Virginia free press. (Charlestown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1832-1916, 1894-04-11
". Fl. b. GALLAHER, Editor.
April II, 1894.
Rocquefort and It's Cheese.

Out of Rocquefort, little village of
800 souls, situated in the Department of
Aveyren, southern France, the world gets
its Rocquefort cheese. If you take a
train-or better, as we did, bike-al
Bezieres and journey to station Tourne-
mire. on the road to Clermont Ferrand,
YOU find yourself at the foothills of
Roucquefort. If you look up the noun
tain side you will see Rocquefort perched
above some cliffs. In the mountains Is a
huge cave, and in this cave all the cheese
in the neighborhood, as we'll as much
from the departments 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
skill of man or woman, that gives
Rocquefort its peculiarites OF taste and
color.
A shepherd lad, so runs the legend, left
quite large piece of bread and cheese,
prepared from the milk of his own goats,
in this cavern. Returning some time at
terward 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
villagers. told of this result, tested its
truth with results very satisfactory. As
far back as 1910 Rocquefort's cheese was
famous, and it is mentioned in many an
cient chronicles. The worth of the cavern
to the little village will be seen in the
yearly production, upward of 100000
pounds.
Rochefort, or Rocquefort, is prepared
from sleeps milk exclusively, and goats
or cows milk may make good cheese, but
they won't make Rochefort. The sheep
are named larzares, originally belonged
to the high tablelands, or plateaus, which
border the farm. They eat little, are
easily satisfied, and yield per capita year.
ly thirty.fve to forty.fve pounds OF
cheese. The lambs are not left long with
their own dams, but are either sold,
brought up on the bottle or by other
sheep. The sheep are milked morning
and evening. The milk, 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
=. Otherwise the milk and curds are treated
as in the preparation of other cheese, ex.
cept that little crust-crumbs of bread are
mixed with it to produce the bleu veins
Il alluded to above. 1t is not true, as some
e, times urged, that this color comes from
Is Alpine herbs.
After the cheese is made it is put into
rooms to dry. As soon as certain de
gree of dryness is reached it is removed tc
the cave. Here it gets those little touch
j es that make it Rocquefort against all th'
worlds art. Whys How? Nobody
knows. Except this-the cave is regulat
all the year around, in temperature, ant
4 has air draughts running in il from Jan
uary to January Its supposed that tn
temperature is due to openings into sub
y terranean caves, and the moist air to wa
an tiers to some underground sea. AT al
Is events, some very happy natural combl
nation gives the peculiar results, and n
p. efforts of art have ever even PARTIAL,
H. succeeded in attaining them. If the TEN
e e1 perature changed the fermentation woul'
S. change; if the moisture was more
:. would make the cheese so soft that
er. would not keep together, and if less woul'
N ~ be too dry.
The cave is owned by joint stock com
Z, pany. This company buys the chees
g from peasants and farmers for 90 or 1OI
miles around. Of course, great care mus
be taken in preparing, and only expert
In testing are sent out to buy. The cav
'sf st is fitted up with oak shelves on which tn
de cheeses are placed In this way it ha
been so utilized that $1,000 square yard
- of surface have been obtained. Durin
the six months that it takes to make tn
cheese it has to pass through many pre-
p. cesses. First of all il must be rubbe
three days with fine salt, and as often a
.lo c,oIted colt ro;rcI;no with the chees,