Roquefort Blue Cheese

Roquefort blue cheese comes with a very romanticized legend. It is the story of a young shepherd who is minding his flock in Roquefort, France, when he sees a beautiful woman in the distance. He leaves his herding dog to watch the sheep and places his lunch of bread and ewe's milk curds in a nearby cave to keep cool. After days and days of hunting but not finding the woman, he returns back to his flock and his lunch for he is starving. He retrieves his lunch and finds the bread and curds have molded, but due to his hunger he takes a bite anyway and discovered the delicious taste of what is now called Roquefort blue cheese.

Roquefort cheese is made with Lacaune ewe's milk only, part of what makes it so special. The milk is brought into dairy's and tested for it's quality. What passes the test is heated and placed in large vats. Penicillium roqueforti is then added to the vats in order to curdle the ewe's milk. The curdles are cubed and placed into molds to drain and be salted, and there they sit for ten days before transported caves for ripening. The cheese loaves are punctured about forty times to aerate the cheese and ensure mold growth. These loaves are hung for three to ten months, then the loaves leave the cave as Roquefort cheese.