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Cheese from France, Causses du Quercy

Rocamadour PDORocamadour

Raw whole goat milk is set slowly with a little rennet for at least 20 hours at 18 °C or more. The curd is pre-drained, salted through the mass and moulded into flat discs of about 35 g. The discs ripen for at least six days from unmoulding, the first 24 hours or more of it a drying phase, until a thin creamy layer forms under the skin.

Fully documentedCheese8.7 daysPDO (EU); AOC since 1996Family: Lactic soft-ripened cheese family (goat/sheep/cow lactic curd)

Recipe

Amounts from a sourceThe specification fixes limits, not a recipe. Each cheese weighs about 35 g with at least 14 g dry matter.
Raw whole goat milkAlpine or Saanen goats or their crosses; no concentration of the milk[cdc-roca2015]
CulturesHarmless bacteria, yeasts and moulds are the only cultures allowed[cdc-roca2015]
Animal rennet (520 mg chymosin per litre)At most 10 ml per 100 L of milk[cdc-roca2015]
Salt0.6–0.8% of the curd weightKneaded into the drained curd[cdc-roca2015]
Startercultures added to the milk on arrival; a 2022 study built a working starter from three local Lactococcus lactis strains

Total time across the recorded steps: 8.7 days

Start
Drag the bar or press Play
shapes, not to countLactococcus lactisGeotrichum18–23 °C

What changes: Cultures and a little animal rennet go into the raw goat milk

Step 1 of 6
Add cultures and rennet
Time
up to 8 h
Set
Temperature
18–23 °C
Set
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Lactococcus lactis
Geotrichum

Output: renneted milk.

Flavour
Not documented
Texture
Not documented
Colour
Not documented

Microbes at work in this step

Not documented for this step.

Method

Measured measured in a studySet fixed by a specification or tested recipeReported one source reports itTypical a general value, not sourced for this fermentUnconfirmed not yet checked against a source

At a glance

Raw whole goat milk is set slowly with a little rennet for at least 20 hours at 18 °C or more. The curd is pre-drained, salted through the mass and moulded into flat discs of about 35 g. The discs ripen for at least six days from unmoulding, the first 24 hours or more of it a drying phase, until a thin creamy layer forms under the skin. Made in 6 steps over 8.7 days. The longest step, ripen in a drying room or cellar, takes at least 6 days (Ministère de l'agriculture 2014) and runs at at least 10 °C (Ministère de l'agriculture 2014). Salt is 0.6–0.8 % (Ministère de l'agriculture 2014). Lactococcus lactis and White Geotrichum (the specification does not name the species), which gives the skin its velvety look do most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main stepat least 6 daysSet[cdc-roca2015]Ripen in a drying room or cellar
Temperatureat least 10 °CSet[cdc-roca2015]Ripen in a drying room or cellar
Salt0.6–0.8 %Set[cdc-roca2015]Salt in the mass and mould

What makes this one different

Rocamadour is a 35 g disc. It is salted in the mass, by kneading salt into the drained curd, and it is ripened for a minimum of six days from unmoulding, when a creamy layer has formed under the skin.

Milk
Raw whole goat milk from Alpine or Saanen goats or their crosses
Setting
Slow set of at least 20 h at 18 °C or more, then at least 12 h pre-draining
Ripening
At least 6 days from unmoulding
Size
Flat round disc of about 35 g, at least 14 g dry matter, 45% fat in dry matter

Related ferments

Variants

  • CabécouThe general name for small goat discs of the Lot and nearby departments; Rocamadour is the protected one from the Causses

Safety

This is a raw-milk soft cheese. ANSES advises pregnant women, young children, people over 65 and people with weak immunity not to eat raw-milk cheeses other than cooked pressed ones such as Gruyère or Comté, because of Listeria, Salmonella and Shiga-toxin E. coli. ANSES says cooking the cheese well, as in an oven dish, removes the risk; taking off the rind does not.

History and sources

Every number is labelled with how it is known. How this atlas is made

The specification cites a lease of 1451 that set the tithe in cheese and records that the monastery of Obazine already held a tenth of the cheeses of Carlucet. The cheese was once made from cow, goat or sheep milk; a 1928 US bulletin describes it as a sheep's-milk cheese of about one eighth of a pound. By the later 20th century it was tied to goat milk. It became an AOC by decree on 16 January 1996.

  1. [cdc-roca2015] Ministère de l'agriculture, Cahier des charges de l'appellation d'origine « Rocamadour », homologated by decree 2014-1150 of 7 October 2014, consolidated with Implementing Regulation (EU) 2015/1594 (BO-Agri notice)spec
  2. [couderc2022] Couderc C., Laroute V., Coddeville M. et al. 2022, Harnessing diversity of Lactococcus lactis from raw goat milk, design of an indigenous starter for the production of Rocamadour, a French PDO cheese, International Journal of Food Microbiology 379:109837 (abstract)paper
  3. [doane1928] Doane C.F., Lawson H.W., revised by Matheson K.J. 1928, Varieties of cheese, descriptions and analyses, USDA Bulletin 608archive
  4. [anses2022] ANSES 2022, Fromages au lait cru, quels risques pour la santé et comment mieux les prévenir (8 April 2022)gov