Cheese

I am very very nerdy when it comes to cheeses.  I can read for literally hours on the different milking times, the terms of AOC, the season, the bloom, the crust, the texture, the ageing, the volume of milk, the size specifications.  The cheese of France is absolutely and utterly unreal and I have to unfortunately ease back my consumption because I can't run enough to offset it.  So I hereby, on new years eve, reluctantly must reduce my study time.  

Damn.

So far my 3 favourite regions are the Haute Marne and it's Chaource (rhymes with horse) and Langres.  The Savoire and it's Comté (I like the aged version, hard sweet nutty like a richer gruyere) and Reblochon and the Jura with it's Mont d' Or.  The Rhône-Alpes with it’s pave d’affinois.

I don’t know whether it’s purely because it’s never been accessible or whether I just enjoy the flavor but my preference is for lait cru cheese.  Raw milk.  Only recently available in NZ and under certain conditions.  Why?  WhoTFKnows. 

These cheeses and the traditions behind making them are centuries old.  There are little snippets like the saying for the second milking termed reblocher, meaning “to pinch a cow's udder again” and originated from the herdsmen did not quite complete the milking in order to preserve the amount of tax they handed to the landowners. After the controllers had measured the morning milk, the herdsmen finished the milking after dark and kept this rich milk to produce their own cheese which resulted in richer results and became part of the AOC and used in Reblochon and Comté. 

Anyway, we had some spare truffle.  Stuffed some into Langre and let it be for a few days.  We are eating that at present.  We did the same (stuffing with fresh truffle) with a large Mont’d Or and topped with truffle oil which I’ve wrapped and popped in the freezer waiting a visit from Joey and dad when this cheese won’t be available.

Look at the crust on these cheeses!  The insides are so gooey they are only possible to remove by spoon (not the case for the Comté of course). 

Damn.  Why is the best stuff so fattening??  Not right.  Not right at all.  But then again if it weren’t for the luxury element the taste would not be as tantilisingly decadent.   

   

Just added for fun, I know it's not cheese!