4 June: Roquefort cheese

This date in 1070 was the day Roquefort cheese was first made, according to legend. Here are 10 things you might not know about Roquefort cheese.

1. According to the story, the Cheese was discovered by accident. A shepherd boy is said to have left his lunch in a cave while he went after a girl he fancied. History doesn't record whether he won her heart or not, but he didn't return for his lunch for several months, by which time his plain cheese had turned in to Roquefort.
2. It's made from sheep's milk, specifically the milk of the Lacaune breed of sheep.
3. It's a blue cheese, and the mould which makes it is called Penicillium roqueforti. The mould grows in the caves where the cheese is ripened, although nowadays it can be grown into a lab and injected into the cheese to ensure consistency.
4. While the mould isn't actually Penicillin, it does have anti-inflammatory properties and was used by people in rural communities to prevent wounds turning gangrenous.
5. It's said that Pliny the Elder was eating it in AD79, nearly a millennium before the shepherd boy abandoned his lunch. However, Pliny isn't that specific about the origin of his cheese – he just says it came from Gaul. In fact, he doesn't even specify whether it was a blue cheese. The story is most likely a marketing strategy by early producers.
6. Roquefort is subject to the same rules as Champagne and Cornish pasties. Under European law, only cheeses aged in the natural Cambalou caves of Roquefort-sur-Soulzon may bear the name Roquefort. In fact, even before that the village had been granted sole rights to the ageing of Roquefort by Charles VI of France in 1411.
7. There are other rules. It must be made of raw ewes’ milk delivered at least 20 days after lambing has taken place. The sheep must have been grazing in pasture as much as possible, and where not, at least 75% of the corn they are fed must have been produced in the area.
8. A typical wheel of Roquefort weighs between 2.5 and 3 kilograms and is about 10cm thick. Each kilogram requires about 4.5 litres of Milk to produce.
9. It is said to have been Charlemange's favourite cheese.
10. Delicious it may be, but in the 1940s its true glory wasn't evident when it appeared on TV. A presenter named James Beard, who fronted a TV show called I Love to Eat in 1946, coloured the veins with ink so the cheese would look better on TV.

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