"Gorgonzola is one of my favorite cheeses. I seem to go in cycles and sometimes forget it's in the refrigerator. My question is: How do I know when it goes bad? The same thing goes with blue cheese. I'm stumped and am hoping that you can see it in the goodness of your heart to help me."

MADELINE MEADE, Cartersville

DEAR FOOD GODDESS: E-mail the Food Goddess Related: • More on food and drink • Restaurant reviews and search More Food Goddess columns Here are readers' favorite potato salad recipes  Chicken salad, fruit salad recipes from Rich's  Here's how to tell when blue-veined cheeses go bad  Everyone has opinion on potato salad  Pavlova a wonderful light dessert for warm weather  Here are readers' favorite potato salad recipes  Chicken salad, fruit salad recipes from Rich's  Here's how to tell when blue-veined cheeses go bad  Everyone has opinion on potato salad  Pavlova a wonderful light dessert for warm weather

This answer to the question regarding blue-veined cheeses (which include Roquefort, blue, Stilton and Gorgonzola) posed by Ms. Meade reads like the morality tale, "When Good Cheese Goes Bad."

It's an epic saga, dramatized by the battle of good (i.e. wanted) bacteria vs. bad (i.e. unwanted) bacteria.

The goddess turns to Alon Balshan, chef/owner of Alon's Bakery and Market, which offers 160 varieties of cheese, to provide insight on this potentially pungent issue. Balshan explains, "There are lots of different bacteria in the air, some good, some bad. Blue cheese gets its blue veins from Penicillium bacteria, which in most cases is injected into the cheese. It then 'ripens' for weeks or months." But Balshan points out that even these cheeses can spoil from contact with other bacteria. The telltale signs, he advises, "are an alteration in the cheese's flavor, making it strong and unpleasant, often with a burning aftertaste." Other signs are an unusual or off-putting odor and brown, gray or black fuzzy mold. As always, the goddess says, "When in doubt, throw it out."

Recipe swap

Cindy Baugh of Madison has been searching for a recipe for a yeast biscuit/batter roll from Ford Times Magazine (circa 1974). The recipe calls for the basic ingredients of self-rising flour, yeast and buttermilk and allows the dough/batter to rise overnight (she thinks). She writes, "It made a very 'loose' dough, but unlike most batter roll recipes, it was dropped in a round cake pan rather than muffin tins and produced a pull apart-type roll. These were the best rolls and always foolproof."