Roquefort : A Tale Of Horny Shepherds, Sheep and Serendipity (Roquefort)

Member Name: wampyrii

Product:	Roquefort
Date:	12/05/02 (96 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: see review

Disadvantages: see review

I just love some of the history behind where some of our most well known food products come from which is quite simply the only reason you'll find me writing about cheese of all things. The last time I visited this category was to impart a little of the story of Camembert upon anyone willing to listen, and this time its the turn of another, much more palatable French cheese in the form of Roquefort, a cheese which has been termed the "king of cheeses".

As I said, some of the foods we take for granted these days have some extremely colourful histories, Roquefort is one of those products. It is a cheese which has been around since roman times, a known favourite of Charlemagne, finds mention in the works of Pliny and is a product jealously guarded by the French people ever since Charles VI since the first order restricting its ripening to its birthplace. It was never an invention as such but instead a fortunate accident, an event of purest serendipity that lead to its discovery. Legend has it that one day whilst tending his sheep, a shepherd in the Aveyron region of France near the town of Roquefort-sur-Soulzon, saw what he thought he could make out as a beautiful woman in the middle-distance. Captivated by her, he hide his lunch(rye bread and cheese) in the dank cliff face of the Grotte du Combalou and set off in pursuit of her. Sadly he never did manage to catch up with her and was never to see her again, but when he returned to his flock many hours later something rather remarkable had happened.

The combination of the pain du seigle(bread made from a 60/40 combination of wheat and rye), ewe's milk cheese, dampness of the rocks and air currents in the caves had caused a strange blue mould to grow in streaks on the surface of the cheese. Now, you or I would have looked at it, muttered a few obscenities no doubt and tossed it away, but not our hungry shepherd who gobbled it down and found the taste to be amazing. Within weeks many of
the grottes(caves) had been converted into 'cabanes du bois', decked out with oak planks for the ripening of the cheese and Roquefort cheese was born. The people who work in the cheese cellars are to this day still called 'cabaniers' in a term harking back to the original way in which one of the worlds oldest known cheeses was stored to ripen.

The actual means of making Roquefort have of course changed a little, you couldn't possibly expect to throw tonnes of ewe's cheese and pain du seigle in a cave and wait for nature to take its course, but the general idea is the same. True Roquefort cheese is still ripened in the limestone caves of Mount Combalou near the village of Roquefort-sur-Souzon and still uses ewes milk from the sheep which graze on the Aveyron plateau . The fungi which occurs naturally in the limestone caves however, is now injected artificially into the cheese curd to produce a more even coverage of the traditional blue mould streaks rather than leaving it to fate.

The milk is first curdled at the cheese makers before the Penicilium roqueforti is added and the cheeses are shipped off to the caves. Here they are pricked occasionally to encourage the mould growth over a 3 month ripening period before being shaped, packaged and shipped off ready for consumption. You can distinguish this from other inferior products by the red sheep symbol which adorns the packaging. This is what you need to look for if you are after the real deal. The French have actually made it an offence to use the name of Roquefort where Roquefort isn't present - 'Roquefort dressing' for example simply must contain Roquefort and not some other blue cheese or you've stepped beyond the boundaries of the law!

The actual appearance of a good Roquefort cheese is a cheese with a soft, crumbly(but cohesive) centre streaked with uniform blue mould and a snowy white rind. The actual texture should be quite creamy with quite
a pungent salty initial flavour but with an aftertaste which will leave you wanting more. This is a cheese which should be stored at a temperature of between 5° to 10°, thus mimicking the temperature of the Massif du Combalou, and perhaps surprisingly is at its best slightly chilled as opposed to being at room temperature. Apparently its quite a versatile cheese but I tend to eat it mainly with crackers and butter as a late evening snack with a glass or two of Sauternes because I'm hardly what you could call the world's greatest chef, although I think you'll find any dessert wine or Port will go equally well with it. Most people in the UK would see it as an after dinner cheese, to be served with a dessert wine.

So there you have it. I'm not exactly the most adventurous cheese eater myself, in fact I tend to find most cheese other than Cheddar quite repugnant and the idea of eating nasty looking mouldy stuff filled me with horror and revulsion up until a few years ago when I finally did give this a try. Roquefort is different however and certainly one I would recommend if you are looking for an after dinner cheese to go with crackers and wine. Forget it if you want a cheese sandwich however, it just doesn't work and my Roquefort cheese on toast effort was quite disastrously foul as well...I did say I was no chef and hence no recipe ideas here...I wouldn't want to get sued for the consequences! ;o)

Summary: