Roquefort (cheese)
Encyclopedia
Roquefort (ˈroʊkfərt, rɒkˈfɔr, ʁɔkfɔʁ; from Occitan ròcafòrt ˌrɔkɔˈfɔɾt), sometimes spelled Rochefort in English, is a sheep milk
Sheep milk
Sheep's milk is the milk of domestic sheep. Though not widely drunk in any modern culture, sheep's milk is commonly used to make cultured dairy products. Well-known cheeses made from sheep milk include the Feta of Greece, Roquefort of France, Manchego from Spain, the Pecorino Romano , the Pecorino...

 blue cheese
Blue cheese
Blue cheese is a general classification of cow's milk, sheep's milk, or goat's milk cheeses that have had cultures of the mold Penicillium added so that the final product is spotted or veined throughout with blue, blue-gray or blue-green mold, and carries a distinct smell, either from that or...

 from the south of France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

, and together with Bleu d'Auvergne
Bleu d'Auvergne
Bleu d'Auvergne is a French blue cheese, named for its place of origin in the Auvergne region of south-central France. It is made from cow's milk, and is one of the cheeses granted the Appellation d'Origine Contrôlée from the French government....

, Stilton
Stilton (cheese)
Stilton is a type of English cheese, known for its characteristic strong smell and taste. It is produced in two varieties: the well-known blue and the lesser-known white. Both have been granted the status of a protected designation of origin by the European Commission, together one of only...

 and Gorgonzola
Gorgonzola (cheese)
Gorgonzola is a veined Italian blue cheese, made from unskimmed cow's and/or goat's milk. It can be buttery or firm, crumbly and quite salty, with a "bite" from its blue veining.- History :...

 is one of the world's best-known blue cheeses. Though similar cheeses are produced elsewhere, European law dictates that only those cheeses aged in the natural Combalou caves of Roquefort-sur-Soulzon
Roquefort-sur-Soulzon
Roquefort-sur-Soulzon is a commune in the Aveyron department in southern France.It is located on the Causse du Larzac and is famous for its ewe's milk Roquefort cheese. Much of the activity in the commune centres on the production and distribution of the cheese...

 may bear the name Roquefort, as it is a recognised geographical indication
Geographical indication
A geographical indication is a name or sign used on certain products which corresponds to a specific geographical location or origin...

, or has a protected designation of origin
Protected designation of origin
Protected Geographical Status is a legal framework defined in European Union law to protect the names of regional foods. Protected Designation of Origin , Protected Geographical Indication and Traditional Speciality Guaranteed are distinct regimes of geographical indications within the framework...

.
The cheese is white, tangy, crumbly and slightly moist, with distinctive veins of green mold
Mold
Molds are fungi that grow in the form of multicellular filaments called hyphae. Molds are not considered to be microbes but microscopic fungi that grow as single cells called yeasts...

. It has characteristic odor and flavor with a notable taste of butyric acid
Butyric acid
Butyric acid , also known under the systematic name butanoic acid, is a carboxylic acid with the structural formula CH3CH2CH2-COOH. Salts and esters of butyric acid are known as butyrates or butanoates...

; the green veins provide a sharp tang. The overall flavor sensation begins slightly mild, then waxes sweet, then smoky, and fades to a salty finish. It has no rind
Rind
Rind may refer to:*Peel *Pork rind*Rind , a giantess in Norse mythology*Rind, Armenia, also Rrind*Rind et al. controversy, about a study on child sexual abuse*Rind , a tribe in Baluchistan...

; the exterior is edible and slightly salty. A typical wheel of Roquefort weighs between 2.5 and 3 kilograms, and is about 10 cm thick. Each kilogram of finished cheese requires about 4.5 litres of milk.

History

Legend has it that the cheese was discovered when a youth, eating his lunch of bread and ewes' milk cheese, saw a beautiful girl in the distance. Abandoning his meal in a nearby cave, he ran to meet her. When he returned a few months later, the mold (Penicillium roqueforti
Penicillium roqueforti
Penicillium roqueforti is a common saprotrophic fungus from the family Trichocomaceae. Widespread in nature, it can be isolated from soil, decaying organic matter, and plants. The major industrial use of this fungus is the production of blue cheeses, flavouring agents, antifungals, polysaccharides,...

) had transformed his plain cheese into Roquefort.

Roquefort, or similar style cheese, is mentioned in literature as far back as AD 79, when Pliny the Elder
Pliny the Elder
Gaius Plinius Secundus , better known as Pliny the Elder, was a Roman author, naturalist, and natural philosopher, as well as naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and personal friend of the emperor Vespasian...

 remarked upon its rich flavor. In 1411 Charles VI
Charles VI of France
Charles VI , called the Beloved and the Mad , was the King of France from 1380 to 1422, as a member of the House of Valois. His bouts with madness, which seem to have begun in 1392, led to quarrels among the French royal family, which were exploited by the neighbouring powers of England and Burgundy...

 granted a monopoly for the ripening of the cheese to the people of Roquefort-sur-Soulzon
Roquefort-sur-Soulzon
Roquefort-sur-Soulzon is a commune in the Aveyron department in southern France.It is located on the Causse du Larzac and is famous for its ewe's milk Roquefort cheese. Much of the activity in the commune centres on the production and distribution of the cheese...

 as they had been doing for centuries. Cheesemaking colander
Colander
A colander is a bowl-shaped kitchen utensil with holes in it used for draining food such as pasta or rice.The perforated nature of the colander allows liquid to drain through while retaining the solids inside...

s have been discovered amongst the region's prehistoric
Prehistory
Prehistory is the span of time before recorded history. Prehistory can refer to the period of human existence before the availability of those written records with which recorded history begins. More broadly, it refers to all the time preceding human existence and the invention of writing...

 relics.

In 1925, the cheese was the recipient of France's first Appellation d'Origine Contrôlée
Appellation d'Origine Contrôlée
Appellation d’origine contrôlée , which translates as "controlled designation of origin", is the French certification granted to certain French geographical indications for wines, cheeses, butters, and other agricultural products, all under the auspices of the government bureau Institut National...

when regulations controlling its production and naming were first defined. In 1961, in a landmark ruling that removed imitation, the Tribunal de Grande Instance at Millau
Millau
Millau is a commune in the Aveyron department in southern France. It is located at the confluence of the Tarn and Dourbie rivers.-History:...

 decreed that although the method for the manufacture of the cheese could be followed across the south of France, only those whose ripening occurred in the natural caves of Mont Combalou in Roquefort-sur-Soulzon were permitted to bear the name Roquefort.

Production

The mold that gives Roquefort its distinctive character (Penicillium roqueforti
Penicillium roqueforti
Penicillium roqueforti is a common saprotrophic fungus from the family Trichocomaceae. Widespread in nature, it can be isolated from soil, decaying organic matter, and plants. The major industrial use of this fungus is the production of blue cheeses, flavouring agents, antifungals, polysaccharides,...

) is found in the soil of the local caves. Traditionally the cheesemakers extracted it by leaving bread in the caves for six to eight weeks until it was consumed by the mold. The interior of the bread was then dried to produce a powder. In modern times the mold can be grown in a laboratory, which allows for greater consistency. The mold may either be added to the curd
Curd
Curds are a dairy product obtained by curdling milk with rennet or an edible acidic substance such as lemon juice or vinegar, and then draining off the liquid portion. The increased acidity causes the milk proteins to tangle into solid masses, or curds. The remaining liquid, which contains only...

, or introduced as an aerosol, through holes poked in the rind.

Roquefort is made entirely from the milk of the Lacaune
Lacaune (sheep)
The Lacaune is a breed of domestic sheep originating near Lacaune in southern France. The Lacaune is the most widely used dairying sheep breed in France, with a population of about 800,000 ewes...

, Manech and Basco-Béarnaise
Basco-béarnaise
The Basco-béarnaise is a domesticated breed of sheep originating in the Basque country. The breed was developed from Basque and Béarnaise sheep during the 1960s to be a single-purpose milk breed.-Origins:...

 breeds of sheep. Prior to the AOC
Appellation d'Origine Contrôlée
Appellation d’origine contrôlée , which translates as "controlled designation of origin", is the French certification granted to certain French geographical indications for wines, cheeses, butters, and other agricultural products, all under the auspices of the government bureau Institut National...

 regulations of 1925, a small amount of cow’s or goat’s milk was sometimes added. A total of around 4.5 litres of milk is required to make one kilogram of Roquefort.

The cheese is produced throughout the département of Aveyron
Aveyron
Aveyron is a département in southern France named after the Aveyron River.- History :Aveyron is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on 4 March 1790....

 and part of the nearby départements of Aude
Aude
Aude is a department in south-central France named after the river Aude. The local council also calls the department "Cathar Country".Aude is also a frequent feminine French given name in Francophone countries, deriving initially from Aude or Oda, a wife of Bertrand, Duke of Aquitaine, and mother...

, Lozère
Lozère
Lozère , is a department in southeast France near the Massif Central, named after Mont Lozère.- History :Lozère is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on March 4, 1790...

, Gard
Gard
Gard is a département located in southern France in the Languedoc-Roussillon region.The department is named after the River Gard, although the formerly Occitan name of the River Gard, Gardon, has been replacing the traditional French name in recent decades, even among French speakers.- History...

, Hérault
Hérault
Hérault is a department in the south of France named after the Hérault river.-History:Hérault is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on 4 March 1790...

 and Tarn.

, there are seven Roquefort producers. The largest by far is Roquefort Société made by the Société des Caves de Roquefort (a subsidiary of Lactalis
Lactalis
Lactalis is a multi-national dairy products corporation, owned by the Besnier family and based in Laval, Mayenne, France. It is the third largest dairy products group in the world, and is the second largest food products group in France, behind Danone...

), which holds several caves and opens its facilities to tourists, and accounts for around 60% of all production. Roquefort Papillon is also a well-known brand. The five other producers, each holding only one cave, are Carles, Gabriel Coulet, Fromageries occitanes, Vernières and Le Vieux Berger.

Around three million cheeses were made in 2005 (18,830 tons) making it, after Comté
Comté (cheese)
Comté is a French cheese made from unpasteurized cow's milk in the Franche-Comté region of eastern France.Comté has the highest production figures of all French AOC cheeses, making around 40,000 tonnes annually...

, France's second most popular cheese.

Production of Roquefort cheese entails "4,500 people who herd special ewes on 2,100 farms producing milk ... in a carefully defined oval grazing area across the Larzac
Larzac
The Causse du Larzac is a limestone karst plateau in the south of the Massif Central, France, situated between Millau and Lodève...

 Plain and up and down nearby hills and valleys." Total production in 2008 of about 19,000 tons was reported. The proportion of Roquefort exported to the United States remained small, only 450 tons out of 3,700 in total exports. Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

, with purchases of 1,000 tons, was by far the largest foreign customer. In early 2009, Susan Schwab
Susan Schwab
Susan C. Schwab is an American politician, who served as United States Trade Representative from June, 2006 to January, 2009....

, outgoing US Trade Representative, announced a 300% tariff
Tariff
A tariff may be either tax on imports or exports , or a list or schedule of prices for such things as rail service, bus routes, and electrical usage ....

 on the cheese, apparently the highest level by far of any in the package of tariffs placed on dozens of Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

an luxury goods in response to a European ban on hormone treated US beef. The tariff was suspended several months later as the US and EU settled the dispute.

Consumption and other uses

Although Roquefort provides an excellent eating experience throughout the year, it is at its best between April and October, consumed after a five month ripening period.

The cheese should be left in its original wrapper or in aluminium foil in order to keep it from drying out, either in a cool cellar or in the bottom section of a refrigerator
Refrigerator
A refrigerator is a common household appliance that consists of a thermally insulated compartment and a heat pump that transfers heat from the inside of the fridge to its external environment so that the inside of the fridge is cooled to a temperature below the ambient temperature of the room...

. It should be returned to room temperature approximately one hour before serving, and should be protected from sudden temperature changes.

Roquefort's strong flavour and creamy texture perfectly complement a simple salad when small quantities of the cheese are crumbled and sprinkled frugally on the lettuce. Its strongly salty taste is particularly appreciated where fine dining, smoking or simple effluxion of time have desensitized the palate. The regional cuisine in and around Aveyron
Aveyron
Aveyron is a département in southern France named after the Aveyron River.- History :Aveyron is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on 4 March 1790....

 includes many roquefort based recipes for main-course meat sauces, savory tarts and quiches, pies and fillings.

Before Alexander Fleming
Alexander Fleming
Sir Alexander Fleming was a Scottish biologist and pharmacologist. He wrote many articles on bacteriology, immunology, and chemotherapy...

 discovered penicillin
Penicillin
Penicillin is a group of antibiotics derived from Penicillium fungi. They include penicillin G, procaine penicillin, benzathine penicillin, and penicillin V....

, it was common in country districts for shepherds to apply this cheese to wounds in order to avoid gangrene
Gangrene
Gangrene is a serious and potentially life-threatening condition that arises when a considerable mass of body tissue dies . This may occur after an injury or infection, or in people suffering from any chronic health problem affecting blood circulation. The primary cause of gangrene is reduced blood...

.

AOC regulations

The regulations that govern the production of Roquefort have been laid down over a number of decrees by the INAO. These include:
  1. All milk used must be delivered at least 20 days after lambing has taken place.
  2. The sheep must be on pasture, whenever possible, in an area including most of Aveyron and parts of neighboring départements. At least 3/4 of any grain or fodder fed must come from the area.
  3. The milk must be whole, raw (not heated above 34 °C), and unfiltered except to remove macroscopic particles.
  4. The addition of rennet
    Rennet
    Rennet is a complex of enzymes produced in any mammalian stomach to digest the mother's milk, and is often used in the production of cheese. Rennet contains many enzymes, including a proteolytic enzyme that coagulates the milk, causing it to separate into solids and liquid...

     must occur within 48 hours of milking.
  5. The Penicillium roqueforti used in the production must be produced in France from the natural caves of Roquefort-sur-Soulzon.
  6. The salting process must be performed using dry salt.
  7. The whole process of maturation, cutting, packaging and refrigeration of the cheese must take place in the commune of Roquefort-sur-Soulzon.

Glutamate content

Roquefort has a high content of free glutamate
Glutamic acid
Glutamic acid is one of the 20 proteinogenic amino acids, and its codons are GAA and GAG. It is a non-essential amino acid. The carboxylate anions and salts of glutamic acid are known as glutamates...

, 1280 mg of free glutamate per 100 g of cheese.

External links

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