150 THE BOOK OF CHEESE 



made in Italy alone, has a large market in other parts of 

 Europe and in America. In the manipulations of manu- 

 facture, these forms are not closely related but they re- 

 semble each other in that each becomes streaked or 

 marbled by the growth of green mold (Penicillium Roque- 

 forti) through open spaces within the cheese. The 

 " blue-veined " or marbled cheeses have a characteristic 

 taste which is developed in its most typical form in 

 Roquefort. 



167. Roquefort cheese. This is a rennet cheese 

 made from sheep's milk (with occasional and minor 

 admixture of goat's and cow's milk) in the section of 

 southern France centering about Roquefort in Aveyron. 

 The practices are standardized and controlled by a few 

 companies, thus reaching exceptional uniformity. Roque- 

 fort is uncolored, open, made from firm but brittle or 

 crumbly, not tough or waxy curd. Each cheese is about 

 7J inches (20 cm.) in diameter and 3J inches (9 cm.) in 

 thickness without a definite rind, and when ripe enough 

 for market is scraped carefully, closely covered with 

 tin-foil and kept in refrigerators. The cut cheese shows 

 extensive open spaces which are lined with green mold. 

 This cheese, in addition to a strong cheesy odor and taste, 

 has a peppery or burning quality which according to 

 Currie 1 is due to the formation of volatile fatty acids 

 such as caproic, caprylic and capric from the butter -fat 

 of the sheep's milk used. A series for Roquefort cheeses 

 selected for excellent quality was found by Dox 2 to show 

 the following composition : 



1 Currie, J. N., Flavor of Roquefort cheese, Jour. Agr. Re- 

 search, 2 (1914), 1, pages 1-14, Washington. 



2 Dox, A. W., Die Zusammensetzung des echten Roquefort- 

 Kases, in Ztschr. Untersuch. Nahr. u. Genussmtl. Bd. 22, Heft. 

 4, pages 239-242, 1911. 



