"le cheese course" news and stories

Saint-Nectaire. Photo: Artisanal Cheese

This summer Slashfood blogger Max Shrem is apprenticing at renowned Paris cheese shop Fromagerie Trotté. In ''Le Cheese Course,'' Max will share his impressions and opinions of French cheese à la francaise!

For those who enjoy the creamy supple texture of Brie and the nutty earthy taste of Salers, Saint-Nectaire is a must-try. Coming from the Auvergne, the same region of France as Salers, it combines the best of both cheeses, but the experience of eating it is like savoring a particularly rich smooth peanut butter and drinking a glass of rich, flavorful raw cow's milk.

This cow's-milk cheese is made from the milk of the renowned Salers cows that graze at an altitude of 3,000 feet. Similar to the cheese Salers, the rich soil consists of volcanic ash (hence, lots of minerals) and imparts a distinct flavor on Saint-Nectaire.

However, unlike Salers, Saint-Nectaire has an unctuous consistency, similar to Brie, and a one-of-a-kind exquisite light-brown-grayish rind with, at times, white, yellow and red molds. It can have either a washed rind or a natural rind. The different molds, intentionally brought out by the affineur, create the cheese's distinct rustic appearance and earthy floral taste. As far back as the Middle Ages, cheesemakers have been aging Saint-Nectaire on rye mats in tunnels and caves that run through the Auvergne.

Brie de Melun. Photo: Chez Loulou, Flickr

This summer Slashfood blogger Max Shrem is apprenticing at renowned Paris cheese shop Fromagerie Trotté. In 'Le Cheese Course,' Max will share his impressions and opinions of French cheese à la francaise!

For many Americans, French cheese is synonymous with Brie. In the United States, wheels of it can be found at both high-end grocery stores and large supermarkets. However, neither place sells the two primary types of Brie sold at Parisian cheese shops -- Brie de Meaux and Brie de Melun, which are much more decadent renditions of the drippy cow's milk cheese.

Stateside, raw-milk cheeses must be aged for at least 60 days before being sold. By the 60th day, both of the two Bries mentioned above are too ripe and in no state to be exported across the Atlantic to be sold. For this reason, much of the Brie found at American cheese shops is pasteurized, industrial, and, quite frankly, a poor representative of this French cheese celebrity that is Brie.

So, if you're in France, what kind of Brie should you look for and what's the difference between the two types?

Abbaye de Belloc. Photo: Max Shrem

This summer Slashfood blogger Max Shrem is apprenticing at renowned Paris cheese shop Fromagerie Trotté. In 'Le Cheese Course,' Max will share his impressions and opinions of French cheese à la francaise!

When it comes to firm sheep's milk cheeses, most Americans are more or less familiar with Italian Pecorinos, like Pecorino Romano, and, of course, the renowned Spanish Manchego. But, in the Ossau valley in the French Pyrenees, cheesemakers also craft unique sheep's milk cheeses, like the famed Ossau-Iraty, and the less known Abbaye de Belloc.

These cheeses stand out due to their particularly sweet delicate flavor and firm, creamy texture that gradually melts on the palate. Among them, Abbaye de Belloc remains a gastronomic gem with its exceptionally well-balanced, smooth, unctuous texture, a result of the milk of the red-nosed Manech ewes (not to be confused with Santa's red-nosed reindeer, Rudolph).

"The best way to appreciate this kind of consistency is to eat a very thin slice," says Fromagerie Trotté's Jean-Philippe Trotte in Paris. "The thinner the slice, the better you'll take in the very sain [French for uncontaminated, healthy and wholesome] taste of the cheese's milk."

Roquefort. Photo: Furey and the Feast, Flickr

This summer Slashfood blogger Max Shrem is apprenticing at renowned Paris cheese shop Fromagerie Trotté. In 'Le Cheese Course,' Max will share his impressions and opinions of French cheese à la francaise!

In the United States, Roquefort -- which has undergone quite the year in the press -- most frequently winds up in salads. Stateside cheese shops usually carry just one or two varieties.

In Paris, however, the stinky blue fromage is a staple; it's nearly impossible not to find several varieties at local supermarkets and an abundance at the fromageries, where varieties range from mildly spicy and sweet to pungent and creamy.

Three main factors cause this: the specific culture of Penicillium roqueforti (the fungus used to create the blue veins in the cheese) used; the types of caves and the quantity made. There's a bit of mystique, too: "What distinguishes one strain of Penicillium roqueforti from another one is part of the cheesemaker's secret," says Mme. Barthélémy, fromagère at Paris's Barthélémy cheese shop, which sells a to-die-for artisanal Roquefort.

Five fave Roqueforts after the jump.

Pouligny Saint Pierre. Photo: Vincent M, Flickr

This summer Slashfood blogger Max Shrem is apprenticing at renowned Paris cheese shop Fromagerie Trotté. In 'Le Cheese Course,' Max will share his impressions and opinions of French cheese à la francaise!

Those interested in the aesthetics of chèvres that come in striking shapes and sizes will certainly be seduced by Pouligny Saint Pierre, a classic French goat's milk cheese shaped like a pyramid. Hailing from the region of Berry, close to the renowned châteaux of the Loire valley, this cheese has a distinctive floral aroma and grassy, nutty taste.

When it comes to French goat's milk cheeses like Pouligny Saint Pierre (and many others like Valençay) there are key differences in flavor and texture between ones imported to the United States and those eaten in France. In the United States, Pouligny Saint Pierre is sold fresh and has almost no rind, giving it a mild, fresh taste and cakey yet creamy texture. In France, however, because the cheese is made with raw milk and is aged to various degrees by affineurs, it comes in many more varieties.