Kitchencraft

Southland Times, Issue 23548, 30 June 1938, Page 15

Kitchencraft

THE OLD ROMANCE OF CHEESE (Continued) By SARAH As you all know, particular cheeses derive their name from the town or country in which they were first manufactured. In these modern days any particular cheese, as a general rule, may be made anywhere, with the possible exception of Roquefort cheese, which can be satisfactorily produced only at Roquefort, a village in France. Roquefort is first mentioned in a chronicle of the monastery of Conque, dating from the year 1070, and was exploited by the monastery till the

time of the French revolution. Made from the milk of sheep grazing on the uplands of Cevennes, and matured in the narrow grotto of Combalva, Roquefort is a white, semi-hard cheese with delicate green veins of flavourful mould running through it. ACCIDENTAL DISCOVERY It was evolved by accident, or so the story goes. A shepherd tending his flock on the Cevennes ranges 10 centuries ago left his lunch of barley bread and native cheese made of sheep’s milk in a cave near the village of Roquefort to keep it cool till nudday. His flock was wayward, and a sudden storm forced him to drive the sheep to a shelter many miles away. Passing the cave many weeks later he looked for his abandoned lunch. The bread was spoiled, heavy with

black mould, but the cheese was covered with a delicate green mould. He nibbled a piece of the cheese and found it delicious.

Since the cave seemed to have some sort of magic property he repeated the experiment, and found after two weeks that the same thing had happened. This discovery was seized upon by the Conque monks, and the cheese, taking the name of Roquefort, has been made there ever since. In no other place is it possible to make Roquefort cheese, and no other cheese may be sold under the name. Even cheese of a similar type produced only a few miles away is called Bleu cheese. A legend has connected another variety of cheese with the name of the great Napoleon. During one of his rapid cross-country trips in the wake of his victorious army he was served with a most delicious soft cheese at a small inn. Upon hearing that the toothsome morsel was merely a local product with no particular name, he insisted that this hitherto unknown variety would be called Camembert, and Camembert it has regained ever since.

country has developed a distinctive type of cheese. Limburg (Belgium), is responsible for the introduction of a cheese which has provided the world with a rare, though odiferous, soft cheese. Dutch wharves for many hundreds of years have pro*vided picturesque displays of cheeses —the Edam and Gouda —whose distinctive characteristic is their attractive, brilliant red coating. CHEESES OF ENGLAND Italy prides herself on Caccio Cavalla, a hard, dry cheese with a sharp taste, and most people have sampled a Parmesan cheese. The little English village of Chester on the river Dee, stronghold against the Roman invasion, has produced a cheese famous throughout the world. Cheshire cheese was well known in the days of Queen Elizabeth.

Cheddar, cheese, Herkimer and Stilton all have a history and romance ancient and honourable. Famed in song and story, rich in romance and history is the Stilton, with its semi-hard, white, crumbly body, streaked with blue mould. No less celebrated and much more popular is the Cheddar, named from the quaint old villagenear the city of Bristol, where it was first manufactured by Joseph Harding, an enterprising farmer. America, too, has produced several distinctive varieties of cheese, such as Pineapple cheese, Isigny, and the famous creamed American cheese.