February is known around the world as the month of love, and perhaps only slightly less known is the aphrodisiac quality of blue cheese. In fact, Casanova famously believed that his successful love life was down to an indulgent and powerful combination of blue cheese and red wine.
Recently featuring on our Gastronomique cheese board, Roquefort, a blue sheep’s milk cheese from the south of France, is one of the world’s best-known blue cheeses. Though similar varieties are produced elsewhere, European law dictates that only those cheeses aged in the natural Combalou caves of Roquefort-sur-Soulzon may bear the name Roquefort. The cheese is white, tangy, crumbly and slightly moist, with distinctive veins of mold. It has characteristic odor and flavor yet the overall flavor sensation begins slightly mild, then waxes sweet, then smoky, and fades to a salty finish.
Legend has it that the cheese was discovered when a youth, eating his lunch of bread and ewes’ milk cheese, saw a beautiful girl in the distance. Abandoning his meal in a nearby cave, he ran to meet her. When he returned a few months later, the mold (Penicillium roqueforti) had transformed his plain cheese into Roquefort. And there we have it, the food of love!
