Roquefort - Cheese of the Week

This is our first installment of our "Cheese of the Week" blog post.  Our goal is to try different French cheeses and give a brief overview of the history of the cheese and our thoughts.  The first cheese we will discuss is Roquefort.  This is a really well known cheese, but I learned a few things I didn't know before while putting together this post.  The cheese we bought is unfortunately not from a chic, local producer, but was bought at the grocery store.  However, it is certified AOC (Appellation d'Origine Contrôlée), meaning that it meets the government standards for any cheese bearing the Roquefort name.  AOC guidelines may sound familiar because they are also applied to French wines.

So what are these government standards you might ask?  Roquefort cheese must be aged in very specific caves of the Roquefort-sur-Soulzon region of France.  It is also a sheep's milk cheese that is aged with a very specific mold that is in fact created in a laboratory.  This aging process creates the unique, blue "veins" in the cheese.  There are only 7 certified roquefort producers in France and the particular cheese pictured above was made by the largest one, called Roquefort Société.  They produce over 60% of all the roquefort on the market.

Totally ripped this off the internet

And this one...

So the next question I'm sure you are all dying to know is how does it taste?  Well, it is similar in nature to many other blue cheeses such as gorgonzola or stilton.  The mold creates a sharp flavor, but I also found this cheese to have a nice and creamy texture.  In addition to the cheese, I added a bit of onion marmalade that Caroline and I bought at the Borough market in London.  It added a bit of sweetness to go along with the sharpness of the cheese.

Other popular ways to eat Roquefort are with belgian endives, or in the summertime, with slices of tomato and a dijon vinaigrette, much like you would do with mozzarella.  I also like to do a nice little American style iceberg wedge with dijon vinaigrette, bacon, and tomato.

I hope you all found this blog post interesting and I'll do my best to put together another one for next week.