Roquefort cheese is a pungent French cheese made from the milk of what animal?

This celebrated blue cheese from southern France owes its sharp, tangy flavor and creamy texture to the milk of a specific animal. By law, authentic Roquefort must be made entirely from the raw, unpasteurized milk of the Lacaune breed of sheep, which are well-adapted to the region's rugged terrain. This high-fat milk contributes to the cheese's rich character, a quality that has been praised for centuries. In fact, it takes about 4.5 liters of this special ewe's milk to produce just one kilogram of Roquefort cheese.

The unique characteristics of this cheese are also tied to its traditional production methods. According to legend, the cheese was discovered by a shepherd who left his lunch of bread and ewe's milk cheese in a cave. When he returned months later, the cheese had been transformed by mold. This story highlights the crucial role of the natural caves of Roquefort-sur-Soulzon. The cheese must be aged in these specific limestone caves, where a naturally occurring mold, *Penicillium roqueforti*, grows. This mold, which was traditionally harvested from loaves of rye bread left in the caves, creates the distinctive blue-green veins and gives the cheese its famous pungent aroma and flavor.

The combination of rich sheep's milk and the unique aging environment has made this cheese a culinary icon. Its quality and origin have been protected since 1411, when King Charles VI granted the villagers of Roquefort a monopoly on its aging process. In 1925, it became the very first cheese to receive France's prestigious Appellation d'Origine Contrôlée (AOC) designation, a status that legally requires the cheese to be produced in its namesake village using these time-honored techniques.