Roquefort cheese holds a special place in French cuisine, a
status that goes back many centuries.
The story of how it was created dates from more than two
thousand years ago. A young shepherd who lived near the limestone caves of
Roquefort-sur-Soulzon, near modern Toulouse in south-west France, was having
his lunch of bread and sheep’s milk cheese when a pretty young girl passed by
in the distance. Distracted, he left his lunch in the cave where he was taking
his break and started to follow her, forgetting all about the bread and cheese.
It was several months before he went back to the same cave,
but when he did so he found that his cheese now had blue veins running through
it. Instead of throwing it away he had a nibble at it and liked what he tasted.
Roquefort cheese had been discovered!
Whether the particular story is true or not, it does contain
an element of truth in that this is how Roquefort cheese is made. The basic
cheese, made from unpasteurized sheep’s milk, has spores of the mould
Penicillium roqueforti added to it and it is then left to mature for three
months in a cave, where the damp air encourages the mould to develop and
produce blue veins.
The resulting cheese is semi-hard and crumbly, with a
distinctive tangy taste. There is nothing unique about blue-veined cheeses, but
what sets Roquefort apart is the fact that it is made from sheep’s milk and is
veined by a specific local mould.
It is known that Roquefort has a very long history, having
been mentioned by Pliny the Elder in the 1st century AD.
Charlemagne, the Holy Roman Emperor in the early 9th century, is
known to have been particularly fond of it.
In 1411 King Charles VI decreed that only the citizens of
Roquefort had the right to mature the cheese, thus ensuring that no copies
could be made elsewhere. This status was confirmed in 1926 when Roquefort
cheese was given its “appellation d’origine”, making it the first cheese to be
so honoured.
Such is the status of Roquefort cheese that a true French
gourmet will only eat it when it is accompanied by a similarly honoured wine,
such as Chateauneuf-du-Pape.
The French refer to Roquefort as “the cheese of kings and popes”,
but personally, when it comes to blue cheeses I prefer to stick my own local
delicacy, namely Stilton!
© John Welford
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