Talk:Roquefort

Pronunciation

The guide to pronunciation says "rock-fort". Is this correct? I would have thought the 't' would be silent, being French.

Markparker 13:59, 24 August 2007 (UTC)

You're right, the final 't' is silent in french, so the pronunciation is more "rock-for". 88.160.235.219 17:04, 6 September 2007 (UTC)

But keep in mind that this is the English wikipedia, so pronunciations should be written as they are spoken in English (or list different ways when there is regional variability, which is often the case). Seems like both Random House and American Heritage say the 't' is pronounced. digfarenough (talk) 20:50, 6 September 2007 (UTC)

It would be more like roke-for anyway. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 174.89.31.237 (talk) 02:40, 18 September 2011 (UTC)

Date of origin

This article should of mentioned the time of which rouquefort cheese was invented. But since I'm so nice. I will tell you. Roquefort was invented in the year 1070. Galsknowbest ( . ) ( . )

Expense

Roquefort is not expensive in France it's rather cheap since the USA apply heavy import tax, thus it must be more expensive on the US market. Ericd

Name of town

Is Roquefort actually the name of a town in France, after which the cheese was named (like the town of Cheddar in England)? If so, this article should say so. One Wikipedia article is titled "Cheddar", and another is titled "Cheddar cheese". The first article is about the town and the second about the cheese. Michael Hardy 19:46 Jan 16, 2003 (UTC)

Yes, as Eric said, there are towns named Roquefort. That's why this article is entitled "Roquefort cheese" and not simply "Roquefort". The first sentence also states that we're talking about a cheese, then goes on to point to a town of origin. I don't think it gets much clearer than that. Dachshund

---

Of course Roquefort is a town. In fact there are a lot of towns named Roquefort in France. The "good" one is in the Aveyron département. Ericd

Mention by Pliny?

I very much doubt that Roquefort cheese was mentioned by Pliny. Could he have a quote, please. Burschik 12:17, 3 Aug 2004 (UTC)

I concur. And I'm sorry to see the following "Legend has it" bromide disfiguring such a well-written informative article: Legend has it that the cheese was discovered when a young shepherd, eating his lunch of curds, saw a beautiful girl in the distance. Abandoning his meal in a nearby cave, he ran to meet her. When he failed to catch her, he returned to his now moldy lunch and ate it out of pure hunger. Doesn't this have the true ring of inauthenticity! --Wetman 08:00, 4 Feb 2005 (UTC)

This is a legend reported as a legend. As for Pliny this should be in "Historia naturalis" - Book 28 but I can't read latin. Please verify. Ericd 18:37, 4 Feb 2005 (UTC)

Pliny book XI. I think it's there : "Laus caseo Romae, ubi omnium gentium bona comminus iudicantur, e provinciis Nemausensi praecipua, Lesurae Gabalicoque pagis, sed brevis ac musteo tantum commendatio. duobus Alpes generibus pabula sua adprobant: Delmaticae Docleatem mittunt, Ceutronicae Vatusicum." However I don't read latin. Can someone translate ? Ericd 18:51, 4 Feb 2005 (UTC)

The praise to the cheese of Rome, where good of the each tribes hand to hand are judged, out of the provinces by particular Nemausens, to Lesura Gabalicoqu to the country district/communities, but of the shallow water and must-like of such size the entrusting. Duobus Alps to the birth/descent/origins the fodders the his property approve: they send Delmatica Docleat, Ceutronica Vatusicum --Rakista 20:22, 24 September 2005 (UTC)

A proper translation: "The kinds of cheese that are most esteemed at Rome, where the various good things of all nations are to be judged of by comparison, are those which come from the provinces of Nemausus, and more especially the villages there of Lesura and Gabalis; but its excellence is only very short-lived, and it must be eaten while it is fresh." (source)

This is likely the quotation from which the idea derives, because latin Nemausus is modern Nîmes which is quite close to Roquefort-sur-Soulzon; and also Lesura and Gabalis are likely modern-day Lozère and Gévaudan. Anyway, this quote clearly does not mention Roquefort, nor does it clearly speak of blue cheese. It merely says that cheeses from the general area of modern Roquefort-sur-Soulzon were highly esteemed in ancient Rome. Clearly the interpretation brought to bear on this quote by people eager to back-date the origins of the Roquefort cheese is sketchy at best. -- Pinnerup (talk) 23:19, 19 June 2013 (UTC)

This is a lot less clear than most people probably think - Lesora could be compared to the Caucasus, and thus means the whole Cevennes/Causses range (including Roquefort-sur-Soulzon), not just the Mont Lozère peak; and the word musteus, interpreted as "fresh", is tricky to translate; it's an adjective derived from grape-must, variously applied to apples that have been steeped in honey, fresh honey that hasn't yet settled, raw white pepper as opposed to dried black pepper, and a new book - today, the English derivative "musty" specifically means "mouldy", in smell, texture and taste. Interpretations of this passage of Pliny about cheese included fromage frais, cheese pickled in grape-juice, and a gently-cooked fondue, as well as the freshness and moistness of Roquefort. I've tried to make the text more neutral and added more citations. Speaking personally, I think the range of meanings would fit with the "blueing" of Roquefort, but I can't see that anyone's ever suggested that, so I've left it off the page! --AJN (talk) 19:14, 16 April 2022 (UTC)

Redirect

I redirected Roquefort to this article and put a redirect disambiguation on top; the disambiguation page as it is only has one other active article, one sentence about the town the cheese is made in. Best go straight to the cheese I thought, most of the links mean to. -- Blorg 21:39, 24 January 2006 (UTC)

"King of Cheeses"

"Roquefort is sometimes known as the "King of Cheeses", a distinction that is also used for the Brie de Meaux." And for Blue Stilton (mentionned on it's Wikipedia article), and no doubt for a large number of other cheeses. I don't have an issue with the term being mentionned in reference to Roqeufort, but I fell "a distinction that is also used for the Brie de Meaux." may be better replaced by something like "a phrase also used for a number of other cheeses."128.232.250.254 23:48, 13 May 2006 (UTC)

I'm afraid I just added Stilton before I read this. Hopefully I won't cause an avalanche of other cheeses vying for position!  :)

-- Chris (blather • contribs) 11:14, 22 August 2006 (UTC)

Necroing a dead topic, but I moved the cite to the proper place to refer only to Roquefort and put a fact tag on the others. It looks to me like people have been adding their own favorite cheeses to the list for some time, and unless some cites appear I'll just trim off the list. Daniel^C/_T+ 17:24, 30 December 2007 (UTC)

Appraently you never got around to it, Daniel, so I've gone ahead and done so. Those fact tags were still there. The fact that some source has called Roquefort the king of cheeses doesn't make it noteworthy -- with something as subjective and culturally important as cheese, it's not the least bit surprising that many cheeses share that meaningless distinction. As was, the lead of this article had a list of a bunch of other cheeses that shared nothing in common with Roquefort except for the fact that they're cheeses, and that someone somewhere had called them the King of Cheeses. For the record, I agree with the sentiment that Roquefort is the king of cheeses, but it's a bit like calling someone "the most beautiful woman in the world" -- it's been said about virtually every actress/songstress out there. It doesn't say anything except that people have different taste.72.42.168.134 (talk) 22:32, 28 January 2009 (UTC)

I am highly suspicious of the claim that it takes 4.5 liters of milk to make a kilogram of cheese. 4.5 quarts is way too little milk in my opinion to make a whole kilo. 4.5 liters of milk weigh about 4 kilos, and I can't believe almost 1/4 of any kind of milk is solids and fat. Cow's milk is almost 90% water. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.170.63.24 (talk) 06:52, 18 December 2009 (UTC)

This article (referenced) contains all the data discussed above. http://www.bloomberg.com/bw/stories/2001-12-30/something-is-rotten-in-roquefort prokaryotes (talk) 18:51, 13 January 2016 (UTC)

Aesthetic opinions (section 2.1)

This section currently contains uncited opinions and instructions not attributed to their source. I have labelled them accordingly. Please keep this guideline in mind when describing aesthetic opinions. Thanks. -- TyrS  chatties  10:02, 14 July 2011 (UTC)

It's Blue

It's Blue — Preceding unsigned comment added by Longinus876 (talk • contribs) 15:45, 15 May 2014 (UTC)

Fixed. prokaryotes (talk) 18:55, 13 January 2016 (UTC)