Even James Brown, the founding father of funk, couldn’t have done this without a royal decree: today in 1411, King Charles VI proclaimed that only the serfs of Roquefort-sur-Soulzon were legally allowed to ripen and produce its eponymous cheese, Roquefort—the stinky stuff with the blue mold (aka Penicillium roqueforti). Only the milk of the Lacaune sheep will do. So, how does that milk go from fortifying to funky? Cheesemakers take bread and leave it out in the Combalou caves to be consumed by mold for about eight weeks, after which the soft insides of the bread are dried to produce a powder, which is then introduced into the sheep milk curd or, once the cheese has formed, sprayed on the rind. It’s a divisive cheese, but super fans will swear there is no greater flavor than Roquefort (and, in the next breath, swear there is no greater immunity than Penicillium roqueforti). Today, European Union law upholds Charles’ edict and you may only call it Roquefort if—and only if—it has been pulled out of the Combalou caves of southern France. Image courtesy Marc Caraveo via Flikr, CC BY-ND 2.0 DEED.
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