Rocamadour

What is Rocamadour Cheese?

Rocamadour comes from the southwest of France, made in the Périgord and Quercy regions. It takes its name from the village of Rocamadour in the département of the Lot. The name appears in writing as early as 1451, in an agreement between the Bishop of Evreux and a lord and his vassals, where the cheese served as payment of taxes. Its original name was Cabécou de Rocamadour, shortened to Rocamadour alone because the wider cabécou-producing area runs from the foothills of the Pyrenees across the Aquitaine Basin to the plateaus of the Massif Central.

The cheese is made from whole raw milk from Alpine or Saanen goats. The milk is inoculated on arrival and renneted within eight hours of the last milking, at 10 cm³ of rennet per 100 litres, at a temperature between 18 and 23 degrees Celsius. Curdling runs 18 hours, then 12 hours of pre-draining. Salt is mixed into the curd at 0.6 to 0.8 percent before moulding. Moulds measure 60 mm across and 16 mm high, and the curd must reach at least 31 percent dry matter at moulding.

Ripening happens in two stages. Pre-drying lasts 24 hours below 23 degrees Celsius at humidity above 80 percent. The cheeses then move to a cellar or maturing room below 10 degrees Celsius, humidity above 85 percent, for at least six days after they leave the moulds.

Rocamadour is small and flat, a round disc roughly 4 to 5 cm wide and 1 to 1.5 cm thick, weighing about 35 grams on average. The paste is soft, creamy and white under a thin, soft rind.

Most Rocamadour is sold very young, after 12 to 15 days of aging, and eaten on hot toast or in salads. Left to age several months, it turns more intense in flavour and is usually served on its own with a red wine at the end of a meal. Production reached 546 tonnes in 1998, up 24.1 percent from 1996, all of it from raw unpasteurized goat milk with half made on farms.