cheese or moldy cheese generally. The interior mycelium is described as desirable and beneficial:

The mycelium is the body of the fungus, the living network that does the work of decomposing and pre-digesting. Aajonus explains its action in the body vividly:

The spores, by contrast, are reproductive structures. Under a microscope, Aajonus describes the surface layer as containing "hundreds of thousands of microscopic mushrooms with spores." Getting too many spores at one time in a sick body is identified as problematic, potentially overwhelming the body's detoxification capacity:

This is a nuanced position: a healthy body can handle surface spores, but a sick body cannot, and the standard recommendation is to scrape the outer white or blue-green fuzzy layer off before eating, even while consuming and enjoying the interior blue mold.

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Aajonus's primary and most enthusiastic application of blue cheese is in the form of blue cheese butter, raw butter that has been allowed to develop blue-green mold through deliberate cold-storage aging. He describes his method as follows:

He also describes a spiral-cut method:

And another method:

The purpose of making these cuts and channels is to create air space within the butter, mold requires oxygen to grow, and without the air channels, the interior of a solid block of butter would not mold properly. This is consistent with how traditional blue cheeses like Roquefort are made, where the cheese is pierced with needles to introduce oxygen.

In addition to blue cheese butter, Aajonus makes blue cheese from raw no-salt hard cheese blocks:

He also notes that cheese molds more readily in the refrigerator than at room temperature:

A key practical point Aajonus makes repeatedly is that mold prefers cold, damp conditions:

And in the context of butter:

This is directly practical: if someone wants to prevent their butter or cheese from molding, they should store it at room temperature. If they want to encourage molding into blue cheese, they should refrigerate it.

The minimum time Aajonus mentions for developing blue cheese from raw butter or cheese is three months:

He also mentions keeping butter and cheese for up to one year:

And he describes aging cheese outdoors:

He notes that if kept in the tropics at room temperature, molded cheese stays "soft and delicious like melted cheese."

Aajonus acknowledges that he has used commercially purchased raw blue cheese (specifically, a Roquefort from Whole Foods) as an interim source, while noting the drawback:

He does not complete the sentence in the available source material, but his point is that the salt is the problem with commercial blue cheese. Homemade blue cheese butter from unsalted raw butter is the ideal, because it avoids salt entirely.

Aajonus distinguishes between white mold and blue mold in terms of timeline:

The blue mold takes longer, described as a matter of months, to develop. The white mold is an earlier stage; the blue-green mold is a later, more developed stage of the same general process.

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The process Aajonus describes for making blue cheese butter at home is consistent across multiple source passages:

1. Take raw, unsalted butter and place it in a glass jar. 2. Use a knife to cut channels, spirals, or circles in the butter, creating air pockets running through the mass. 3. Remove some of the butter from the jar to create additional airspace. 4. Place the jar in the refrigerator. 5. Wait approximately three months. 6. Blue-green mold will develop throughout the butter.

He describes the result:

The same principle applies to hard cheese. Aajonus describes:

1. Take raw no-salt hard cheese. 2. Swirl it in the airspace of a glass container. 3. Remove some of the cheese from the container. 4. Let it sit in the refrigerator for three months. 5. Blue mold will develop throughout.

Once blue cheese has formed, Aajonus gives specific handling instructions:

And:

He also notes in a different passage, specifically about white surface mold on cheese:

The principle is consistent: the surface layer, whether white or blue-green fuzzy fuzz, contains the spores that are potentially excessive. The interior mold (mycelium) is safe and beneficial.

Aajonus is explicit that salt in cheese fundamentally alters and negates its detoxification properties. He states:

For blue cheese made at home from raw unsalted butter and raw unsalted cheese, the salt issue does not arise. But for any commercially purchased blue cheese or Roquefort (which are virtually always salted), this is a critical limitation.

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When Aajonus uses his blue cheese butter in culinary applications, he consistently pairs it with raw cream. He describes:

And:

And:

He also mentions pairing blue cheese butter with sour cream:

A nuanced and critical point in Aajonus's framework is that adding honey to any cheese, including blue cheese, causes the cheese to be digested and absorbed, rather than passing through as a toxin magnet. This dual function means that the decision of whether to pair blue cheese with honey depends entirely on the therapeutic goal:

• If the goal is detoxification (pulling poisons out of the stomach lining, blood, lymph, and neurological fluid): Do not eat honey with the blue cheese. The cheese must remain undigested to function as a sponge and magnet.

• If the goal is mineral supplementation (absorbing the concentrated minerals in cheese for rebuilding bones, teeth, and tissues): Eat honey directly with the cheese so that the bioactive enzymes in the honey allow the cheese to be digested and its minerals absorbed.

Aajonus notes specifically about his blue cheese preparations:

And:

This last statement is particularly significant: Aajonus uses his blue cheese butter primarily as a sauce or dressing, and in that context, blended with cream, without honey, it functions as a highly digestible, pre-digested fat sauce rather than as either a mineral supplement or a toxin-magnet. It is the intermediate use case: more absorbed than plain unsalted cheese without honey (because the mold has pre-digested it), but not being used with honey as a mineral supplement protocol.

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Aajonus gives the following explicit limit for consuming the mold itself (the blue or white mold shaved from cheese):

This is per week, not per day. Exceeding this amount risks causing fatigue.

For the detoxification protocol, the frequency and quantity: - Sugar-cube-sized piece (approximately ½ teaspoon) every 15 minutes for heavily toxic individuals - Every 15 to 30 minutes for general use - 1 to 2 tablespoons to start the morning - Throughout the day, carried in a glass jar

• 1 to 2 tablespoons of cheese with ½ to 2 teaspoons of honey
• Twice a day (after the first and second meat meals)
• For severe mineral deficiency: 2½ tablespoons cheese with 2½ teaspoons honey, three times a day
• Ratio not to exceed 1 teaspoon honey per tablespoon of cheese (i.e., 1:3 honey to cheese)

• Cheese should be consumed 10 minutes before eating anything (if using as pre-meal detox)
• Cheese with honey should be 25 to 35 minutes after finishing a meat meal
• Do not drink a large amount of liquid immediately before eating cheese, sipping is acceptable but not half a cup or more within 5 minutes of the cheese
• If eating butter with cheese, wait 12 to 15 minutes after the butter before eating the cheese

Regardless of whether the person is sick or healthy, the standard recommendation is to scrape the outer fuzzy surface layer off any blue or white moldy cheese before eating, keeping only the interior mold (mycelium). The exception noted is that a person who is not sick "might be able to use the mold", but this is presented as an optional exception, not the standard practice.

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Aajonus describes this as his personal, beloved preparation that he makes and eats regularly, including on meat dishes and as stroganoff sauce:

Basic Roquefort Dressing / Blue Cheese Sauce: - Blue cheese butter (raw butter aged with blue mold in the refrigerator for ~3 months, cut with air channels) - Raw cream - Blended together - Optional: garlic

He describes the result as "a delicious sauce" and "absolutely gourmet."

Extended Roquefort Dressing: - Blue cheese (from raw no-salt cheese aged in refrigerator 3 months) - Raw cream - Garlic - Blended or mixed together

He specifically mentions using this on meat dishes (for stroganoff), calling it "delicious."

With Sour Cream: - Blue cheese butter - Sour cream (raw) - Mixed together - Described as: "Ah! Delicious."

He references using blue cheese butter as a component of raw stroganoff preparations.

Aajonus also mentions simply eating the blue cheese butter directly, noting that while he sometimes prefers fresh, warm butter at 90-95°F, he loves the molded version as well.

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Blue cheese butter is the most fully developed and enthusiastically described derivative in the source material. It is raw butter that has been converted by mold from a 70%-absorbable fat into a 96%-absorbable, pre-digested fat. Aajonus presents it as:

1. A superior fat source (due to near-complete digestibility) 2. A culinary pleasure (he describes loving it and eating it regularly) 3. The base for Roquefort dressing, stroganoff sauce, and other preparations 4. A food that keeps well, he describes storing butter and cheese up to a year out of refrigeration

The method for producing it, refrigerating raw unsalted butter in a glass jar with air channels cut into it for three months, makes it accessible to anyone following the Primal Diet who has access to raw unsalted butter.

He notes that the butter, even when refrigerated and converted to blue cheese, can then be taken out and enjoyed at room temperature, where it becomes "soft and delicious like melted cheese" in warm environments.

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Aajonus draws an explicit line between blue cheese mold as a natural food component and penicillin as a pharmaceutical product derived from the same organism. He states:

This reflects his broader framework that naturally occurring substances in food are appropriate for human consumption in their food context, while the same substances extracted, concentrated, and administered as pharmaceutical drugs carry different, and often harmful, implications. He does not advocate for taking penicillin, but he does enthusiastically consume blue cheese mold in its natural, food-embedded form.

The entire safety profile of blue cheese in Aajonus's framework rests on whether the underlying dairy is raw or pasteurized. He states categorically:

This places the danger entirely in the pasteurization process, not in the mold itself. Pasteurization, in his view, creates a dead and damaged substrate on which only mutant, diseased microorganisms thrive, producing toxic byproducts. Raw dairy, by contrast, supports healthy, non-mutant organisms that produce beneficial byproducts or at least benign ones.

This means that the entire commercial blue cheese industry, which produces pasteurized, salted blue cheeses, is, in Aajonus's view, producing a product that is not only nutritionally inferior but potentially harmful, because the molds in those cheeses are feeding on dead, cooked substrate and are themselves mutants. He purchased Roquefort from Whole Foods as an interim measure, noting the salt content as his primary concern and suggesting the raw-cheese quality may be acceptable in that specific product, but this is an exception he acknowledges rather than a recommendation.

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