A shepherd, a nymph and an abandoned lunch…..

I don’t know about you, but I tend to enjoy a ‘side dish’ of trivia and background details with my food and drink. If you too are so inclined, join me for the occasional post on the stories behind the names and origins of various foods.

A shepherd, a nymph and an abandoned lunch!
For the Little Cellar Rat, blue vein is a definite favourite from the infinite world of cheeses.
If you are curious to know who came up with the idea of making it, you have to go back to 7th Century France and the village of Roquefort. Legend has it that a young shepherd, taking a lunch break from all that hard work of looking after sheep, caught sight of a stunningly beautiful maiden. He took off in hot pursuit, abandoning his simple, but delicious, lunch of bread and cheese. Detail is a tad light-on regarding what exactly happened between the two but he returned several months later only to find, quel horreur!!, that his cheese had developed this rather off-putting looking mould. But he was hungry and bit into the cheese, Disgust and horror turned to ecstacy!!! Mon dieu…. What flavour, Food of the Angels. His cheese had become infested with penicillin roqueforti, a mould growing in the cave and the rest is history.

Roquefort is the French blue cheese made from sheep’s milk, Stilton is the English blue and Gorgonzola the Italian both made from cow’s milk.

buon appetito!!