Best Franc-Comtois Cow's Milk Cheese Types
Comté is a big, hard cheese made from unpasteurized cow's milk, with at least 45% fat and a pressed, cooked paste. Each cheese wheel is unique with numerous taste varieties that can range from milky, spicy, roasted to fruity, buttery or plant-like due to the fact the milk it is made from must be used immediately.
It is made in the Jura massif in the caves of Doubs, Jura and Haute-Saône departments in France. The maturation period lasts at least 120 days and it is turned and scrubbed regularly during the process. Comté also has a seasonal stamp, like winter, summer, mountain Comté or plains Comté.
THE BEST Comté Cheeses
Also known as Vacherin du Haut-Doubs, Mont d'Or is a soft cheese made from raw cow's milk in the Haut-Doubs region in France. What's unique about Mont d'Or's visual appearance is that it is encircled by spruce bark strips and packaged in a spruce wooden box that keeps the cheese in place.
It has a full, rich, sweet and grassy flavor and a slightly acidic taste. Its rind is not edible like in most other French cheeses, so it has to be removed to get to the creamy, runny, almost liquid inside, when fully ripe. As the cheese is already almost melting, it can be eaten like a fondue and enjoyed with sparkling wines.
THE BEST Mont d'Or Cheeses
Morbier is a soft cheese made from unpasteurized cow's milk, produced in the French regions of Doubs, Jura, Ain, and Saône-et-Loire. The cheese is more than two centuries old. It is easily identifiable for its thin black layer of ash which goes through the center of the cheese.
For full maturation, it takes from 45 days to 3 months, and in that time the rind becomes yellow and moist. The flavor is rich and creamy, reminiscent of fresh hay, nuts and fruits, with a slightly bitter aftertaste. Morbier also has numerous small holes dispersed throughout its body.
THE BEST Morbier Cheeses
Cancoillotte is a French cheese originating from the region of Franche-Comté. It is believed that this cow’s milk cheese with a thick and creamy texture first appeared more than 2,000 years ago in a region that was then called Séquanie – known nowadays as Haute-Saône.
Originally, the cheese was called fromage fondu (melted cheese) and fromage de femme (housewife’s cheese). The flavor of cancoillotte can best be described as acidic and buttery, with a strong fermented odor. It is recommended to heat it up with butter, wine, and garlic, then pour the combination over vegetables, cold cuts, or potatoes.
THE BEST Cancoillotte Cheeses
Vacherin is a group of cheeses made from cow's milk. There are two main types of Vacherin – one is Swiss, the other one French. The French one is called Mont d'Or or Vacherin du Haut-Doubs, while the Swiss one is called Vacherin Mont d'Or, and although the nomenclature is a bit tricky, the French one is made with raw milk while the Swiss one is made with thermized milk.
The cheeses come wrapped in spruce in order to contain the slightly melting, almost liquid interior. There's also a firmer Swiss cheese called Vacherin Fribourgeois, as well as the rich Vacherin d'alpage, made from the milk of cows that roam the alpine meadows.
VARIATIONS OF Vacherin
Mamirolle is a semi-soft cheese made from pasteurized cow's milk that was first made in 1935 by students of the Ecole Nationale d'Industrie Laitiere in Mamirolle, France, hence the name. In 1996, the Éco-Délices dairy in Plessisville, Quebec also got the exclusive license to produce the cheese outside France.
Underneath Mamirolle's washed rind, the texture is supple, elastic, and chewy. The aromas are earthy and pungent, while the flavors are mild, fruity, salty, and sweet, with a rich buttery finish. The cheese is left to age from 3 to 4 weeks on wooden planks, and during the process it's washed with annatto.
Pair with
Bleu du Haut-Jura or Bleu de Septmoncel is a blue, uncooked and unpressed cheese made from the unpasteurized milk of two cow breeds. It has pale blue/green moldy veins dispersed throughout its soft, white/ivory colored body with a creamy, crumbly texture.
The rind must have the word Gex embossed on it. Its smell is intense and earthy, and it has a characteristically mild, acidic, nutty and buttery taste because it is, after all, one of the mildest French cheeses. Slightly spicy, peppery notes come from the blue veins.
Pair with
Édel de Cléron is a soft French cheese originating from the city of Cléron. It is made from pasteurized cow’s milk. The cheese matured for about three weeks, and it is then wrapped in cloth and bound with spruce bark strips, helping it to retain its shape and giving it a rustic, woody aroma.
On the exterior, it has a bloomy white rind, while the interior is creamy and runny in texture, so the cheese is often eaten with a spoon. Its flavor can best be described as earthy and mushroomy.
Best Franc-Comtois Cow's Milk Cheese Producers
Best Franc-Comtois Cow's Milk Cheeses
AWARDS
World Cheese Awards - Gold
2024
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