Domaines & Terroirs

AOP Cheeses In Danger

2012-02-19T22:07:00.001+01:00

On the eve of the Salon d'Agriculture in Paris, tensions are on the rise in the Basque Country between between artisan producers of AOC Ossau Iraty, who want to guard their image of terroir, and the major industrial brands, which they say are trivializing their product. The nightly news channel TF1 on 19 February 2012 outlined the difficult situation currently unfolding over liberties being taken by industrial producers in the production of this famous Basque sheep milk cheese, which is protected by an Appellation d'Origine Contrôlée. (emission en français)

Les fromages d'appellation d'origine protégée en danger

Happy New Year - 2012

2012-01-01T22:21:00.000+01:00

Cheese is the centre of our life here at Domaines & Terroirs. A day without it is a day missing goodness and promise. We hope that you all have a happy beginning to this new year - 2012 and we look forward to more posts, more often.

This beautiful picture of fabulous organic Tommes de Chèvre from is from Charlotte Moore, the ever travelling sage. Check out her blog at The Daily Cure.

Affinage - A discussion about the fine art of ripening cheese in the NYTimes

2011-10-05T17:49:00.000+02:00

A great article about affinage in the New York Times on October 4, 2011 : Cheese: A Coming-of-Age Story, by JEFF GORDINIER - Is affinage the fine art of ripening cheese, or is it a simple marketing ploy? Well worth reading.

In my opinion, anyone who says the art of affinage is bunk or just a marketing ploy, not only doesn't know what they are talking about but the cheese they 'produce' won't be worth eating! I'd love to see what the response would be if these detractors told an affineur of Comté that what they do to their wheels is not necessary! Because unless you are a cheese producer who has the time and has the space with the proper quality of humidity and temperature control required to age your own cheeses, an affineur is required, otherwise the cheese will rarely, if ever, become what it is meant to be.

A Cheese Tasting - An Adventure

2011-06-23T19:15:00.001+02:00

Ah! Where have we been since April? Exploring the countryside, looking for new cheeses and places to visit. So to get back into the swing of things, a little diversion is in order...

So how about a taste and texture journey? Let's do a cheese tasting to explore sensorial delights. For the experienced, it's higher education; for the beginner, a mystery of flavours, shapes, styles and unfamiliar names. Seek help from a good cheesemonger or do your own trial and error, but don't hesitate, jump in and have fun!

Portions & Accompaniment Guidelines

Cheese For a small tasting figure 5-10 cheese and ½ oz (15g) serving of each different cheese per person or 2½ - 5oz (75-150g) per person total. For a more generous tasting, figure ¾oz (21g) of each different cheese per person or 3¾ - 7½oz (105-210g) per person total.

Wine 500 - 700ml per person as a 750ml bottle equals 5 glasses. (1 case of 750ml is 12 bottles or 60 glasses). Make sure the wines are at their appropriate temperature, this means whites should be iced and tannic reds opened one hour ahead.

Beer or Ciders Depending on which you choose, gauge quantities by the size of the bottles relative to the portions called out for wine.

Accompaniments Charcuteries; fresh fruits (apples, pears, plumes, dates, figs, raisins); nuts (almonds, walnuts, hazelnuts, pecans). The British usually serve, celery sticks and grapes.

Breads & Biscuits Good, fresh baguettes, a nut loaf, raisin loaf, pain campagne and a country style, whole grain wheat bread give you a full coverage of all the textures. Rule of thumb is to serve a half of a baguette per person. Biscuits are also very good carriers. The Fine Cheese Company from Bath England has a great range specifically designed for cheese - All butter Charcoal, Natural and Wholemeal crackers are the best, also the Olive Oil & Sea Salt, Bath Ovals and English Oatcakes work well.

Choosing the Cheese

In the weeks before your party, find the very best place in your area to buy cheese. Your first choice for buying cheese is a good cheese shop, or a high quality cheese counter in an grocer that sells hand cut and wrapped cheeses. You want a cheese vendor that displays whole cheeses and cut the amount of cheese you want as you purchase it. Or if this is not possible, purchase from a reputable on-line provider.

Decide ahead of time which theme you want to present - a balance board, all one milk type, all blue, one region. Choose five to ten cheeses, depending on the number of guests. For a balanced board, aim for variety - hard and soft, mild and strong, different milk types, blue veined and smelly. Make note of the name of the cheese, country or region of origin, type of milk, style of cheese, and any other information the cheesemonger uses to describe the cheese.

Choosing the Beverages

Just as everyone's palate is different, so is everyone's taste in wine and other beverages. When you are serving a variety of cheeses, it will be unlikely that one wine or beer will go with all cheeses. This frees you from worrying about precise pairings. Select some versatile white wines such as a Champagne or sparkling wine, a Riesling and /or a Pinot Gris. Chardonnays are a bit more difficult as there as so many variations. Add red wines including a Syrah and/or Pinot Noir, a Beaujolais cru and a big tannic Bordeaux or Bourgogne. Matching the region of the cheese and wine is always a safe bet. Make sure you choose a selection of good quality wines and maybe a beer or cider to serve as a counterpoint. The goal is to have fun, so don't be surprised if your guests end up picking one of you choices and stick with it throughout the tasting. The next post will give you some pairing guidelines.

Accompaniments

The accompaniments for a cheese tasting, or anytime for that matter, should be simple. Artisan or bread, biscuits or crackers specifically for cheese are the best choices. Nuts such as almonds, hazelnuts, and walnuts as well as dried fruits such as figs or prunes or fresh apples, pears and grapes round out the palette. Fruit pastes such as quince paste (membrillo) or chutneys like onion or mango give the tasting a sugar balance and are visually appealing. The jury is still out on good quality olives, some people find them too oily for a tasting, but it is again a matter of taste.

Final Touches

Presentation is a huge part of the process. Cheese and all the accompaniments must appeal to the eye first then the palette. Cheeses should be removed from the refrigerator at least one hour ahead of serving (except for fresh cheeses). Leave yourself enough time to arrange the boards, as it takes time to cut and lay them out. There are two options for serving - cheese boards set out for guests to sample themselves or individual plates already prepared for each guest. Provide name tags for the cheeses and tasting note cards for your guests.

If you choose cheese boards for your guest to serve themselves, the boards can be a plate, slabs of marble, slat or granite, oiled wood, ceramic or glass trays. All should have a large, flat surface to leave enough room between the cheeses so they can be easily cut. If need be, use several boards. Flat baskets work as well but are harder to cut on, so think of providing the individual cheeses with an underlining, such as grape or fig leaves. There are also some attractive paper versions but be careful with runny cheeses as they get soggy.

If you choose to plate-up your selection ahead of time, use serving plates that are large enough to hold all the cheeses. If the plate is rectangular, start from the top left position and proceed from the simple to the more complex, fresh to aged, mild to strong, working your way aroung the board clockwise. If it's round, I start at 12 o'clock and go clockwise from there.

Accompaniments should be on separate plates to pick and choose from at will. Sufficient and appropriate cutting tools should be laid out to cut each cheese. They can include specialized cheese knives, a cheese plane or spreader depending upon the texture of the cheese. If your using the cheese board option, make sure there are plenty of small, dessert-sized plates and napkins. And it is always a good idea to place the beverages (including still & sparkling water) on a separate table to ease the flow of traffic.

Tasting

Tasting is usually done in a wine - cheese - wine sequence. But great cheeses can stand alone so we like to take in the whole cheese picture first: the look, touch, smell and taste. Observe the physical properties of the individual cheeses first; next move to the rest of the senses. To experience the texture of the cheese, take a small piece between the thumb and index finger, press it to feel the texture and release more of the flavour characteristics (yes, it sounds impolite but it is the how the experts do it!). Now take a big whiff and let your olfactory sense start to describe the cheese for you.

Next place a small piece of cheese on your tongue and let it melt a bit. Press it firmly against your palate to release all of the flavours, or as the Maitre Fromager Max McCalman says "let it luxuriate on your tongue, stimulating your mouth and getting all the juices flowing in there." Just like wine, there will be a first impression of the characteristics then a second and sometimes even a third. Now you can proceed to the wine. Add a splash of wine on top of the cheese to taste the meeting point of the two. (If you prefer to taste the wine first, clear the palate with a piece of bread or biscuit after the first sip.)

Describing cheese is particularly difficult as there is a whole language that goes with the process. But the aspects to consider are: the colour, the colour aspect (is it bright, dull, or shiny), the density, texture (crumbly, chalky, pasty, smooth or dry), flavour & aroma (acidic, ammoniac, banyardy, floral, nutty, salty, and mushroomy) and qualitative aspect (is it biting, complex, concentrated, rich, sharp, simple or unctuous). Try tasting both a white and a red wine with it. Which one works best? You decide.

It is always a good idea to keep a journal of your pairings and tasting menus for future reference.

Cow's Milk - Bête noire ?

2011-04-05T19:59:00.000+02:00

At the fromagerie, we often have people say they can't eat cheese because they are lactose intolerant. These same people invariably tell me that they can eat those made from goat's or sheep's milk. Really? And why would that be true? All milks have lactose, but most of the lactose in cheese is either drained away with the whey or converted to lactic acid during the aging process leaving little or no lactose. So how could this be true and what is the issue here? Is there any science to back this up? Is cow's milk harder on the body than goat's or sheep's milk?

Lactose intolerance is very common in adults and not dangerous, but milk allergies are more serious and broad reaching. Understanding the root cause of the problem is necessary because while symptoms associated with lactose intolerance are similar to those of dairy allergies; it is how & to what the body reacts that is different. It is important to note that a person can be lactose intolerant and also have sensitivity to dairy proteins, i.e., be allergic, but these two maladies are not necessarily coexistent. In the case of lactose intolerance it is the milk sugars (lactose) that cause the hypersensitivity whereas in a milk allergies, it is the milk proteins.

There are different make ups of milk proteins (casein) in all of the milk types. It is the major protein in cow's milk alpha-s1-casein protein, not present in sheep or goat milk, which is to blame for the adverse reaction. The body's immune system attacks them as if they were an invader rather than breaking them down. Since these milk proteins are present in any related milk product, anyone with an allergy to the proteins is susceptible to varying degrees of allergic reaction. And as milk proteins are the main building block of any cheese, for someone with a milk allergy, eating cheese is pretty much impossible.

Those with lactose intolerance have a different problem. Lactose intolerant people cannot digest lactose (milk sugars) which is different than milk proteins. The body is incapable of metabolizing lactose because of a lack of the enzyme lactase in the small intestines (known as lactase deficiency). As enzymes help the body absorb foods, not having enough lactase means these sugars stay intact and the intestinal bacteria have a feeding frenzy. So when products containing high levels of lactose are ingested, gas is produced in the intestines and violà, discomfort ensues.

According to Wikipedia, milk from buffalo has 4.86% lactose, yak 4.93%, unprocessed cow milk 4.7%, goat milk 4.7% and sheep milk 4.6%. So when someone says they are lactose intolerant to cow's milk, the same intolerance to sheep and goat's milk should exist, right? Well, while these milks contain the same level of lactose, it is thought that goat & sheep milk are more easily digested than cow's milk because they do not contain the same concentrations of casein (milk proteins). Therefore, there is a strong possibility that folks who can drink non-cow milks with no problem, in reality have an allergy as opposed to being lactose intolerant.

So what about cheese? Well, in the case of cheese, it comes down to how much actual lactose is still present in the finished product. Because lactose is a water-soluble molecule, higher fat percentages, fermentation, the curdling process and aging have an impact on the amount of lactose that remains in a cheese product. To begin with, in the early hours of the life of a traditionally produced cheese, most of the lactose present in any milk passes into the whey, which is drained off. The bit that remains in the cheese curd is converted into lactic acid during the ripening process and disperses as the water content evaporates and the milk proteins become more concentrated.

The longer the aging, the less lactose is present in the curd. Not true of milk proteins obviously as the pate is made is primarily made up of these proteins. Traditional, aged hard cheeses have only about 10% of the lactose that is found in the original whole milk. For instance, a 24 month old Emmental or Comté, both cow's milk cheeses, have practically no lactose remaining. So theoretically, even if one is lactose intolerant, one will have problems with fresh and minimally aged cow milk cheese like camembert but not have problems eating long aged cow's milk cheeses.

So why is it that these folks seem to be able to deal with the other milk types? In buffalo, goat & sheep milk cheeses; the basic milks have smaller fat globules to begin with, which do not clump together in the same was as in cow's milk, thus making the milk naturally homogenized and in general produce a more dense cheese. Assuming you do not have a major protein related allergy, these two factors in conjunction contribute to a higher digestibility of these milks and their respective cheeses.
None of this is 100% applicable to commercial cheese, i.e., those manufactured by modern processes. Here these processes generally do not have the same lactose reducing properties, in part due to the elimination of so called 'good bacteria' during the milk pasteurization process and/or the length of aging.

Another culprit which might be part of this digestive problem can be found in an additive, Lysozyme (additive E1105). The additive is an anti-microbial enzyme which is extracted from fresh chicken egg white and is used for its antibacterial properties primarily in the manufacture of industrial cheeses. Although it is not always the case, people allergic to eggs (different than dairy) may also be allergic to lysozyme; therefore they often present the same symptoms as someone with a milk allergy. So the rule of thumb for people with egg white allergies might be to avoid commercially made cheeses all together. Not to fear however, because the use of lysozyme is not allowed in the production of French AOC cheeses (interestingly most being made from raw milk).

With all this information, it would seem that people with lactose intolerance should be able to eat any, and I would say any traditionally made, milk type cheeses that have been long-aged. No scientific tests have been done to prove this that I can find, so I always try to enlist willing subjects to try a beautiful 24 month old Comté or Beaufort to see if what happens. If they still report having a problem, then in my opinion, they are more likely to have a milk allergy than being lactose intolerant.

Comté - an update

2011-02-23T19:46:00.000+01:00

In December, David Lebovitz wrote two posts about his visit to two local Jura Mountain fruitiéres to see how this fabulous mountain cheese is made - complete with lots of photos and his ever amusing recounting of events as they occurred.

Sadly somehow I forgot to make the post. They are very well worth reading especially if you are nowhere near the French Jura Mountains! One of them is called Comté Cheese Making and the other is called Comté Cheese Ripening and Tasting. And for more information, see their very impressive website with some hilarious videos: Le Comté - nous apprends à savourer le temps...

le Salon de l'Agriculture Paris 2011

2011-02-22T20:58:00.083+01:00

I have issues with crowds. Too much humanity in any one place at any one time and in five seconds flat, I go crazy! So I know better! And yet, just like the proverbial salmon who somehow swims up stream, I find myself every year smack in the middle of what is undoubtedly, the mother of all crowds – the one at the Salon de l’Agriculture, staged in Paris every year in February.

I must be mad! For one thing, the Salon starts during the second week of spring break when all good mamans parisiennes ou banlieusardes (ou papas for that matter) are desperate to entertain their children. So for less than a 10er for each of their little darlings, they can not only keep les petits and not so petits out of trouble for an entire day but educate them about their genetic connection to la belle France at the same time! Second, this is France and according to Anthelme Brillat-Savarin - “The destiny of nations depends on the way they eat” - so food, specifically the newly crowned UNESCO World Heritage French Food and the agriculture that supports it, is an integral part of the identity and culture of les Frenchies. Third, NO French person worth his or her Paraboots, especially city dwellers, would be caught dead without a recent anecdote about how he or she regularly connects with la France profounde, hence in the midst of grey depressing winter, we (I included) dutifully flock in the 100’s of thousands to the penultimate expression of all things French / Food – the expo designed to show off our farms, the farmers, their animals, products and way of life.

The Paris Exposition at Porte de Versailles is an immense site. 226,000 square meters (that’s 2,433,000 square feet!) of floor space; 8 pavilions; 1,000 exhibitors and 650,000 people cram into and outside of it. No matter what hour or what day of the nine this Salon runs, there are seemingly a gazillion children of all ages climbing all over each other trying to get in touch with the land. You cannot image it unless you have been there. Pure mayhem, it is OTT; hors contrôle! And for some reason, I am always there when staunch farm supporter and past president, Jacques Chirac (and the 100 or so news crew engulfing him) makes his way through the main hall, petting the animals, chatting knowingly with the farmers and munching the winning regional delicacies, with his hands no less! The people love him because, unlike the incumbent, being from Corrèze, Chirac definitely knows his cows from his cheeses!

All that being said, I love it. Imagine, bulls the size of small cars; pigs the size of a pony with even more fur; doe-eyed merino and cashmere goats right there in touching distance! Behold everywhere cute baby everythings, except of course, those in strollers being pushed by their parents through la foule (mob to you) either into you or over your feet. For us city dwellers enamoured with country life, it is a bonanza, a must see and do, even if you are crowd challenged! So to brave this crowd from hell there have to be rewards! Products rarely seen off the farm like cheeses, an example would be that brought by a single producer, the Coup de Corne, made at the Ferme de Cabriole in Saint-Félix de Lauragais (east if Toulouse). It is a raw cow’s milk cheese made of milk from the beautiful Brune race of cows which produce milk super high in matiere gras that makes the cheese silky and unctuous like a triple cream but isn’t! It is also rumoured to be used in my personal favourite - Epoisse! Or imagine a 24 month Ossau Iraty rarely seen outside of la Pays Basque, nutty, crunchy and expensive but worth every centimes. And a plethora of foie gras, saucissons and charcuteries, or weird fruits like the tiny but oh so delicious pineapples from Martinique, all of which you can buy and gorge on later in the comfort of your own apartment.

The Salon offers lots of other things to do too than seeking a centimetre of fresh air. The most interesting for me, besides the animals and rare products of course, is the the Meilleurs Ouvriers de France Fromager competiton (MOF). Only the best of the best and the hardiest of French cheesemongers, who compete over several months, win this prestigious title, which sets them apart and if not famous, then part of a very rare fraternity. Here they produce their piece de resistance of cut and presented cheeses. The chosen finalists go on to the last test in March, a blind tasting, where they have to identify a series of 30 or so cheeses – and believe me these contestants are impressive, as this test is like the one the sommelier go through for the World's Best Sommelier Competition.

So after a day of fabulous farmers, mind blowing animals, goodies galore and crushing crowds, I head home with my clutch of brochures and food souvenirs to soak my feet and start to forget about how many times I had to control myself from hyperventilating and the desire to rampage through the hordes, to seek calm until next year…

Raw Milk Cheeses - safe or not?

2011-02-09T15:13:00.007+01:00

The recent article in the NY Times entitled 'Raw Milk Cheesemakers Fret Over Possible New Rules' raises this ongoing battle between raw versus pasteurized milk products. once again. Raw milk cheeses have been around since the beginnings of time so what are the real reasons they are in danger of being outlawed? Enough with all the hyperbole, big industry influences and misleading claims, it is high time some real science and impartial research be done on raw milk cheeses!

Modern societies create their own environments and constraints, which in turn create their own need for specialized regulation for large populations. A one-size fits all rule, such as the 60 day aging rule in the US (fallacious from the start) is patently not appropriate. Pasturization not only does not eliminate the problem. In fact, pasturized cheeses have a pretty bad track record in this arena, both in the US and in France. The needs of an industrial cheese producer or any edible product for that matter, versus a small farm producer are different. What is not different is hygiene, both from the milk source, during the making, while being transported, stored and ultimately handled. At each point, there is the potential risk of contamination. and each present their own specific issues and varying levels of potential. Therefore, each point of weakness must be measured for its possibility to contaminate; considered fairly.

One must also take into account the effects of the current anti-germ culture, such as the one in the US, where it seems all germs are bad and must be eradicated. Is this practice of sanitizing everything, not in fact exacerbating the problem by distorting nature’s ability to balance good versus bad? One must accept that risk is inherent in life. To that end, each of us is responsible for determining how much exposure we are prepared to take, as well as what role our governments should take to mitigate risks for its people. But where is the balance between risk and profit? Where is rational, nonbiased research and debate about this issue? Now more than ever, we have the capability to do the science and debate the debate. It is time, in my opinion to do so.

Note Bene: There is a recent video entitled `Cheese and Microbes` over on the Vermont Institute of Artisan Cheeses site worth taking a look at on the subject at hand.

More Comté Joy and La Percée du Vin Jaune

2011-01-31T18:51:00.000+01:00

For you fans of Comté, a great pairing is always the wine that comes from the same region the cheese is made - the Jura. The marriage of Comté and le Vin jaune (yellow wine) is the penultimate match. Certain aromas like dried citrus fruits, walnuts and curry, found in the wine are similar to those in a good vieux (aged) Comté, which explains the amazing accord between the two. It is quite astounding as a matter of fact!

That being said, it is pretty hard to find outside of the area, but there is a festival held each year in February called La Percée du Vin Jaune (The Opening of the Yellow Wine) that gives people the opportunity to experience the newly released vintage in situ. The crucial piece of information about this rare wine is that legal requirements for aging mean that the vintage being sampled will be from the autumn harvest seven years earlier. Tasting sessions take place in a different regional village each year and have attracted over 30,000 visitors to imbibe this gem.

So what is this wine le Vin Jaune ? It is a white wine produced in Eastern France, specifically the Jura. It is similar to dry fino or Amontillado sherry but it isn't a fortified wine like sherry. It is made from a late harvest Savagnin grape which grows in the area. The wine gets its character from being matured in barrels under a film of yeast, known as the voile, (the veil) which develops on the wine's surface. This is sort of like the "flor" in Sherry production, and takes between two to three years to develop. The characteristic yellow colour and nutty flavours of the wine develop as it oxidizes and ages in the barrel. Some of the most premium examples coming from the marl based vineyards in the Château-Chalon AOC. In other French wine regions, notably Gaillac, vintners have been experimenting with similar style wines made from Chardonnay and other local grape varieties using cultured yeast.

The Appellation d'origine contrôlée (AOC) regions permitted to produce vin jaune include Château-Chalon AOC, Arbois Vin Jaune AOC, Cotes du Jura vin Jaune AOC and Vin Jaune de L'Etoile. Some adventurous winemakers in Gaillac have produced the vin de voile wine, which is similar in style but made mainly from Chardonnay grapes and cultured yeast.

Other pairings suggested are:

Whites "floral" wines: These work especially well with vieux Comté but also with the more lactic based younger ones highlighting their butter, caramel aromas.

Red wines: Vieux Comté pairs very well with red wines of the Jura called the Rubis du Jura which are lighter in structure with a high degree of finesse.

Sparkling wines: A grand harmony is created between crumbly texture and mellow flavours of Comté and the Crémant du Jura (sparkling wines of the Jura), which tend towards the sweeter side of sparkling wines.

Source: http://www.jura-vins.com/vins-jaunes-jura.htm

Casse-croûte de copains aux morilles et Comté

8 large slices of pain de campagne (Polaine for instance)
100 g of dried morels
250 g de Comté grated
5 cl de Vin Jaune
25 cl cream
40 g de butter
1 shallot, chopped fine
Salt, pepper & some branches of chives

Soak the dried morels (or other dried mushrooms) half an hour in hot water. Cut each of them in half lengthwise to clean them. Drain well. Sauté the chopped shallot in 20 g butter, then the mushrooms with salt and pepper. Add the cream and reduce heat to low and add the grated cheese and wine.

Preheat the oven to grill at 210 ° C (gas mark 7). Fry the bread slices in 20 g of butter on both sides. Then spread each slice with the morel and Comté cream, which must be very smooth. Toast the bread in the oven until golden brown. Sprinkle a few chopped chives and serve hot. Suggested Wine: These toasts with the Vin Jaune wine (pour 8 friends)

Recipe from : www.comte-gourmand.com

Gardeners or slaves of France - The life of French milk farmers today

2011-01-27T17:59:00.004+01:00

The reporter extraordinaire Harry Roselmack from TF1 (French TV), provided a look into the dire status of the independant French milk farmers with his show on January 25th - Harry Roselmack avec les résistants du monde paysan (Harry Roselmack with the Peasant Resistance). He spent several weeks with a group of diary farmers from the region of Ille-et-Vilaine in Brittany to better understand their life, the hardships they face and the little publicized fact that suicide amongst them are soaring, with more than 400 dead per year and many giving up their ancestral farms because they can not continue to pay to work on them.

The gist of the program was the paradox that while these farmers, once respected as 'les jardiniers (gardeners) de la France' providing food for the country, they frequently can barely provide for their families. They now believe they have become nothing more than 'les esclaves (slaves) de la France'. These people work 12 - 18 hour days, 7 days a week with rarely any time off and no benefits. Prices for their production fell more than 30% in one year, all while operating expenses tripled. To wake up every day knowing you will once again be in the red, can not be easy, and yet being a farmer is not a job, it is a way of life, so difficult to give up.

This life is a far cry from the cushy one, as one of these farmers called it, enjoyed by those workers who populate the ranks of France's syndicats (unions). To hear one farmer say he would be 'thrilled if he could at least earned the SMIC (minimum wage)' was pretty heartbreaking. It was worst to know that a huge percentage of them are and have not been profitable for years and borrow money just to keep their animals feed. And with the price of milk not keeping pace with the cost of operation, large numbers of these farmers are being forced to give up their farms, many having been past down for generations; the statistics were pretty grim. In 2000, there were 120,000 milk farmers in France, today there are only 85,000.

This year, the drought has created yet more difficulties for them and even with the recent augmentation in the cost per litre, they will continue to live well below the poverty line. To be sure, it is a complicated situation, one that is similar, I am sure in other industrialized countries. The milk producers are at the bottom of the pile, with the cooperatives or processors and then the distributors above them. But the large cooperatives, who produce the milk products made five times what the average farmer made last year, so it begs the question of fairness.

The frustration of these proud people was palpable. A group of them have decided to revolt against this system of pricing that does not take into account the reality of their work production. Four of them went on a hunger strike late last year with the hope of calling attention to their plight. Try and find a link to have news of their status...good luck. The press largely ignores them, until of course they decide to dump their milk in the streets in front of a ministry. No wonder they feel no one is either listening nor cares, least of all the consumer or politicans.

An equitable resolution of what is fair for the producer all the way up to the consumer is the question. But as one farmer said, those who govern need to understand that the old adage of 'Le paysan ne cri pas quand il y en mal, il meurt en silence parce qu’il a la dignité (the peasant doesn't cry out when they hurt, they die in silence because they have dignity) was no longer going to be the case. The slaves of France were going to rise up and demand their respected place in the country and be paid fairly for their labours. On verra...

Note Bene: The look on Harry's beautiful face while two farmers at 1 in the morning were trying to pull a new calf out of the womb of it's mother, with great difficulty, was priceless.

Wrapping Cheese - The Professional Way

2011-01-10T20:30:00.000+01:00

Even before I worked in a cheese shop, I wanted to know how to wrap cheese...perfectly & professional. A recent article in Culture Magazine - Wrap Like A Pro regarding this very subject arrived with instructive pictures!

There also is a link to formaticum the people who make great cheese paper in the US which has a video and while no professional fromager in France would ever use tape, it is worth checking their site out.

Pyramids, cylinders, rounds, triangles & asymmetricals (the hardest of shapes) - They're all here in this great article. It is an art, one that must be practiced to be learned and perfected. So for those of you that are into precision and flawlessness, this article is your ticket.

Comté

2011-01-05T20:36:00.001+01:00

Since the 12th century deep in the Jura mountains where winters are long and harsh, local inhabitants have made the celebrated cheese - Comté, as a way to conserve their milk production. Awarded its AOC in 1958, the fame of Comté, its economic importance for the area and terroir have become emblematic of the region of the Jura, parts of the Doubs and a small portion of Ain.

Made exclusively from milk of the Montbéliard race, each cheese is awarded a score out of 20 according to overall appearance, quality of rind, internal appearance, texture and taste. Those scoring 15 or above are given green casein labels (with the characteristic image of a bell) and may be called 'Comté extra', those with 12-15 being given brown labels and simply called 'Comté'. Any cheese scoring under 3 marks for taste, or under 12 overall is prohibited from being named Comté. Ageing is from 4 to 24 months with some famous affineurs such as Bernard Anthony holding out for the truly sublime at 36 and 48 months (with a price tag to match).

There is an incredible diversity of taste in Comté. Some are more salty than others, some are very sweet, very milky, others very rich roasted flavor, but always with subtle aromas for each bouquet. There are summer and winter Comté of course. The first is distinguished by its yellow pate and is much more intense than the second, which is pale ivory. The subtlety of flavors of a winter Comté are full of the smells of fresh hay while summer Comté is full of the scent of high meadows full of flowers and herbs. There are six aroma families for this wonderful cheese:

Lactic : the smell of milk and various dairy products
Fruity : the smells of fruit and also of honey, and floral odors.
Roasted empyreumatic : the word empyreumatic is from the Greek pyros meaning fire and these aromas are of caramelized, roasted milk.
Vegetal : the smells of vegetables, fresh or dried plants, humus.
Animal : the smell related to egg yolk, leather and barnyards.
Spicy : the different smells of spices and flavours such as vanilla, nutmeg, pepper.

The nabob of food bloggers, David Lebovitz has penned two recent blogs on the making of Comté : Comté Cheese Making and Comté Cheese Ripening and Tasting. As always in his amusing and infectious style, he provides beautiful photographs and tons of information including how he flipped his car in the snow during his visit! I highly recommend it as it is well worth reading.

You can also check out the official website : Comté In French but it has an English version.

Ah, America! Raw Milk - The Fight Heats Up

2010-11-18T00:11:00.010+01:00

In his recent article, Who Took My Raw Milk Cheese?, David Gumpert discussed the politics and reasons behind the FDA raids on respected cheese makers in several states. As a journalist, he is the author of The Raw Milk Revolution: Behind America’s Emerging Battle Over Food Rights (Chelsea Green, 2009) and his blog documents the on-going battle over raw milk.

From where I sit here in France, this is a pretty sorry story for the naissant US artisanal cheese business. France as the mother of all raw milk cheeses has it's problems too! As recently as two years ago, big agro tried to get the EU to ban raw milk Camembert using the listeria argument. Historically however, in France these listeriosis alerts have been traced back to contamination at the source of production and in almost all cases, were from cheeses produced in industrial factories using pasturised milk.

But here, all raw milk cheeses must comply with the health standards of European regulations concerning micro-organisms and hygiene. According to statistics, the health risks associated with consumption of raw milk products are very limited if you compare the small number of listeriosis alerts that have occurred when compared with an annual production that exceeds more than 170,000 tonnes in France according to the researchers at the INRA (Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (France) otherwise known as the National Institute for Agricultural Research) in Clermont-Ferrand-Theix.

In an article by Pete Kennedy from the Farmer To Consumer Legal Defense Fund, FDA's Ace in the Hole, in the last thirty-eight years, there have been no reports of illness caused by the consumption of raw milk that was attributed to Listeria monocytogenes (L-mono). One must ask why then is the FDA all of a sudden targeting small farm producers? Reminds me of the UK in the 1970's, and the E-coli 0157 scare. James Aldridge's wonderful artisanal cheese Tornegus was targeted by the then public health minister Tessa Jowell because of a suspected illness and his triving business was promplty destroyed.

As in the case of James Aldridge, the American farmers are being required to destroy their cheese, thus their livelihood. The most disturbing bit here is that the FDA is only using a test to discover the presence listeria bacteria (which by the way is on your hands at this very moment) and not the one that drills down to find the specific form and quantity. I read that in the case of the Morningland Diary, 100 swabs at the dairy found no indication of presence the bacteria; however, the FDA is not publishing their results. It is like being condemned of a crime without actual proof.

If you are interested in the subject of biopolitics, I highly recommend you read the research paper by Heather Paxton at Massachusetts Institute of Technology - POST-PASTEURIAN CULTURES: The Microbiopolitics of Raw-Milk Cheese in the United States, published in CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY, Vol. 23, 2008. And further reading on the raw milk issue, you might try the Research report : Food Fears and Raw-milk Cheese by Harry G. West for the Food Studies Centre, School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London, 2008.

But by all means, please judge for yourself. I have been eating raw milk cheeses here in France every day for 20 years and am still alive and kicking! Buy your cheese, raw milk or otherwise, from a quality fromagerie who source the best quality cheeses from the best producers; keep the properly and enjoy them safely.

An update : For those of you who what to keep posted on the latest developements on this story. Two articles in the International Herald Tribune, November 19 & 20 2010...A matter of taste versus safety and As Cheesemaking Blooms, So Can Listeria both by William Neuman and there is an interesting video on the Vermont Institute for Artisan Cheese.

Update 30 November 2010 : Senate Passes Overhaul of Food Safety Regulations

Fighting that Fat! Cheese on the front line?

2010-10-18T16:10:00.005+02:00

The other day I was surfing the web regarding weight because in my role as a fromologue, people constantly insist that cheese is fattening and bad for you. Since I eat a vast quantity of the stuff and other dairy products, don't do that much exercise except if you consider walking to the métro in Paris, have pretty low cholesteral and am not considered even vaguely fat, I am always looking for scientific evidence to fortify my argruments as well as my personal evidence to the contrary.

So imagine my glee when I stumbled across this article regarding a study from 2004 which indicates that honest to goodness real, unadulterated diary products should not be considered necessarily fattening and, to the contrary, possess a lot of benefits especially for those who are obese. According to the articles I read following the subject, "getting enough calcium in your diet seems to stimulates the body to burn more fat and reduces the amount of new fat the body makes" per Dr. Michael Zemel, a professor of nutrition at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville and a pioneer in this emerging area of research on the relationship between calcium and weight management.

Whoa! Gotta love that, but what is going on here? Apparently, researchers found overweight people who consumed 3 servings a day of calcium-rich dairy lost more belly fat than those who followed a similar diet with less of the dairy servings. To further emphasize the point, they found that calcium supplements didn't work as well the real deal! According to the good doctor, a diet low in calcium appears to stimulate the production of fat-producing enzymes and decreases the activity of enzymes that break down fat. "The moral of the calcium story is to not dump dairy when you're dieting...as it can help make your weight lost efforts easier," Zemel said.

A note of caution however as this does not give people the license to go wild and over-indulge in dairy products hoping to generate weight loss. Helas! As we have always known, there is no gain (or loss in this case!) without some pain. In otherwords, you still have to burn more calories than you take in; eating properly and doing some exercise on top of that doesn't do any harm either. Still it's nice to know that eating all those diary products, in my case my cheese addiction, isn't killing me and could actually be helping keep those love handles under control! Here's a link to one of the articles.

Domaines & Terroirs Updates

2010-10-12T15:27:00.002+02:00

Back at the ranch, we have been very busy updating our site and our tours with a new home page, a sublime tour to Alsace and some short breaks in and around Paris.

- Alsace is home of Munster, fabulous wines, artisanal beers, fois gras and la Cérémonie des Fromages by Bernard Antony at his käs-kaller in Vieux Ferette.

- Paris features several half day seminar/tours like visiting our favourite cheesemongers, creating a cheese board, and a trip to Rungis as well as two new trips - a day trip to Philippe Olivier's Fromagerie in Boulogne-sur-Mer and an overnight trip to la Cérémonie des Fromages by Bernard Antony in Vieux Ferette as well.

Have a look at Domaines & Terroirs and let us know what you think!

"We shall not cease from exploration. And the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time." - T. S. Eliot, 1942

Terroirs and Nationalities

2010-09-07T18:16:00.003+02:00

If cheese, wine and other food stuffs have terroir which defines their nature relative to the place they arise from, could one say that people's nationality is similar to terroir? I have pondered this question ever since I moved to France - Paris to be exact, then the United Kingdom - London and then back again to Paris. Were the French like a big intense Époisses, the English like a West Country Cheddar and us Americans like…Velveeta?

Living and working in France and the UK, across Europe and in the Emirates, I came across many different cultural styles and just like terroir, began to attribute certain characteristic behaviour to each of them. I never saw the French as rude and arrogant, probably because to me, their comportment was specific to their surroundings. They were direct and straight-forward; extremely dynamic. Okay they could be contentious but they were always intensely committed to what they believed. For me, they and their motivations were totally understandable (even though speaking French) and accessible.

When I moved to the UK, I thought, wow, now I will be able to understand everything that's going on because of course, they speak English…well this proved to be typical expat thinking and a big trap because although the language is English, it is spoken or rather delivered in an extremely different manner. A great deal of communication in the UK and specifically England is subtext and non-verbal. This attribute proved to render understanding anything that was going on there (even in a language in which I was fluent) more difficult and sometimes downright incomprehensible.

The Emirates were even more fascinating. The working echelons, like any wine or cheese were certainly the product of their own culture but having been shipped off at 18 or 19 to the UK or the US, they acquired another terroir as it were. They were capable of displaying their own cultural terroir, Arabic culture, as well as the veneer of the acquired occidental culture, separately, intermingled or intermittently at will. To deal with this was intriguing and a very slippery slope and strained my theory of terroir and nationality a bit.

To explain what I had learned to my colleagues in America, the terroir analogy was a bit of a stretch, so another one worked better. What does NO mean to each of these cultures? In my dealings with Germans, it quite simply meant no, not possible. To the English, no meant 'oh sorry, not certain but could be nice'. To the French, no means no - but, i.e., if you can convince me you and your argument are worthy, it could change to yes. To the Italians, no always meant 'anything is possible bella, so let's have lunch and we'll work it out'. In the Emirates, no meant absolutely nothing, no is the beginning of a negotiation. Although simplistic, this always helped bewildered and flustered American colleagues.

I was recently asked to write an article on the subject of cultural differences between the French and Americans for The American Magazine, published in the United Kingdom. Instead of cheese references, I found another one more relevant and rather amusing. If you are interested, here is the link to the article Smile - We're all Cats and Dogs

Bees, Honey and Terroir

2010-08-16T01:08:00.127+02:00

In the middle of August Paris is deserted. The last of the stressed out Parisians have left for les vacances and lots of the city is closed leaving us diehard residents to flâner in a ghost town. And so a little bored this weekend, we were roaming around and happened upon this most interesting shop in a fascinatingly time warped area of the 13éme arrondissement, La Butte aux Caille. Almost like Montmartre or rue Mouffetard in the 5th but original, uncrowded and thankfully a bit too plebeian for the menace of the colonizing bobos.

Not something I would have gone in search of but here under a threatening sky, albeit plant based we discovered another form of produits de terroirs. In this tiny shop called Les Abeilles (the Bees) fresh from les ruches (beehives) were honeys of all sorts, from mel à la tireuse (honey by the pull), named mille fleurs (mixed flower) to miel de cru (single flower vintage honey), beeswax, beeswax candles; soaps and every thing related to the practice of apiculture. The owner Monsieur Jean-Jacques Schakmundès says honey is one of the last pure products on earth, one that comes 'direct from the producer - the bee to - us, the consumer; one that undergoes no treatment, no form of transformation and no additives'. And this being France, honey is subject to strict controls, so it is as pure as if you went out in the fields and collected it yourself.

Terroirs! Well, of course, cheese has it so why not honey too! And just like wine and cheese, honey has its own vocabulary and some even have an AOP designation (Appellation d'origine protégée) as well. Honeys are described by colour, texture, taste and provenance. Each honey, just light wines, has a provenance, while the colours depend exclusively on the origin of the flowers the bees are pollinating. The rule of thumb says that the clearer and lighter the colour, the milder the honey will be; the darker more amber the colour, the more full bodied or spicy the honey will be.

We learned that the textures are different as well, some are light and creamy others are dense and stiff. And when it comes to the texture, all honeys are liquid when they come out of the hive, the textures varying from liquid to creamy and thick to firm. All of them will cystallize at their own rate according the varietal, but a crystallized honey has the same taste and therapeutic values as those that are still liquid. And wow is it healthy!

Suffice it to say besides falling prey to an enormous slice of Pain d'épices to take home with us, after we sampled five or six of the most exotic single cru honeys, we walked out with four amazing specimens : two light, golden ones - Néflier (from the Medlar tree) and Bois de Cuir (from the Leatherwood tree) and two dark copper ones - Chêne (oak) and Sarrazin (buckwheat flower).

Here is some of the descriptors for French honey:
Colour : blanc (white), crème clair (clear cream), ambré trés pâle (pale amber), ambré clair (clear amber), ambré (amber), roux (red), ocre pâle (pale ocre), brun soutenu (deep brown)

Texture : fluid, creamy, thick, firm

Taste : trés doux (very mild), doux et parfumé (mild and fragrant), trés parfumé (very fragrant), délicat (delicate), soutenu (pungent), fort (strong), corsé (spicy), légère amertune en fin bouche (lightly bitter long note)

Les Abeilles French honey :

Acacia mild flavour is liquid, clear and does not crystallize Provenance : all regions of France

Amandier (almond tree) is deep brown, creamy in texture and spicy with a light bitter after taste Provenance: Vaucluse
Châtaignier (Chestnut tree) is dark brown in colour and extremely liquid, it is strong and spicy with a light bitter after taste. Provenance : Cévennes

Eucalyptus (eucalyptus) is pale ocre colour, creamy in texture and pungent in taste. Provenance : Corse, Andalousie

Fleur d'oranger et d'autres agrumes (orange blossoms and other citrus fruits) is clear amber, very creamy and very fragrant. Provenance : Spain and Corsica (mandarin)

Garrigue et de montagne (honey scrub and mountain flowers) depends on the provenance of the flowers. It is generally liquid in texture, very fragrant and deep red. Provenance : Languedoc

Lavande de Provence (lavender) is cream coloured and very fragrant with a slightly granular Provenance : Drôme, Vaucluse

Sarrasin ou blé noir (buckwheat) is deep brown in colour, spicy and thick. Provenance: Brittany

Trèfle (clover) is a white honey with a creamy texture and very mild flavour. Provenance: all regions

Les Abeilles
21, rue de la Butte-aux-Cailles
75013 Paris
Téléphone : +33 (0)1 45 81 43 48
Métro "Place d'Italie" ou "Corvisart

Terroir - The Very Soul of the Earth

2010-08-01T22:13:00.004+02:00

The other day while doing some research, I came across an old interview with someone I much admire - Marie Quatrehomme, the first woman to be awarded the coveted Meilleur Ouvrier de France (2000). She is one of the best maître or in this case Maîtresse fromagère-affineuse in Paris, a star, an expert in her field. What was interesting about this was that the interviewer asked what spurred her curiosity for cheese and her response was la gourmandise!

Really? Gluttony? One of the seven deadly sin? Was this really what she meant I wondered, for this woman is purported to be one of the most modest and genteel people in the business and gluttony seemed a bit strong (watch this BBC interview to see her in action and judge for yourself). To be sure, translation is a landmine, and while today the sinful word is more often translated as la gloutonnerie, in earlier times gluttony translated as la gourmandise. So in this case I have to believe she was referring to a more subtle, refined meaning of the word gourmandise, like delight or indulgence or delicacy. Using my version, her response to the question about what inspired her passion for cheese was :

"Indulgence (delight). There is not one cheese I have not tasted, and I would be hard pressed to say which I prefer. What is interesting with cheese is their infinite variety. To a certain extent, each cheese is an individual: with sample that bear the same name, you can have different tastes depending on the season, the degree of ripening, even the time of day. That's indulgence, ephemeral pleasure, fleeting, but that one can repeat at will."

She goes on to say that "People here want des fromages de terroir (local cheeses) of which the progress from cow to shop does not eluded us! It is part of a history, the geography, in short, the way of life of our country. There is not a region in France that does not produce cheese, including Brittany." All very interesting and very true. The interviewer summed up the passion Madame Quatrehomme has for the subject of her metier in this phrase - "Cheese: a delicate substance, eminently appreciable, elusive, it is somehow the soul of the earth."

Indulgence, delight or just a pure pleasure, when it comes to cheese, it is indeed any one of these, for to share the very soul of the earth it offers us is truly worth the sin.

Bleu de Causses

2010-07-20T21:17:00.005+02:00

A cheese for all seasons, Bleu de Causses was once known as the poor man’s Roquefort. It is made in the cantons of the Aveyron Campagnac, Cornus, Millau, Peyreleau and Saint Affrique and two other communes: Tréves in the Gard and Pégairolles in Hérault,. The village of Peyrelade in the Gorges du Tarn is famous for the brand which bears it’s name.

Originally, this cheese was made from a mixture of ewe’s, goat’s and cow’s milk, but in 1947, the governing body of the AOC required the cheese to be made strictly with cow’s milk and in a more limited area, receiving its first AOC in 1953 with further clarifications in 1979 when the collection zone for the milk and fabrication standards were decreed. It is uncooked and unpressed and generally is set out to age for 3 to 6 weeks in the natural caves of the gorges du Tarn, which are very similar to those in Roquefort, with natural "fleurines" that allow the “penicillium glaucum” to blossom and develop both the veining and the aroma.

Summer cheeses are ivory in colour and very moist and the milk is heated to 68c to reduce development of listeria, they have a pronounced taste of summer pastures and are soft and savoury. It is truly sumptous yet subtle in texture and taste. Those made in winter are drier and are whiter in colour, they have a stronger taste which is caused from longer aging and winter feed. Less strident than Bleu d’Auvergne which comes from further north of this region, Bleu de Causses is creamy, crumbly and milder in taste than Roquefort.

Try it with a little salted butter on a crusty French bread. Wines from the general region of Cahors and Madiran work well with it. For a treat, try it with a sweet white wine from the region such as Montbazillac.

The official website of le Bleu des Causses, AOC (in French)

Les Grèves, Foodies in Paris and the Search for Terroir

2010-06-26T00:01:00.004+02:00

I have lived in Paris for a long time, so transportation strikes are nothing new, as a matter of fact, the 'big one' of November 1995 greeted me as I arrived. When these 'down-trodden' public servants decide they want to work less than a 25 hour work week or retire before 55 with 80% of their salary, they have the unpleasant habit of taking their employers, us - the public, hostage by disrupting services. Strikes are just something one has to put up with if you live here otherwise you will drive yourself crazy; think of them as part of 'the charm'.

But tonight, I am not so easily charmed as I sit here stranded waiting for a metro, ANY metro, to take me to a dinner with two of Paris' illustrious American foodies who host The Paris Supper Club, Wendy Lyn (The Paris Kitchen) and Alex Lobrano (Hungry for Paris). I fret that my trip to discover the regional terroir of the Pays Basque, famous for Ossay-Iraty & Ardi Gasna, pimente d'Espelette and pork belly at Bruno Doucet's relatively new restaurant, La Régalade - St. Honoré is not getting off to a good start.

Suffice it to say, I left plenty early just in case and somehow, as I slipped through the sun soaked Cour du Louvre past IM Pei's Pyramide, managed to arrive at the appointed time for apéros at the tiny boutique of the soon to be open Spring restaurant. Here, as I met Wendy and Alex and the rest of the guests, the earlier annoyance melts away along with the setting sun and the effects of a lovely chilled glass of white wine.

We had the good fortune to meet the remarkable owner of Spring, Daniel Rose, who graciously offers to give us a tour of his almost completed and long awaited new venue over the road at rue Bailleul. For me the retired but ever and always interior architectural designer, I can say the spaces are sublimely Parisien and beautifully designed, which added an extra bonus to the evening.

So on to La Régalade - St. Honoré around the corner and the Basque country. Here all the wonderful secrets from the southwest of France are given full stage and that's what I am searching for - the terroir of notable dishes and specialties from the Pays Basque. Sadly no cheeses from the region, but a mighty fine Rocamadour fermier from the wonderful little fromagerie, Martine Dubois in the 17th arrondissement though. Not to disappoint however, terroir was to be had in the terrine maison with cornichons and sweet pickled green peppers and a slab of carmelized poitrine de porc (pork belly) from the famous producer Louis Ospital served on bed of lentils.

So strike all you like folks, I'd walk to find this fabulous representative of the mysterious Basque country, I'd just add a slab of ardi gasna or ossay iraty with some confiture noire de cerises Xixtaberri to complete the picture.

La Régalade - St. Honoré
123, rue St.-Honoré
1st Arrondissement
+33 (0)1 42 21 92 40
Lunch and dinner, Mon–Fri

Pérail

2010-06-21T21:30:00.021+02:00

And just so we complete the family tree, if Pélardon and Rocamadour are cousins, Pérail is a not too distant 2nd cousin ! They all come from the same region in France, les Causses, but the difference being Pérail is made with ewe's (brebis) milk instead of goat's (chèvre) milk. Which of these came first is hard to say. The term Pérail appears in the XIXth century when it is cited in the Occitan dictionary by Fréderic Mistral and then by the etymologist Alibert who identified the term “péral” meaning “a drainer or colander made of stone”, as appearing in the Occitan language IXth century.

It's at the beginning of the XIVth century that the most likely ancestor of the Pérail can be found described in a document for the table service of the convent of the Notre Dame de l'Espinasse in Millau. It is surely this cheese, which for centuries has been produced from sheep's milk left to rest in goatskin bottles called “toupines” where it curdled spontaneously, that we now see produced today by small, artisanal producers and a few small manufacturers. Threatened with extinction, this cheese has its defenders. The Association for the Defence and promotion of Pérail was formed in 1994 by farm producers, artisan cheese makers and milk producer to guarantee the cheese of the terroir would not pass into obscurity. Since 1996, the organization has applied to the INAO for AOC status and a first study is in process to establish the parameters required for the cheese to obtain AOC status.

The Pérail is produced as a way of eliminating wastage in the fabrication of Roquefort. It is made from the milk from the Lacaune sheep that graze on the chalky plateaus of the Larzac in the Grand Causses at the end of the lactation period. The milk is less abundant but much richer making the Pérail very creamy. As the cheeses age on rush or rye straw, they develop a strong taste yet which is a much more subtle flavour for sheep’s cheese. This cheese is neither cooked nor pressed. It is pale yellow with a soft rind and a thick creamy texture and is best when it is runny. The aging is a minimum of eight days but the cheese can be eaten fresh within three or four days after fabrication. The runny characteristic appears after about 14 days of aging and it melts in your mouth.

Pélardon

2010-06-19T21:55:00.008+02:00

A truly wonderful cheese! Soft, creamy and not to strong in my opinion, this little goat cheese is a true representative of its region. Like its cousin, Rocamadour, it is available all year around but now is a great season for this round wonder. Originally from Languedoc-Roussillon, paraldon, pélardou or also péraudou, le pélardon is the envoy of the Cévennes, the Pélardon have been known since Pliny the Elder wrote about the « Péraldou » cheese with the strong taste.

In 1756, the naturalist, Abbé Boissier de Sauvage documented in his Dictionnaire languedocien-françois, “this small, round and flat cheese from the Cévennes which has a sharp and peppery taste which is rubbed with the leaves of the viburnum tree”. The famous Occitan poet, Frédéric Mistral honoured the cheese with a place in his comprehensive dictionary of the Occitan language, Lou Tresor dóu Félibrige (1878–1886). It is now produced in the departments of the Aude, Gard, Hérault, Lozère and Tam from milk of the Alpine,Saanen and Rove breeds of goats. The cheese includes the Pélardon des Cévennes, Pélardon d’Anduze and Pélardon d’Altier.

All the small goat's chesses in this region were and still are called pelardon. It is a soft pate raw goat’s milk cheese made in spring, summer and fall. The pate is uncooked and unpressed. The cheese rind is barely formed, soft and wrinkled and as it matures it develops a natural mould. The taste of the Pélardon des Cévennes is fruity with a fine balance between acidity and saltiness; this gives the cheese a full, rich milky flavour that lingers on the palate. The maturing period of the pelardon is two to three weeks in a well-aerated cellar.

A country of cheese eaters

2010-06-08T16:28:00.011+02:00

Only the Greeks surpass the French in the consumption of cheese according to an article at l’Alsace.fr. The French eat on average 24.6 kilos of cheese while the Greeks eat around 27.4 kg a year and mostly feta! The diversity of production in France is enough to seduce both the knowledgeable connoisseur and the amateur. In a survey conducted at the beginning of the year, 96% of the French questioned said they eat cheese regularly.

With over a thousand types of cheese available to eat in France, it’s Emmental at the head of the list, with Comté not far behind and cheese made from cow’s milk largely dominates the list. With 80% of French cheeses having an AOC or AOP label,according to the article sales of these cheeses represented about 2.9 billion euros in sales last year, even with a drop of about 1.7% in export! That’s a lot of cheese...

Cancer-fighting fat and French cheese

2010-06-01T01:22:00.013+02:00

Following blogs can sometimes lead to some interesting places. Recently, I glided into the website Eatwild (http://www.eatwild.com/cla.html), which professes to be ‘your source for safe, healthy, natural and nutritious grass-fed beef, lamb, goats, bison, poultry, pork, dairy and other wild edibles’ and came across a discussion about why French cheeses are healthier for you than others, in particular, American. Now I consume a LOT of cheese! I admit that it comes from Great Britain Ireland, Spain, Italy and Greece, yet it mostly comes France, so this was interesting.

Apparently, unlike most American dairies that raise their cows in confinement and on grain based diets (I even read on milk chocolate and stale gummy bears!), French diaries and those of GB and Ireland)generally raise their cows in pastures (one good side effect of all that rain!), which results in naturally high levels of CLA. Here in France, they have even banned growth hormones as well.

Okay, so CLA? What is that? Apparently, CLA or "conjugated linoleic acid" is a newly discovered good fat that has shown signs in animal studies to be a potent cancer fighter. Seemingly very small amounts of the stuff has blocked ‘all three stages of cancer: 1) initiation, 2) promotion, and 3) metastasis’, where most anti-cancer agents block only one. While human CLA research is still pretty new, a few studies suggest that there are similar benefits in people and ‘a recent survey determined that women with the most CLA in their diets had a 60 percent reduction in the risk of breast cancer’. How interesting is this?

Since natural CLA is far better than that stuff that comes in pill form as it has no known negative side effects, that which comes from grass pastures and the higher the altitude the better apparently, is good stuff. The most abundant source of natural CLA is the meat and dairy products of grassfed animals. Apparently in some new studies, the kind of CLA found in butter and animal fat is the most potent cancer-fighter and milk products from 100 percent grass-fed cows are as much as seven times higher in cancer-fighting CLA than ordinary milk and far lower in cancer-promoting linoleic acid. (Cancer Letters 1997;116:121-130) And according to other surveys, CLA levels in French cheese ranged from 5.3 to 15.8 mg/g of fat versus American cheese from conventional dairies, which had only half this amount ranging from 2.9 to 7.1. Yahoo! So let’s go eat some more French cheese!

Terroir: Is a camembert a camembert if it isn’t made in Normandy?

2010-04-15T01:45:00.013+02:00

People always ask me about this word and what it really has to do with cheese. Terroir is often translated as the ‘taste of the land’ and is a real and yet ephemeral blend of the land, the tradition and the character of any regional product. Cheese is a true expression of the concept of terroir, perhaps even more so, in my opinion, than wine.

Everything within a region, from the animals, climate, vegetation, water and soil, has an effect on the milk which is the nascence of all artisanal cheeses. Combine these factors with the production techniques specific to each cheese, the traditions transmitted down through generations and the quality of the final affinage, and only then can one finally begin to understand the meaning of terroir. So while one can follow the recipe for making a certain cheese, the end product will be an expression of the terroir it represents. Hence, a camembert-like cheese made in Vermont or California might be similar to a Camembert de Normandie, it will recall its roots and therefore be unique.