SC - Quiet Cooks?

[grasse@mscd.edu]

Some interesting thoughts on cheese from the Tavern Yard.  

- --------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Mark Mettler <mettler at bulloch.net>
To: <TY at reashelm.ce.utk.edu>
Date: Fri, 04 Jun 1999 15:05:45 -0400
Subject: [TY] Say Cheese


First:  What is Roquefort Cheese:  It is made by hand using the milk of
the famous Lacaune Sheep from the Causses region of Southern France. The
cheese is aged in the limestone caves of Combalou, where the combination
of humidity, temperature and air flow are just right. The caves also
contain the mold, Penicillium roqueforti, which are responsible for the
cheese's blue vein.

Second:  Who and When: Once upon a time a young shepherd was guarding
his herd of ewes (sheep) near the "Grotte (caves) du Combalou", a large
cliff face that dominates the village of Roquefort-sur-Soulzon. He was
just about to prepare his midday meal when he saw in the middle distance
a young lady. She appeared to be remarkably beautiful.

Fascinated, he decided to follow her. He left his dog to look after the
herd and hid his lunch consisting of bread ("pain de seigle", this is
bread made from 60/70 percent rye flour and 40/30 percent wheat flour)
and cheese (curd from ewe’s milk) in the cool, damp rocks of the
"grotte".

The chase was on. Unhappily, history relates that our shepherd never
found the young goddess. He returned to his herd, tired, hungry and
disappointed. In his absence the bread had decomposed and given the
cheese streaks of blue veins. He was to hungry to ask himself what had
happened ; all he knew was that the taste was remarkable. It did not
take long for him to share the mystery with his fellow herdsmen. Within
a short time many of the " grottes" had been converted into "cabanes en
bois"(oak planks were built in the interior of the grottes where the
cheeses were left to ripen). The word "cabanes" is still with us today
as the people that work in the cellars are called "cabaniers."

That is the legend of how Roquefort cheese was born. This exquisite
alchemy is the product of milk, bread, air and time. In the words of
Curnonsky, a well known Parisian gastronome, "the Roquefort is the son
of the mountains and the wind."

Over centuries the center of Roquefort cheese making has always been
Roquefort-sur- Soulzon a village perched on the side of cliff of Causse
du Larzac, between Millau and Saint-Affrique, some 700 kilometers south
of Paris.

And now a word from the Cheese Book on cheese as a whole:

Most authorities consider that cheese was first made in the Middle East.
The earliest type was a form of sour milk which came into being when it
was discovered that domesticated animals could be milked. A legendary
story has it that cheese was 'discovered' by an unknown Arab nomad. He
is said to have filled a saddlebag with milk to sustain him on a journey
across the desert by horse. After several hours riding he stopped to
quench his thirst, only to find that the milk had separated into a pale
watery liquid and solid white lumps. Because the saddlebag, which was
made from the stomach of a young animal, contained a coagulating enzyme
known as rennin, the milk had been effectively separated into curds and
whey by the combination of the rennin, the hot sun and the galloping
motions of the horse. The nomad, unconcerned with technical details,
found the whey drinkable and the curds edible.

Cheese was known to the ancient Sumerians four thousand years before the
birth of Christ. The ancient Greeks credited Aristaeus, a son of Apollo
and Cyrene, with its discovery; it is mentioned in the Old Testament.

In the Roman era cheese really came into its own. Cheesemaking was done
with skill and knowledge and reached a high standard. By this time the
ripening process had been developed and it was known that various
treatments and conditions under storage resulted in different flavours
and characteristics.

The larger Roman houses had a separate cheese kitchen, the caseale, and
also special areas where cheese could be matured. In large towns
home-made cheese could be taken to a special centre to be smoked. Cheese
was served on the tables of the nobility and travelled to the far
corners of the Roman Empire as a regular part of the rations of the
legions.

During the Middle Ages, monks became innovators and developers and itis
to them we owe many of the classic varieties of cheese marketed today.
During the Renaissance period cheese suffered a drop in popularity,
being considered unhealthy, but it regained favour by the nineteenth
century, the period that saw the start of the move from farm to factory
production.


Adapted from "The Cheese Book," by Richard Widcome. Chartwell Books
(Seacaucus, NJ), 1978.



- --
Gryffri de Newmarch
Chronicler of Forth Castle - http://www2.gasou.edu/SCA/chronicler
of the Southern Creative Anachronists - http://www2.gasou.edu/SCA
Keeper of the Book - http://www2.gasou.edu/SCA/newmarchbook

"il est bon de frotter et limer notre cervelle contre celle d'autrui."
It is good to rub and polish our mind against those of others.

*************************************************************************
************
TO UNSUBSCRIBE from the Tavern Yard, fill out the form at:
http://www.webforger.com/meridies/resources/tavernyard.html 


___________________________________________________________________
You don't need to buy Internet access to use free Internet e-mail.
Get completely free e-mail from Juno at http://www.juno.com/getjuno.html
or call Juno at (800) 654-JUNO [654-5866]
============================================================================

To be removed from the SCA-Cooks mailing list, please send a message to
Majordomo at Ansteorra.ORG with the message body of "unsubscribe SCA-Cooks".

============================================================================