What French cheese was the first to be protected under the Appellation d'Origine Contrôlée (AOC)?

The tiny commune of Roquefort-sur-Soulzon in the Occitane region in the South of France with a population of around 500 inhabitants is the centre for the production of France's second favourite cheese - Roquefort.

The cheese is made from ewe's milk and while protection of the cheese goes back to 1411 by a Parliamentary Decree, it wasn't until several centuries later when the French government created the Institut National des Appellations d’Origine and Roquefort cheese was awarded the first AOC or "controlled designation of origin".

There are strict rules governing the production and labelling of Roquefort cheese. For example, all ewes must only graze on land in the Aveyron and the milk must be delivered for processing within 20 days of lambing. The whole process of maturation, cutting, packaging and refrigeration must take place in the Combalou caves of Roquefort-sur-Soulzon. There are only seven producers of Roquefort cheese in the village.

Brie is a soft cheese made from cow's milk often made in the Île-de-France area near Paris

Camembert is Normandy's most famous cheese made from raw cow's milk

Buche de Chevre is a goat's milk cheese from the Poitou-Charentes region.

More Info: en.wikipedia.org

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12 Comments

dmarkc

Sounds like proper French trivia.

Char

John W Shreve, oh sorry to hear that

Char

earlepg, I used to could eat creamy blue cheese dressing until Richard made home made Blue Cheese dressing lol Which was a wad of Blue Cheese, a squeeze of lemon and a tablespoon or two of Mayo. I thought I was going to choke but he loved it. After that couldn't even eat my creamy BC dressing gives me chills

Char

fdeisner, the initials stand for many things ..I've done the double take before too

mlhoover

Yep, it needs protection!

fdeisner

How does Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC) have anything to do with French cheese 🤣

earlepg

earlepg, correction on the last line, spell check kept changing "named" to "names" on me.

earlepg

I avoid any blue cheese. Two reasons - first, can't stand the (body) odor and second - can't stand the (salty) flavor. Also, although it may be a legend, but the discovery of roquefort, that a bit of cheese that a boy was eating in a cave was left behind, and when he went back some months later, it had changed into what became roguefort. To me, he came back to spoiled cheese. Of the other names cheeses, I did like the (US) brie.

james parrillo

John W Shreve, Could you combine it with pasta, or the salad, instead of adding salt to those items? I cannot imagine a diet without cheese. Thank you, Christine, James's wife