Dairy
Roquefort-Style Cow
Roquefort-style cow cheese is a blue-veined cow’s-milk cheese made in the manner of classic Roquefort—loose curd, salted, pierced, and ripened with Penicillium roqueforti—but without ewe’s milk and outside the Roquefort PDO. The paste is moist and creamy to slightly crumbly, with bold blue veins, salty tang, and a sharper, often milder-sheep-fat profile than true Roquefort. It is used wherever a strong blue is wanted for boards, dressings, and melting: crumbled over salads and steaks, blended into sauces, or served with fruit and nuts. Labels such as “Roquefort-style” or “bleu type Roquefort” signal method and flavour, not protected origin or sheep milk.
Also known as: Bleu type Roquefort (vache), Roquefort-Style Blue, Roquefort-Style Cow Blue
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History
Industrial dairies outside the Causses adapted Roquefort piercing and cave-style blue ripening to cow’s milk for wider markets.
North American and northern European creameries sold cow-milk blues marketed as Roquefort-type or Danish- and French-style blues.
Post-war retail demand for strong blue flavour without sheep-milk cost expanded cow-milk Roquefort-style blocks and wheels.
Strengthened Roquefort PDO rules clarified that only ewe’s-milk cheese from the designated zone may use the Roquefort name.
Artisan cow blues continued Roquefort-inspired techniques while avoiding protected naming in specialty shops.