We spent the night in the car park in front of the tourist information office, looking up the hill at the steeply sloping village sheltered by sheer floodlit cliffs.
The following morning (9th December) we headed off on foot towards the cheese caves operated by the 'Papillon' company, where two uncomfortably cold looking young blonde women were waiting in a big cheese shop just inside the entrance. One of them took us downstairs to show us a film of cheese making at Papillon in the 1920s and now, then led us down steep narrow staircases to the caves.
The caves consist of low ceilinged underground rooms filled with damp looking oak shelves. The walls are largely concrete, but some are chiselled out of the stone. In places they've taken care to leave open the natural faults which ventilate the caves. The thing that makes the caves so special is that the flow of air through the faults in the rocks maintains them at a steady temperature and high humidity, ideal for maturing cheese. Everywhere we went, thermometers and hygrometers were suspended in corners, to confirm that the temperature and humidity was, as expected, the same as it's been for centuries.
I was surprised (and alarmed!) to find the caves are hollowed out of the loose rock which was dislodged from the cliff by a volcanic eruption, not the bedrock itself. If they were starting today I wonder if they would get permission to excavate into a heap of loose rock on top of which a village has been built!
It's a cramped place to move cheese around in large quantities, helped by a small cargo lift in one corner, but with low ceilings and narrow passages. When we visited all the shelves were empty – she explained that production was just resuming after the lambing season, and the first cheeses were arriving from the dairy tomorrow! Drat!
The process:
Milk from hundreds of sheep farms is taken to their dairy about 45 km from Roquefort. The milk is warmed and rennett is added, then left for two hours to coagulate.
According to the film the founder of the company studied the old hand made processes and developed machines which replicate the movements of the old artisan cheese makers, cutting the curds with a mesh of steel wires then letting it stand again, then more cutting and stirring.
Curds are then transferred to cake tin sized cylindrical boxes (traditionally perforated metal, now plastic) for the whey to drain out. Penicilium roquefortii powder is added to start the blueing. Then it's packed into steel racks and turned every day (one person in ten seconds turning a steel cube which must hold over a tonne of cheese, compared to workers turning each cheese individually in the 1920s). The consolidation and drying of the cheese is all through natural drainage under gravity – it's not pressed like cheddar would be.
Cheeses are then demoulded (now quite hard and safe for the machinery to roll it around) and salted all over the surface. Now they're ready for the caves and are drilled with many small holes to let air in, wrapped in perforated tin foil (real tin. It stops a rind from forming, and avoids the need to scrub the cheeses clean before sale like they had to in the 1920s) and stood on their sides on the wooden racking.
Once ready, months later, they're unwrapped, cut in half to check the blueing has progressed evenly, then packaged. There are several varieties: gold wrapping for the premium brand with most ageing (sold in a velvet lined metal box as if it was a watch), then black for the classic version, and a milder younger cheese in red packaging. Since 1977 Papillon have also produced a white and green organic version; one of the first organic products to be certified in France.
To reach a wider market Papillon have developed a range of other cheeses and olive oil. All impressive and very tasty. We remembered how short of space we are and restricted ourselves to half a dozen sixty degree slices as gifts to friends and to ourselves.
Before we left the UK we rashly discussed a cookery book with a few people. It's not going well. So far it only has three recipes in it, but this one is ridiculously quick, easy and delicious.
Ingredients (serves two):
Four hands full of penne
Two small dark green courgettes cut into hazel nut sized chunks.
A chunk of creamy Roquefort (How big? Let your conscience be your guide! A golf-ball sized piece should do it.)
Method:
Bring a large pan of water to boil (no need for salt), then add the pasta and simmer. Three minutes short of the pasta being ready, add the courgette. Return to the boil, finish cooking the pasta.
Drain, add the Roquefort, let it melt and stir it through.
Ideally eat it with some crusty French bread and a bottle of Corbières.
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