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Identification of Roquefort
Cheese IRA D. GARARD, ABRAHAM MINSKY, JAMES n. BARER, AND VIOLA PASCALE The New Jersey College for W o m a n , Rutgers University, New Brunewick, N. J., and Gar-Baker Laboratories, Inc., New York, N. Y.
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OQUEFORT cheese has heen made in France for at least 800years (17) and probablysinoe the time of Pliny. It is made from the milk of ewes, in factories distributed over a comparatively small area in the South of France largely in the Department of Aveyron. This region is a calcareous plateau at an elevation of 2300 to 3500 feet (18) and lies in the headwaters of the Tarn River in the southwestern pert of the Cevennes Mountains. The climate throughout the regioii is variable, the winter temperature averaging 2O to 4.3' C. aiid the summer, 17' to 20" C. Although the region has a rainfall of about 1 meter a year, grass is the principal crop and the chief industry is sheep raising. The ewes of this industry are varieties of a breed from the Pyrenees (Ovisuriesiberica). Although thereareseveral varieties, two predominate and have been bred for milk production. The yield of milk varies, with the feed and other factors, from 30 to 100 liters for the season; 60 liters is average. The ewes are milked twice daily, arid the milk is collected and taken to local factories scattered throughout the area. The
chcose is made in t,hese factories and t r m s p r t e d to the caves at Roquefort to be ripened. The ripening agcnt is Penicillium ropeforti, a ]he-green mold indigenous to the caves. The ca~~eshai~eateirip~ratureoi4.5"to 10" C., ahumidityclose to 100 per cent, and a natural ventilation that completely changes the air at least three times daily. All the cheese is matured in the Roquefort caves althougli the milk is collected over ai1 area of several souare niiles and a small amount of it comes from Corsica. According to Marre (17) a survev made in 1904 found the consumption of milk in'the manufa&nre of Roquefort cheese to be as followu: sheep 97.36 per cent, cow 2.46, and goat 0.18. The inclusioii of a small quantity of cow's and goat's milk was apparently due to lack of close supervision, because a series of edicts and laws by the local and central governments has consistently forbidden the use of any other milk than that of ewes. h l a w passed by the French Parliament July 26, 1925, codified all these ancient regulations and piescribed tlie exclusive use of ewe's milk, instituting a rigorous control and supervision by government officials. The provisions of this law seem to be strictly enforced, and it can be reliably Differentiation between numerous types of cow's milk and asuumed that all Roquefort cheese is now made exclusivcly from ewe's milk. ewe's milk cheeses was made by the use of the Polenske value In the definitions and s t a n d a r d s and the color of the extracted fats. Distinction became necessary adopted by the Secretary of Agriculture because of fraudulent substitutions of cow's milk Blue cheese (B) for tlie enforcement of the Food for ewe's milk Roquefort cheese; the latter is more expensive. and Ilrugs Act in the United States, Polenske values from 3.6 to 5.95 were obtained for Roquefort Iloquefort cliecse is described as follows: cheese, whereas cow's milk cheeses did not exceed 2.9, usually T h e cheese is madc by the Roquefort
1.8. The Polenske number does not change with the age of Roquefort cheese. The difference between the Polenske numbers of sheep's and cow's milk fat is not due to diet. The color of the fat from cow's milk cheese was always a deep yellow: that from ewe's milk cheeses waa always pale green. 1167
uiiriition of a srnall.
