The Mt. Adams Sun, Bingen, WA., December 6, 1951, page 10

Created in Sunken Caves at Trout Lake
A NEW CHEESE
Seven Years' Work Plus Quirk of Nature Duplicate Roquefort
By Nancy Morris, Food Editor, The Oregonian

     A quirk of nature plus the courage and industry of a young man and seven years of experimentation and hard work have developed in the Northwest a Roquefort-type cheese that all tasters agree equals that of the French Roquefort.
     Roquefort requires a very special humidity and temperature to give it the proper cure necessary for the typical flavor and blue veins. At Trout Lake, Wash., caves that duplicate exactly the temperature and humidity of the cheese caves in Roquefort, France, fulfill the most important requisites for this gourmet cheese.
     Homer Spencer has developed the American Roquefort cheese, translating his cheese formula from a French  book, brought piece by piece from France during World War I.
     The French Roquefort methods were kept highly secret then. Many years later, after much of Spencer's experimentation had been successful, this same book, this time intact, was presented to the Library of Congress.
     Duplicating the French formula was not simple. Spencer worked with the United States department of agriculture in perfecting a recipe that would make as fine a cheese as the French Roquefort. It was necessary even to encourage the importation of goats to the region so that the necessary milk would be accessible.
     Because the new cheese manufacturing so vitally affects the community, Spencer has co-operated closely with the University of Washington, which is sponsoring a community development project in the western portion of Klickitat county where the cheese caves are located.
     Previous innovation in Northwest cheeses was production of a blue type cheese at Langlois, Or.
     So vital is cheese manufacture in Roquefort, France, that more than 100,000 persons are employed by the industry. Spencer feels that a similar development is possible in the Northwest.
     The success of making an American Roquefort as fine as the French was considered complete when Spencer gave a sample to Mrs. Diane Lucas, famous teacher of French cookery in New York who lectured in the Northwest this summer. She pronounced the Black Rock cheese that Spencer makes a perfect Roquefort, with a fine texture and flavor.
     She declared it the only cheese in the world that exactly duplicates that made in the Roquefort caves of France.
     In the big caves at Trout Lake hundreds of cheeses are set to age each day. The process by which they are made is a slow one, since the aging which develops the flavor, cannot be rushed.
     Spencer's method exactly duplicates that of the French, and the two cheeses are identical except that there is a bit less mold noticeable in the American Roquefort, but that affects the appearance only.
     Of course, the cheese begins with goats' milk as the sheep's milk used for French Roquefort is unavailable in this country. It is poured into stainless steel vats, and curd or bacteria is added to coagulate the milk. Then it is cut into fine cubes so that the curds and whey separate. The drained curds are packed into hoops to form the cheeses.
     When set, the hoops are removed, the cheeses salted, turned once a day for ten days to develop even flavor.
     Air holes are punched through the cheese to aid in the development of the mold, which is the source or the typical flavor and color of Roquefort cheese.
     The cheeses are then ready to age and are placed on wooden racks in the long caves. Cheeses are turned twice a week during aging, but otherwise require nothing but time in the caves, where the natural temperature and humidity foster proper aging.
     After curing, the excess mold is scraped by hand from the cheese. Then it is ready for the market and dinner table.

(Copyright The Oregonian)

This article also included 6 photographs.

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