Right, so finally here we are.
All this time you've been waiting, dear reader, for this moment.
The moment. The moment when I finally actually blog about a cheese that I refer to in previous posts. It seems like just yesterday I was writing about Rouge River Blue, that dearest to my heart of Blue cheeses, but we've come a long way from Oregon.
All the way to France, in fact, and today's cheese truly embodies French cheese as much as Brie, Camembert, or anything else. It is the king of French Blue cheeses, it is the envy of stinky cheesemakers worldwide, it is the monarch of mold and the sultan of sharp, spicy and salty. It is Roquefort, this one made by the Pappillion brand. It's for real. Check it out.
Origin: Rouergue, France
Milk: Sheep, unpasteurized
Rennet: Animal
Affinage: 3 months and more
All this time you've been waiting, dear reader, for this moment.
The moment. The moment when I finally actually blog about a cheese that I refer to in previous posts. It seems like just yesterday I was writing about Rouge River Blue, that dearest to my heart of Blue cheeses, but we've come a long way from Oregon.
All the way to France, in fact, and today's cheese truly embodies French cheese as much as Brie, Camembert, or anything else. It is the king of French Blue cheeses, it is the envy of stinky cheesemakers worldwide, it is the monarch of mold and the sultan of sharp, spicy and salty. It is Roquefort, this one made by the Pappillion brand. It's for real. Check it out.
Milk: Sheep, unpasteurized
Rennet: Animal
Affinage: 3 months and more
Notes: Uses Peniccillium roqueforti, a fungus gathered especially and since the beginning of recorded time from rye bread baked locally for this precise purpose. That same mold that makes your Roquefort today has been around For. Ev. Er.
Thoughts: This blue cheese has a deceptive flavor, while it is minerally it is also surprisingly sweet. It is incredibly soft and has just a little bit of a crunch, just salty enough to showcase the bizarre sweetness. A bold creaminess and a pleasant aftertaste make for a deliciously unique blue cheese. The flavor truly is intense but, in this precise example from this precise brand, the balance is such that I don't just feel like like one tiny bite is enough, the flavors are matched so well with the creaminess that you keep wanting more.
Caution
In one of my many illustrious and fabled trips through Europe (one time when I was shopping at my favorite cheese store here in Germany) I happened upon a wheel of Roquefort Superior, an extra-aged 9 month version. Blue cheese nirvana, full stop.
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