At least that’s what happened in Roquefort-sur-Soulzon, over a million years ago, the ground, rattled and rolled, sinking down into a oval shaped valley, dominated by the still standing mountains which now housed what would be come to be known as the Combalou Caves.
The Roquefort Valley
Roquefort is the home of that gourmet delicacy, veined blue cheese……. Which people love or hate? We like it and decided that a visit to its birthplace was worthwhile. Only cheese that is matured in these ancient caves is allowed to be called Roquefort.
Legend has it that a young sheepherd, spied a beautiful maiden while enjoying his lunch of bread and cheese in the caves. He was so smitten he followed her abandoning his sheep and his lunch. When he returned weeks later both bread and cheese were covered in blue mold, luckily for us hunger prevailed and he liked the now “blue” cheese.
The cheese is made from sheep’s milk which are valley bred specifically for there milk, the milk is tested then mixed with a special bacteria Roqueforti penicillum which they reproduce themselves. This bacterium is what gives the cheese its distinctive flavour. The rennet is added, the curds, collected, drained and moulded.
Each round is pierced top to bottom in about 40 places; these holes allow the formation of those distinctive veins. The cheese rounds are rolled in salt and then placed on special salted racks in the caves to mature. During this time the internal heat of the cheese due to the fermentation process melts the exterior salt and it is absorbed into the cheese, helping impart that particular tangy taste.
The maturing length is different for each type of cheese and the whole process is carefully monitored by experienced masters, who carefully sample and check the cheeses during this period.
A whole lotta cheese
What we found really interesting is that unlike other cheese productions we have visited, where gleaming stainless steel surfaces are the norm. We saw vast dusty, dark, cobwebby caverns, containing row upon row of gleaming cheese moons, standing to attention on salt covered boards. The production and moulding process is no doubt carried out in stainless sterility; the maturing not so much.
Roquefort was praised by Pliny the Elder in 79 A.D. He and other Romans loved its flavor and paid high prices to import it. In the 700s, the emperor Charlemagne enjoyed Roquefort at his Christmas feasts. The first recorded mention of “Roquefort” was in 1070. It became so popular that Charles VI granted a monopoly on its manufacture to the people of Roquefort-sur-Soulzon in 1411. Apparently Casanova loved it as much as the fairer sex!
Obviously with such history it is no wonder that in 1925 it was the first cheese to receive the “Appellation d’Origine Controlee”.
It is definitely worth a visit, do remember to take a jacket though as the caves are a consistently cool 10 degrees centigrade, water seeps down and puddles in places. The whole cave system is ventilated by the “fleurines” which are natural cracks or apertures which link the caves with each other and the outside air. The air flow through these can be adjusted as needed, maintaining the constant temperature during the hottest summer and the coldest winter.
The tour was very informative although given in French; we had a English transcript to follow as we followed our guide through the dimly lit tunnels.
Best part of the tour has to be the samples….. and of course the chance to buy your favorite’s!
Tip; Store your cheese in the bottom of the fridge wrapped tightly in tin foil…… they wrap the whole cheeses in foil once the maturing process has finished as it puts the “cheese to rest”!
Bon appetit!
In the Roquefort Caves
