The record-union., 1893-03-27
CHEESE MADE In CAVES.
dow the Famous RoquefOrt is
Manufactured.
For Two Thousand Years 1t Has Been
Sent to the Great Capitals of Eu-
rope-An Interesting Process Which
is Largely Carried on In the Dark.

rope-An Interesting Process Which
is Largely Carried on In the Dark.
Travellers in the south of France are
greatly interested in what has been at
some remote time the scene of gigantic
volanlc disturbances. The ancient gran
lie rocks have been split and torn apart,
and from the bowels of them have been
erupted vast masses of lava, which have
flowed in great streams and buried the
ancient surface under hundreds of feet of
curious basaltic rock. In its turn this
rock has been broken up and fissured by
repeated outbursts and thrown up into a
mountain range, in which are caverns
and caves, from which belch forth hot
springs, sulphurous and bubbling with
gases, the effects of the fires which still
exist in the depths.
One ofthese mountains consists of lime
stone, and is covered with luxuriant
grasses. But as to its interior it is hol-
lowed by the volcanic forces into series
of caves formed OF vast masses OF rock
thrown together as if dumped promiscu-
ously from some great hight, and all con-
nected with each other and with some Su b.
terranean outlet, by which constant cool
currents Of air, always of the same tenn
perature and degree of humidity, flow in
neVer-inIerrupted stream. BY no means
known to man could so perfect an ar
rangeInent for chemical laboratory of
even temperature and moisture and free
from every Impure influence have been
better provided. And this laboratory,
b. some happy accident, perhaps, to the
aboriginal cave-dweller, was discovered
and turned to use.
If the aboriginal man of that region,
whose bones and those of his sheep and
dog lie together in these caves, made use
OF this rock and the caves under it, and
the rich grasses that covered the soil on
1t, he possibly MIXED his ewes and made
OF the milk just such cheese as the
Frenchman of the present day makes in
precisely the same way, and sends to New
York for the use of the luxurious person
who Is willing to pay 81 pound for it.
And just the same, The predecessor OF the
Frenchman OF to-day, 1000 years ago,
sent the same kind OF cheese to the
equally luxurious city of Rome for the
teasts of the rich people of that city.
This is doubtless the oldest kind Of
cheese that has come down from such
distant period TO the present unchanged
in character, and always popular for its
exquisite qualities.
I his is the Roquefort cheese that is
made from ewes milk in most inter
esting manner. The sheep have been
bred always for their milking quality,
and the bulk of the cheese is yet made of
this kind OF milk, but recently, as the
demand for it has increased, some cows
milk Is used, without any difference ma
terially in the quality of the product. 1t
is not the milk, or any special preparation
OF ii, upon which the character of the
cheese depends, but the unique process of
curing in these caves, in which the tenn
perature is precisely the same every day
IN the year; the atmosphere is pure and
OF an Interchangeable moisture, so that the
special germs which cause the fermenta-
ton always act in precisely the same
way, and thus the cheese never varies in
quality. So that whether cows or sleeps
or goats milk is used, the cheese is al
ways Reque1ort.
luxurious Romans found it, and what it
was when the Gauls strove Intellectually
against the superior civilization of their
conquerors. 1t was the method of this
couquerlng nation to preserve everything
that was worth the saving they might
find in the countries they oVerran, dis
turbing as little as possible, but merely
transferring into their own hands the
Government they overthrew. Thus all
useful Industries were preserved, and a
settled and powerful Government tended
TO encourage and strengthen them.
mus IDlS Cue6Se mas uGSC6nueu 10 our
day without any change whatever i'll the
process. and all the modern discoveries
in the science of cheese making only eX-
plain the true inwardness of it and make
plain to the modern practitioner what
was before obscure, and learned only by
many years of practice in these dark
cool and windy caves. We may now un-
ders,and the reason for every part of the
intricate process, and may see in the
minds eye the minute germs ct work
changing the Gaseous matter into fat, and
developing that rich flavor by which this
cheese has been known for more than
twenty centuries, and stands to-day a tri-
umph of uneducated art.
The mountain on which the village of
Roquefort Is situated is called Larzac, and
is about twenty-five miles in length and
nearly 5000 feet high. The soil is chiefly
limestone, and the fertility of it is only
moderate. The natural pasture is thin,
but it is made up by the crops of clover,
sauioin, lucern, and mixed grains, as
tares and oats, or rye and peas. These
mixed crops, under good culture, yield
abundantly, and afford the larger part OF
the subsistence OF the sheep, of which
about 100000 are kept to supply the milk.
BY close breeding this race of sheep has
become specially prolific OF milk, rich in
Fat and caseine, having and per cent.
respectively of these clements OF cheese.
1t is not so sweet as cows milk.
sllim': that is, the evenings milk is
skinned, after having been heated tc
near boiling, and set until the morning.
The fresh milk and the SKINNED even
ing's milk are warmed to 90' and then
curdled by the addition of large spoon
ful OF rennet TO fifty quarts or l20 pounds
of milk The heating and the quantity
OF rennet used are varied as the weather
NAV be warm or damp, as this has some
effect upon the behavior of the milk, as is
well known to cheese-makers. The curd,
when sufficiently firm, is cut TO liberate
the whey, which Is dipped of, and the
curd is lifted into the molds. These are
OF earthenware and glazed, cylindrical in
form, and pierced with holes for the
drainage of the whey. They are eight
inches in diameter and three and one
half deep. thus making a cheese that
weighs live pounds when fully cured
AS the molds are filled, the curd is in
oculated with a ierment made of dried
moldv bread powdered, this being well
distributed among the curd by the fin
gers rs the curd is placed in the mold
The curd is heaped above the edge OF the
mold three inches, so that as II Shrlnks
the cheese will just fit the mold.
\ second mold is then filled in the
same way and placed on the first, and the
curd is covered with plate of lead
which serves to press it and get rid OF the
excess of moisture from il. When this
has been effected the cheese will have
shruuk within the limits OF the mold
The whey drains from the cheese into
channels cut in the table upon which
{bev are laid. and is removed. The apart
mont i'm which this work is done is an
nnter cave. inclosed by wall in front.
Here the cheese stays until it is drained
of the whey, being turned twice day. A
special part OF the process at TINS stage Is