Roquefort is a blue sheep's-milk cheese ripened in the caves at Roquefort-sur-Soulzon, in southern France. The protected cheese uses milk from a defined area, and the ripening happens in those caves.
It is salty, sharp, and moist. It is not a cow's-milk blue. Crumble it on bitter leaves, melt a little into a sauce, or eat it at the end of a meal.
History
The cheese and the caves belong together. The Combalou cliff above the village is full of natural fissures. Damp air moves through them, and that air made a reliable place to ripen a blue cheese long before refrigerated rooms existed. France protected the name for centuries, well before the modern system of appellations. Roquefort was among the first French cheeses to receive a modern appellation.
The mold is Penicillium roqueforti, named for this cheese, though related molds make other blues. The protected cheese is still tied to the caves and to raw sheep's milk. Lacaune sheep are the traditional flock. A blue cheese made from cow's milk in another country can be inspired by Roquefort. It cannot be Roquefort. The name is not a general word for salty blue cheese.
How it is made
Raw sheep's milk is set, the curd is cut and drained, and the mold is introduced. The curd is placed in molds, salted, and pierced so air can reach the interior. The cheeses then ripen in the caves at Roquefort-sur-Soulzon. The draft, the moisture, and the mold make the blue veins and the sharp paste. Nothing about the method is a quick factory shortcut under the protected rules.
Sheep's milk is richer in a different way from cow's milk, and it is seasonal in a traditional flock. That is one reason Roquefort tastes unlike Stilton or Gorgonzola even before the salt and the caves. The salt is high on purpose. It helps the cheese keep, and it is part of the flavor people expect. A low-salt blue in this shape would be a different cheese.
Taste
Roquefort is salty first, then sharp, moist, and tangy, with a sheep's-milk sweetness behind the salt. The veins taste stronger than the white paste. A good one is creamy enough to spread at room temperature, not chalky and not dry. The smell is clean and pungent, like a cellar and like sheep's milk, not like a dirty refrigerator.
Bitterness can appear in a cheese that is too cold, or in one that is past its best. Let it warm before you decide. If the paste is brown, slimy, or sharply ammoniated, do not excuse it as tradition. Salt and bite are traditional. Decay is not. The white paste should still look moist and the blue should look distinct.
In the kitchen
A little is enough, because of the salt. Crumble it over a salad of bitter greens, pears, or walnuts. Stir a small piece into warm butter for a steak, or into a cream sauce for pasta, off a hard boil so it stays smooth. On a board, put it at the end of the meal, with bread and something sweet. A sweet wine is a classic partner.
Do not use it by the cup in a mild dish. It will salt the whole plate. Do not replace it with a mild Danish blue and expect the same sheep's-milk depth, or with Gorgonzola dolce and expect the same salt. Gorgonzola dolce is sweeter and gentler. Stilton is drier and more savory. For a salad that only needs salty blue crumbs, another blue can do the job if you taste for salt as you go.
Around the world
True Roquefort is made only in the way the protection describes, and it is ripened only in the caves of that village. The cheeses are sold across France and exported as a luxury blue. Many people outside France meet it first on a restaurant salad or on a cheese board.
The name is often misused in kitchens as a synonym for any blue cheese. That habit erases the milk and the place. A cow's-milk blue can be excellent and still be something else. When a French recipe says Roquefort, the salt and the sheep's milk are part of the dish. When a recipe only needs a blue, it should say so.