On supporting science journalism
If you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.
[From the. Grocer.] The preparation and maturing of Roquefort cheese are the most elaborate, careful, and interesting of all cheese-manufacturing processes. In its rich color and blue vein marbling, it bears a close resemblance to our Stilton, the most esteemed by the gourmet of all native cheeses, of which, perhaps, it is the most carefully made. The art of dining is an eminently progressive art, and with the advance of knowledge and the refinement of taste, the Roquefort cheese increases in respect. The amiable and witty Brillat-Savarin, who was the most enlightened . of gastronomes, has said that a dinner without cheese is like a lovely woman with only ono eye. Many other gastronomes go farther than this, and declare that no choicely concocted menu is complete without fromage de Roquefort. It cannot be regarded as a new favorite by any means; indeed it may be said to be as old as the hills which give it birth, for it was a familiar delicacy to the Roman palate, and its praises were sung- by Pliny. The birthplace of Roquefort cheese is in the mountains which rise in the southeast of France, half way between the Eastern Pyrenees, and the beautiful but boisterous gulf of the Mediterranean, called the Gulf of Lyons. The village of Roquefort, in the French department of Aveyron, is a place somewhat difficult to get at. It is about ten miles from the railway station at Milhau. It lies on the flank of a mountain in one of the most beautiful valleys of France. It is sheltered by forests of superb chestnut trees, a limpid mountain stream runs before it, while behind tower the rugged sides of the plateau of Larzac, 1970 feet above the sea level. It is upon this plateau that the immense flocks of sheep from whose milk the cheese is made find their :ood. In the sides of these rocks is excavated a perfect cheeso-citadel. The cliffs are honeycombed in every direction with caverns, natuial and artificial, some of them five stories in hight. Hence we find in this district a happy combination of requisites; the summit of the plateau offering pasturage, the broad flanks of the rocks caves for warehousing and ripening, while the village so snugly nestling below supplies the human elements of the trade. The food which the ewes obtain upon the stony pasturage is composed of herbs of the choicest flavor, and a great deal of the superiority of this kind ot cheese may be attributed to this cause; but it is to the caverns of Roquefort, above all, that the success of the comestible is due, The average temperature of these caverns is about 30° Fahrenheit. The learned have been fertile in theorizing as te the causes of this low and equable temperature; but, according to M. Tur-gan's great work “Les Grandes Usines de France,” to which we are indebted for a great deal of the information to be found here, no generally accepted explanation i ias yet been given. Whatever may be the causo, these cool vaults were turned to good use by the local shepherds from the most distant times, and Roquefort cheeses are very often mentioned in old French charters. By an edict of the parliament of Toulouse, in 1550, the monopoly of the Roquefort cheese manufacture was granted to the village of that name, and other persons were prohibited from making it. As time went on, and commerce extended, the reputation of these caverns spread till the country folks, for miles around, came to offer payment for the privilege of depositing their cheeses in these rock-warehouses. A better system ot trade was inaugurated at a later period. By this improved mode, which simplified the process of production and sale, the producers sold their wares to the proprietors of the caves, who kept the cheeses till they were perfectly ripened, and then sold them on their own account. Just before the close of the last century, the i entire trade was in the hands of three rival firms, and the annual production was about 250 tuns. Between the years 1800 and 1815 the production rose to 500 tuns. After the fall of Napoleon, and until about 1830, there was an almost perfect stagnation of trade in France. The cheese fell in price, the three monopolists were ruined, and the Roquefort establishments passed into new and more numerous hands. Sub [October 16, 1869. sequently the trade was exposed to vicissitude's, out of which however, it came triumphant, and at the present day it is in a flourishing condition; it is better organized, and its commercial relations are widely extended. As we have stated, the cheese of Roquefort is made from the milk of ewes, of a particular breed, called the Larzac breed, named after the plateau of Larzac, which was their original feeding ground. Some years ago many attempts were made to imp rove the old style of manufacture, by using the milk of the cow and of the goat, as well as by introducing another breed of sheep; but these experiments always turned out unsuccessfully. Forty years since, General Salignac put to the Larzac ewes some merino rams. Ho desired to, try the effect of crossing —hoping to get blended in the cross-bred animal the milk-producing qualities of the ewes, and the silky merino of the ram. Unfortunately his experiments were imitated by others, for the result was a great falling off in the production of milk. A new order of things now prevails; the sheep-owners seek for animals of the pure race, careful feeding and the best hygienic conditions are relied upon to improve The quality of the fleece. But it is the milk-producing powers of these animals that occupy the farmer's most anxious care. At the present moment there are about 350,000 sheep. We may set down the rams, lambs, sick beasts, etc., at 150,000; the remaining 200,000 are milk-producing ewes. The average value of a three-yeq,r-old ewe is 20 francs. At the age of seven years they are fattened up f
