The Durham daily globe., 1894-02-13
HOW RoCQUEFoRT is MADE,
'heese Relished by All the World Manu-.
factured Only In One Snnt In Eranca


factured Only In One Spot in France.
Out Of Rocquefort, q little vilIare of
elght hundred souls. situated in the de-
pa.tment OF A7eyren. southern France,
the world gets its Rocquefort cheese.
II you take tra in-or better, as we
aid' a olke-at Bezieres and journey TO
station Tournemire, on the road to
tlermont Ferrand, you find yourself at
;ae foothills Of Rocquefort. IL YOU
look up the mountain side yoa will see
hocIuer0rt perched a bove some cliffs.
In the mountains is a huge cave, and
IN this cave all the cheese made in the
nelghborhood, as well as much from
the departments Of Lozere. Herault.
Gard and Tarn, is prepared There is
no other such cave. no such cheese as
Rocquefort. for the cave it is and no
special skill Of man or woman that
gives Rocquefort lis peculiarities of
taste and color.
shepherd lad. SO runs the legend.
left quite a large piece of bread and
cheese, prepared from the milk Of his
own goats in this cavern Returning
some time afterward he found, to his
surprise, that his cheese not only was
not dried up or rotted but tasted better
than before. Besides, the bread
crumbs left in contact with the cheese
caused the greenish-blue veins found
now in the famous cheese. The VIII
layers, told of this result, tested its
truth with results very satisfactory
AS far back as 1870 Rocquefort's cheese
was famous, and it is mentioned in
many ancient chronicles The worth
of the cavern to the little village will
be seen in the yearly production, up
wards Of ten million pounds.
ROchefort or Rocquefort is prepared
from sleeps milk exclusively, and
goats or cows milk may make good
cheeses but they won't make Roche.
fort. The sheep are named Larzares
and originally belong in the high ia ble-
lands or plateaus which border the
farm. They eat little, are easily salts
fed and yield per ca pita yearly thirty
five to forty-fve pounds of cheese.
The lambs are not left long with their
dams, but are either sold, brought up
on the bottle or by other sheep The
sheep are mill1ed morning and evening.
The milk, as soon as it is taken from
the sheep, is Immediately placed over
the fire and heated almost but never
| quite up to the boiling point. Other.
wise the milk curds are treated as in
| the preparation Of other cheeses, ex-
| cept that little crust-crumbs of bread
are mizEed with it to produce the blue
veins alluded to above. 1t is not true,
as sometimes urged, that this color
| comes from Alpine herbs.
| After the cheese is made it is put into
| rooms to dry. AS soon as certain de-
| cree OF drynesS is reached it is removed
| t. the cave. Here it gets those little
| touches that make it Rocquefort against
all the worlds art. Why? How? No
| body knows. Except this-the cave is
| regular, ali the year round, in tempera-
turo, and has air drafts running in it
| from January to January. 1t is sup
| posed that the temperature is due to
| openings into subterranean caves, and
| the most air to water of some under
| ground sea. At all events some very
| happy natural combination gives the
| peculiar results, and no efforts of art
| rave ever even partially succeeded in
| attaining them. If the temperature
| changed the fermentation would
| change: if the moisture was more it
would make the cheese so soft that it
| would not keep together, and if less
| the cheese would be too drv.
The cave is owned by a joint stoci;
company. This company buys the
| ohcnsc from peasants and farmers for
iiftV or one hundred miles around. OF
course great care must be taken in pre-
pairing, and only experts in testing are
sent out to buy. The cave is fitted up
with oak shelves, on which the cheeses
are placed. In this way it has been SO
utilized that sixtyfive thousand square
Yards of surface have been obtained.
During the six months that it takes tc
make the cheese it has to pass through
many processes. First of all, 1t must
be rubbed for three days with fine salt,
and as often as the melted salt, min.
Cling with the cheese, makes a mass OF
| soft matter this is scraped away. It is
| then taken to a machine filed with
needles and run by steam. Here it is
priclled full of little holes, into which
| afterward the air of the cave pen
etrates. All the work is done by WON.
en-, who, besides bed and board, get
cne hundred dollars to one hundred
and twenty-five dollars year. The
cave is so cold and damp that the
women must wear woolens winter and
summer 1t IS curious sight in sum
mer to see these women clad as one
finds women clad only in northern lati
tudes in winter.
J The people are clean, hospita ble and
good-natured. They have only very
vague notion, however, Of what the
world thinks Of their cheese. They
know it is good, they prepare it be.
| cause Il is the only means of prospect.
ty. The Paris prices, however, OF
those of London, Chicago and New
York appear to them absolutely in
incredible. There is rugged rustici
tv among the hills. The people are
, simple as the peasants of Palestine in
, the times Of Christ They take of
: their hats and bow their heads as Mil
let has told Us in his beautiful picture
. OF TIE angelus.-Chicago News
: Weber belonged TO a musical fam