Rocamadour cheese

Description

Rocamadour is a very small soft creamy white cheese with a flat round shape, a thin soft rind, and an average weight of 35 g. It is usually sold young after 12–15 days of aging and is customarily eaten on hot toast or in salads. With further aging of several months, it develops a more intense flavour and is typically consumed on its own with red wine. In 1998, production reached 546 tonnes, all from raw unpasteurized goat milk, with half produced on farms.

Production

The cheese is made from whole raw milk. Within eight hours of the last milking, the milk is renneted at a concentration of 10 cm³ per 100 litres at 18 °C to 23 °C; for on-farm production, renneting occurs within six hours of the last milking. Curdling lasts 18 hours, followed by 12 hours of pre-draining. Salt is mixed into the curd at 0.6% to 0.8% before moulding.

Curd may be frozen, but must be blended with at least 50% fresh curd. The curd is placed in moulds 60 mm in diameter and 16 mm high, and at moulding the dry matter content must be at least 31%. Ripening has two stages: pre-drying for 24 hours at up to 23 °C and humidity above 80%, then maturing below 10 °C and humidity above 85% for at least six days after unmoulding. Each cheese bears a label at least 4 cm in diameter with the mentions Rocamadour and Appellation d'origine contrôlée; batches for consumers may carry one label per batch. Direct sellers must display a label on each container and indicate the producer or affineur's address.