Roquefort cheese . It is a French blue cheese made from coagulated sheep’s milk from the Causses region of the Aveyron . The designation of origin was obtained in 1925 , in 1979 it was recognized by the AOC and in 1996 by the AOP .
Summary
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- 1 Features
- 2 Use
- 3 Texture
- 4 Sources
features
The area where milk is collected is located around the city of Roquefort-sur-Soulzon , close to the city of Millau . It includes the departments of Lozère , Aveyron , Tarn , Aude , Hérault and Gard , while the cheese refining area is limited to the city of Roquefort-sur-Soulzon.
It is a Lacaune sheep’s milk cheese , the only one capable of adapting to the rigorous climatic conditions that stand out for their strong temperature variations. It is a green cheese ( fromage à pâte persillée ) with an average weight of 2.5 kg.
The dough is kept in the form of balls in open cellars in the limestone of Roquefort-sur-Soulzon. Its optimal tasting period is between the months of April to October after a five-month refining, which favors the development of internal molds of the genus Penicillium ; but it is an excellent cheese at any time of the year.
Due to its strong and intense taste and smell, it is unpleasant for some people and excellent for others. Generally, the great tasters of food aromas classify it as a cheese with an exquisite flavor.
Utilization
For cold consumption, it is usually used in small quantities in order to better appreciate its strength in flavor and aroma, generally in small crispbread as a presentation, sometimes the same presentation as caviar .
With the same product, various sauces and dressings are made for different kitchen dishes. Among its most prominent use we find the roquefort sauce, highly appreciated for multiple meats, which consists of roquefort dissolved in cream when cooked hot with it, in addition to being able to add other spices . Occasionally in the elaboration of this sauce other varieties of blue cheese are used for their similarity due to the economic difference between the Roquefort denomination and others with a symmetrical flavor and lower price. Roquefort sauce shows bechamel-like and much more broadly similar to pepper sauce because like this it is made with cream, only that, instead of adding pepper, this famous cheese is added.
Texture
Its texture is firm and smooth and can be spread with some ease. Its aroma is milky, walnut and raisin. Its flavor is salty, complex, with an acid aftertaste. The cheeses for the French market are usually less salty than those for export. It can be served with celery or grapes, or on a cheese platter or buffet. Excellent with baguette and pear bread or with wholemeal rolls and watercress. Its flavor and texture are softened when mixed with cream cheese or butter. Roquefort is an ideal cheese to incorporate into any recipe based on blue cheese. Its delicate flavor does not stifle that of the other ingredients. It is excellent in blue cheese sauces for salads, fillings for tartlets and canapes, meat sauces, etc.
