Roquefort cheese: preparation, recipes, benefits and harms

2024 Author: Arianna Cook | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 14:23

What is included in Roquefort cheese, how is the product eaten in its homeland? All the details about the cooking process, its useful properties and contraindications for use. Simple recipes with Roquefort.

Roquefort cheese is a blue cheese originally from France, which is made from sheep's milk with the addition of molds. It has a rich and multifaceted taste - it absorbs the smells of the room and wooden shelves on which it lies during maturation. It is considered a real delicacy among residents of almost all countries of the world.

Features of the preparation of Roquefort cheese

It is possible to make Roquefort cheese at home, but the taste of the resulting product will differ significantly from the original sold in a specialized store. The secret of the originality of the taste of the cheese product lies in the peculiarities of the ripening process.

Consider the process of making Roquefort cheese:

Whole sheep's milk is left to sour.
Whey and cheese mass are separated from the sour milk.
The cheese mass is cut into many pieces, laid out in special shapes and salted.
One of the most important steps in making Roquefort is adding mold to the cheese.
Then the product is left to mature in limestone grottoes. It is important that the cheese is placed on oak shelves. The room must be naturally ventilated.
When the ripening process of the cheese ends, a characteristic crust appears on the surface of the product - wet, white and shiny in the sun. Inside, Roquefort has a fairly diverse color: the bulk of the pulp is gray and creamy, as well as blue blotches, which are cavities with mold.

Please note that if the cheese is prepared by professionals and in special workshops, the mold will be evenly distributed inside the cheese. If you notice that blue blotches are located only in certain parts of the product, then it was made in a handicraft way.

If you want to learn how to make Roquefort cheese yourself, buy whole fat sheep's milk and be patient, because this process will take a lot of your time and energy.

Step-by-step Roquefort cheese recipe for home cooking:

Heat 10 liters of sheep's milk to 30 ° C.
Add 1/4 teaspoon to the saucepan. special mesophilic starter culture.
Once you add the starter, pour 1/16 teaspoon into the warmed milk. mold culture for the preparation of Roquefort.
Leave all the ingredients for half an hour, stirring them well. During this time, all bacteria will dissolve in a favorable environment for them - warm milk.
Pour some water into separate vessels and dissolve in one 1/4 tsp. calcium chloride, and in the other - the same amount of rennet.
Add the resulting substances to the milk and leave it alone again, but for 1, 5 hours.
After the specified period of time, a bulky layer of cheese should form in the milk, from which we will continue to cook Roquefort.
Cut the layer into large pieces and leave them for 10 minutes.
Line a colander with several layers of cheesecloth and dump the curds onto them.
Wait a while until all the whey is drained from the cheese. To speed up this process, tie cheesecloth and hang it somewhere.
Leave the drained mass under any weight (no more than 4 kg) overnight.
Cut the future Roquefort into pieces, salt them and transfer to a special bowl for cheese infusion. Try to seal the food pieces as tightly as possible.
The cheese will now ripen. For the first 24 hours, try to turn the shape upside down as often as possible. The next day, just a few flips will be enough.
On the third day in a row, free the cheese from the mold and leave it to dry on a flat dish.
The dried product must be enriched with air to stimulate the growth of blue mold. To do this, make small holes all over the cheese.
Now all that remains is to wait: put the cheese in a plastic container and leave it in the cold (no higher than 10 ° C) for 30 days. In the first 7 days, turn the Roquefort mold once a day. After 7 days, turn the food once every 2 days.

Composition and calorie content of Roquefort cheese

The standard composition of the cheese contains only two ingredients - sheep milk and a special fungus. Roquefort tastes like hazelnuts with different smells: milk, limestone and oak.

The calorie content of Roquefort cheese per 100 g is 335 kcal, of which:

Protein - 20 g;
Fat - 28 g;
Carbohydrates - 0 g;
Dietary fiber - 0 g;
Water - 40, 4 g.

The ratio of proteins, fats and carbohydrates: 1: 1, 4: 0, respectively.

Vitamins per 100 g of product

Vitamin PP - 5.7 mg;
Vitamin H - 4.2 μg;
Vitamin E - 0.4 mg;
Vitamin D - 0.89 mcg;
Vitamin C - 0.6 mg;
Vitamin B12 - 0.6 μg;
Vitamin B9 - 39 mcg;
Vitamin B6 - 0.2 mg;
Vitamin B5 - 1.2 mg;
Vitamin B2 - 0.4 mg;
Vitamin B1 - 0.03 mg;
Vitamin A - 278 mcg;
Beta carotene - 0.17 mg;
Vitamin PP - 0.3 mg;
Vitamin A - 0.25 mg

Minerals in Roquefort per 100 g of product

Copper, Cu - 60 mg;
Zinc, Zn - 3.5 mg;
Iron, Fe - 1 mg;
Sulfur, S - 205 mg;
Phosphorus, P - 410 mg;
Potassium, K - 110 mg;
Sodium, Na - 1300 mg;
Magnesium, Mg - 40 mg;
Calcium, Ca - 740 mg.

See also the composition and calorie content of Cambozola cheese.

Useful properties of Roquefort cheese

Nutritionists, gastroenterologists and other healthy eating specialists list many useful properties of cheese and just a few contraindications to its use.

Consider the benefits of Roquefort cheese for the human body:

Fights infections - mold, which is abundant in the product, contains penicillin, a substance that can kill infections and reduce inflammation.
Takes part in building skeletal muscles, rich in protein, which is easy to digest.
Optimizes digestion - raw materials contain a lot of amino acids useful for digestion.
It quickly saturates the body with energy without harming the figure - the cheese is high in calories, but the predominant amount of its fats is quickly digestible, which means that they do not turn into cellulite.
Makes the skin soft - the product contains melanin, a substance that protects the skin from drying out and other harmful effects of the sun.
Increases immunity, especially useful for adolescents, pregnant or lactating women - Roquefort mold cheese is rich in vitamins, minerals, phosphatides and other useful substances, without which the normal functioning of the human body is impossible.
Strengthens bones, is indispensable for compiling the diet of a person who has suffered a bone fracture - like any other fermented milk product, Roquefort is rich in phosphorus and calcium.
Slows down the aging of the whole body - Roquefort is made from sheep's milk, and this product is rich in amino acids and antioxidants, which give the human body longevity and health.

Read also about the health benefits of Layol cheese.

Contraindications and harm to Roquefort cheese

Roquefort cheese mold is considered its main advantage and helps people to fight various ailments. But, if you use this exotic product too often and in large quantities, you can provoke dysbiosis - due to mold fungi, the composition of the normal microflora of the human stomach is disrupted.

In addition, some people are allergic to sheep milk or mold. If this is your first time trying cheese, limit yourself to a small bite and watch your body react.

Pediatricians do not advise children to consume a lot of Roquefort, because this product can negatively affect the condition of their still fragile lymph nodes, liver, and nervous system.

Roquefort cheese recipes

Most often, soups and casseroles are prepared from blue cheese. Consider the simplest recipes with Roquefort:

Cabbage casserole … Chop 600 g white cabbage as fine as possible. Add 200 g of blue cheese and 2 chicken eggs to it. Stir all ingredients and place in a baking dish. Make sure that the dough is not thicker than 2 cm. Bake the cabbage pie for 40-50 minutes. The dish is ready!
Rice and spinach casserole … Boil a little 130 g of rice in slightly salted water (make sure that it does not boil). In a separate bowl, mix 200 g Roquefort with 3 tbsp. l. cow's milk. Crush the resulting mass until a homogeneous consistency is obtained. Whisk 6 chicken eggs. Fry 1 onion and 5 garlic cloves in parallel. Add 200 g spinach to the pan (you can use frozen food) and heat it thoroughly. Combine the cheese and spinach mixture. Add eggs to them and mix everything thoroughly. Bake the product for 25 minutes. The prepared casserole can be sprinkled with grated cheese of any kind.
Pumpkin and Roquefort puree soup … Buy a medium sized pumpkin and use a spoon to separate the flesh. Chop 1 shallot and sauté in olive oil along with the prepared pumpkin. When the ingredients are golden brown, simmer them in a little water (0.5 cups) with cream (100 g) and spices. As a seasoning for such a soup, it is better to use the usual salt and pepper, as well as a little saffron. Decorate the boiled ingredients with thyme leaves and serve. You can grind them with a blender if you like.
Broccoli soup with Roquefort cheese … Fry 2 onions in a little butter. Add 1 clove of finely chopped garlic to the almost finished onion and fry the ingredients for several minutes. Add 1 head of broccoli to fried foods and simmer in milk (750 ml) for 30 minutes. After the specified time has elapsed, add 100 g of Roquefort and the same amount of cream to the future soup. Season the dish with salt and a little pepper. Simmer the resulting mass over low heat for another 15 minutes. Whisk the soup in a blender and serve with blue Roquefort cheese.
Nut baskets with cheese cream … An excellent cream for decorating sweets is obtained from Roquefort. Grind 100 g biscuit cookies, add 60 g butter and 20 g finely chopped walnuts to it. Stir all the ingredients until you get a smooth cream. Wash small molds with the resulting cream and send them to freeze in the freezer. As a result, you should get baskets from this cream. In the meantime, start preparing the cheese mass with which you will stuff the baskets. Mix 1 tsp. honey (preferably liquid), 200 g of Roquefort and a pinch of chopped tarragon. Divide the resulting mass into baskets and leave again in the cold for a few minutes. The finished dessert can be garnished with black grapes.

Interesting facts about Roquefort cheese

Not so long ago, Roquefort cheese was considered an exorbitantly expensive product that was available only to the rich. Traditionally, an unusual delicacy was produced only in the south of France - by the inhabitants of the small province of Rouepre. Over time, chefs from all over the world mastered the basics of making cheese with mold, and the product became available to citizens with an average level of income.

There is a certain legend about how the Roquefort recipe was created. According to her, the actions took place near the village of Roquefort. A young shepherd grazed his sheep on a mountain called Kombalu. Suddenly hunger overcame him, and the guy decided to eat a piece of black bread with sheep's milk cheese. During his modest meal, the shepherd noticed a beautiful young girl walking by. The young man became interested in the stranger, threw his lunch right at the place where he was sitting, and did everything to catch up with the beauty and get to know her. Only a month later, the shepherd accidentally returned to the place where his lunch had been left. The cheese, as before, lay in the same place. The color of the product has changed slightly - blue mold has appeared on it. The guy decided to taste the spoiled cheese and was surprised - he liked the delicacy. After that, he decided to produce blue cheese, which later became known as Roquefort.

In France, this cheese is usually served as a delicious dessert or snack. Local chefs never serve Roquefort immediately cold out of the refrigerator - this product has a leaner smell and palette of tastes. In order for the cheese to reveal all its taste, it must be warmed to room temperature.

The French prefer to put almost any kind of cheese on a freshly baked baguette and serve it paired with fruit or nuts. French gourmets also like to drink Roquefort with Burgundy wine.

Roquefort cheese is such a delicate product that they even came up with a special cutting knife for it. Thanks to this device, it can be cut with minimal damage to its integrity. It is made in the form of a stationary machine, in which there is no sharp blade, and a thin steel wire is used as a knife.