Showing posts with label blue cheese. Show all posts
Showing posts with label blue cheese. Show all posts

Bleu de Bresse – The Most Popular Blue Cheese in France. Bleu de Bresse in French Cuisine.

from
Behind the French Menu
by
Bryan G. Newman
behindthefrenchmenu@gmail.com 

Bleu de Bresse
  
Bleu de Bresse is the most popular blue cheese in France with a large following of cheese lovers around the world.  It fits right in when a mild blue cheese is needed for a cheese plate, and it also makes excellent blue cheese salad dressings and sauces.

Bleu de Bresse is 15% fat, creamy, spreadable, mild-tasting, blue-veined/patched cow’s milk cheese made from pasteurized milk with a natural edible rind and a mild aroma of mushrooms; it is aged for three weeks. The cheese was first made in the village of Servas in the department Ain in the region of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes. 

This where you buy Bleu de Bresse.
www.flickr.com/photos/kentgoldman/3335977501/
 
For several reasons, Bleu de Bresse is looked down upon by some, though not by me.   Some blue cheese gourmands consider Bleu de Bresse a new cheese, others look down on it because it is mass-produced, and finally others consider it to have Italian influences in its creation. Now Bleu de Bresse may be new, but you would have to be close to 80 to consider 70 plus young.  Then, many of France’s other cheeses are mass-produced, including pasteurized milk Camemberts and Bries, and while they are not given free passes, they cause less controversy. Following on, Italian input is seen in many parts of French cuisine,  just as many French contributions are seen in Italian Cuisine.

Gorgonzola on sale
  
Bleu de Bresse was created during WWII when Italian cheeses could not be imported. Then this blue, cow's milk cheese was made in the style of the Italian Gorgonzola cheese by an Italian influenced French cheese maker; then it was given the name Saingorlon. Following on that in 1951, Saingorlon morphed into its present life as Bleu de Bresse and the dairies that make it have never looked back. 

Saingorlon is a good ten letter word in French Scrabble.
 
Much of the disapproval above is food snobbery, but the vast majority of French citizens ignore that, and to prove it Bleu de Bresse is the best-selling mass-produced blue cheese in France. Outside France, the Bleu de Bresse also has a very successful footprint, but even there, some food writers have called Bleu de Bresse a beginners’ blue cheese. What a lot of nonsense. Not every cheese has to compete with France’s fantastic, but super strong sheep’s milk Roquefort AOP or the magnificent but mild cow’s milk cheeses like the Fourme d’Ambert AOP and the Fourme de Montbrisson AOP.  I may choose Bleu de Bresse for a cheese platter just as often as I might choose another among the tens of France’s blue cheeses (when I can find five or six together to make a reasoned choice); variety is important. In the UK and North America, Bleu de Bresse, like in France, is sold in packages and wedges that weigh anywhere from 125 grams (4.40 oz) to 500 grams (1.10 lbs).

Bleu de Bresse on French menus:
    
Carré de Porc Braisé au Bleu de Bresse, Poíres Confites – A rack of braised pork prepared with a Bleu de Bresse sauce and served with a thick pear confit (jam).
  
Pièce de Bœuf Grillée, Sauce Crème au Bleu de Bresse – A grilled rump steak served with a  creamy Bleu de Bresse sauce. Now a Pièce de Bœuf may seem to translate as a Piece of Beef which doesn’t inspire, but there are four unique French cuts that may be called a Pièce de Bœuf. When Pièce de Bœuf is on the menu in France that indicates the best cuts from the rump, cuts that are usually too much work and preparation for the UK and North American butchers.



Salade Bressane aux Emincés de Poulet Fumé au Bleu de Bresse et aux Cerneaux de Noix – The Bresse salad, which includes chicken liver, is here served with thin slices of smoked chicken and walnuts and accompanied by a Bleu de Bresse sauce. 

Truite "Mont du Jura" Désarêtée à la Crème de Bleu de Bresse – A boned “Jura Mountain” trout served with cream of  Bleu de Bresse sauce. The Jura mountains are in the Alpes between France and Switzerland and with fabulous skiing in the winter and lakes, including the Lac Morond, Lake Morond, in the summer famous for great fishing at 1400 meters (4600 feet). (Caveat Emptor: In all probability, this is a Rainbow Trout from a fish farm). Désarêté or Désarêtée on this menu listing means de-boned but it may also be used for fish that have been both filleted and skinned).     


    
With all the criticism, the producers tried to upgrade the Bleu de Bresse cheese with a name change in the 1960s; then, they renamed it Fourme de Bresse. At that time, the two top of the line French mild blue cow's milk cheese-makers; with Fourme in their names, the Fourme de Montbrisson and Fourme d’Ambert got together, went to court, and put a stop to that; since then they have received an AOP apiece to add to their names. But, Bleu de Bresse sails on with its old name, no AOP, and a crowd of admirers who would buy it under any name. 

Where it all began.

The village of Servas, where Bleu de Bresse was first produced is next to the River Veyle set in the heartland of the old province of Bresse. It is just 5 km (3 miles) from the village of Bresse and 11 km ( 6.2 miles) from to town of Bourg en Bresse (where it is made today) in the department of Ain. The old Province of Bresse is mostly within the department of Ain in the new administrative region of Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, and the department of Saône-et-Loire in Bourgogne-Franche-Comté with some parts reaching the French Jura. From these departments come many significant contributions to French cuisine apart from Bleu de Bresse;  especially notable are: 

The Crème de Bresse AOP, cow’s milk cream.
The Mâconnais AOP goat’s cheese.
The Volaille de Bresse AOP, France’s top of the line chickens, capons, poulardes, and turkeys.

The list above will be a small part of what may be on the table when you travel in the old province of Bresse.

A couple of things to note when visiting Bresse.

French departments have numbers given to them during the French revolution that created them, and Ain at the beginning of the alphabet is department number 01.

The locals are called Bressans, and among them, there are still those who know who know a few words in the old language of Bressan, which developed from Occitan. Occitan was the French language that lost out in the completion to be the official language of France. 
  
--------------------------------

Behind the French Menu
by
Bryan G. Newman 
behindthefrenchmenu@gmail.com
Copyright 2010, 2019, 2023.

  
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Bleu de Causses the Blue, Mild to Spicy, Creamy Cow’s Milk Cheese from Aveyron in the South.


from
Behind the French Menu
by
Bryan G. Newman

behindthefrenchmenu@gmail.com

 

Bleu de Causses
  
Bleu des Causses AOP is a semi-soft, 45% fat, cows’ milk cheese made with pasteurized milk. It is white to ivory with greenish-blue veins aged for at least 21 days before being sold. It has an earthy smell with a spicy, nutty taste and a creamy pate changing to slightly crumbly as it ages. Cheese shops keep this cheese in two or more ages to satisfy the pockets, tastes, and needs of their customers. A whole cheese will weigh over 2 kilos (4.40 lbs), but a wedge kept in aluminum foil and a vacuum pack kept cold in the hotel mini-bar will travel well for 24 to 36 hours. When home the cheese must be kept in the refrigerator, (never the freezer) in aluminum foil and plastic wrap. This cheese is made with pasteurized milk, and so it can be taken into the USA, but for more about buying cheese in France and taking them home click here.
   
Bleu de Causses

France has a large selection of blue cheeses made with cow’s, sheep’s or goat’s milk along with a few that are made with mixed milks. Textures vary from creamy to crumbly and tastes run the gamut of mild to very spicy. What boosts the Blue des Causses in the restaurants' popularity stakes is this cheese’s flexibility.  Many blue cheeses will age with a more piquant taste coming with age, but until you actually take them out of the cave or aging room and taste them, you cannot be really sure how spicey and or crumbly it is.  Bleu de Causses has its rind removed after the minimum aging of 21 days when it is replaced with aluminum foil.  That allows the cheese to be aged at slightly higher temperature cellars for up to six months and properly controlled its taste and texture changes like clockwork.
       
Map of the cheese making centers in the causses.
Home to some of France’s most famous cow’s, goat’s and sheep’s milk cheeses.

When a chef wants a light note that will not overpower a fish dish he or she will pick up the phone and ask for a 21 or 30-day old cheese.  For a quiche, a 45-day aged cheese may be ordered, and for steaks the chef will ask for a 90-day aged cheese. The fromager, the cheesemonger who supplies the cheese, doesn’t need to taste it, the date stamp says it all. After120 days the Bleu des Causses will only be on the cheese trolley though the cheese’ aficionados know that five months will be better than four with the real mavens saying that the very best is six months old. N. B. Any older it begins to fade.

The Tarn Gorge seen from the Millau Viaduct
The Causses that gives this cheese its name are limestone plateaus in France’s Massif Central. The gorges are created by the rivers Tarn, Dourbie, Jonte, Lot and Aveyron running through the limestone and making for arresting scenery.
www.flickr.com/photos/allan_harris/2647320054/

The cheese comes from around the towns of Sainte-Afrique and Millau and they are just 28 km (17 miles apart) in the center of the department of Aveyron in the region of Occitainie. The department of Aveyron has two other AOP cheeses with Roquefort AOP sheep’s milk cheese being made just 11.6 km (7.2 miles) from Sainte-Afrique and the Laguiole AOP cow's milk cheese which is at the heart of many of the tastiest Aligots 120 km (63 miles) to the north of Millau.

Bleu de Causses will be on many menus:

Dorade Marbré au Bleu des Causses, Mascarpone aux Noix, Confiture de Courge Musquée - The striped seabream or sand steenbras prepared with the Bleu de Causses and Marscapone cream cheese with walnuts (France’s favorite nut) accompanied by a butternut squash jam. The striped seabream is caught in the Mediterranean as well being raised in sea farms, and it will be on many menus. Its taste is very similar to the Daurade Rose, the Bluespotted Seabream. While Marscapone is an Italian cream cheese don’t be surprised to see it on a French menu as there are many parts of France with strong Italian connections such as the city of Nice on the Cote d’Azur, and many Italian cheeses are close to the heart of French cuisine with Parmesan, the leader.
    
Faux Filet de Bœuf Sauce au Bleu Des Causses - The UK sirloin and the US strip steak grilled or fried and served with a Bleu de Causses sauce.  Faux-filet makes great steaks; they come from just below the French entrecote, the UK and US ribeye. 
   
US strip steak – The French faux filet
www.flickr.com/photos/edkohler/2196323585/
                              
Pièce de Boucher et sa Sauce Au Bleu Des Causses - The butcher’s cut served with a Bleu des Causses sauce. The pièce de boucher is one of four French cuts that are amongst the tastiest and tenderest of steaks from the rump. The French names for these cuts are Araignée de Bœuf, Merlan de Rumsteck,  Poire de Bœuf, and the Langue de Chat, and there are no English names. You won’t find anything like these tender and tasty cuts in plastic wrap in a UK or USA  supermarket, and the butcher’s outside who are willing to prepare these cuts are few and far between.
  
Tartare de Bœuf aux Noix et au Bleu des Causses A steak Tatar with walnuts and Bleu des Causses.
    
Steak Tatar
www.flickr.com/photos/hdv-gallery/7138285281/
   
Quiche au Bleu de Causses et sa Salade – Quiche made with Bleu des Causses served with a salad.  The origin of all quiches is the Quiche Lorraine in North-Eastern France now part of the region of the Grand Est and while they made all around the world the name is a direct link to their origins.
   
The Bleu de Causses was traditionally made from a mixture of sheep's milk mixed either with cow's or goat's milk, and it competed in the same market as Roquefort. Then as the producers and the government tried to make sense of competing demands for names and manufacturing secrets the cheese was made from cow’s milk that resulted in a milder taste than Roqueforte.  To the mavens, there is a slight difference between the Bleu des Causses produced in winter and summer. Cheeses made in winter are lighter in color than their summer as the cows are fed in barns with the dry grasses, herbs, and flowers from summer pastures that also results in a slightly drier pate; both versions have their admirers. 
  
The Millau Viaduct
www.flickr.com/photos/jaapv/42932279492/
 
The town of Millau stands out among those traveling in the center of southern France as the Millau Viaduct is the tallest bridge in the world is here.   At 336.50 meters (1,106 feet) high the Millau Viaduct is the quickest way via an AutoRoute from Paris to Barcelona and places along the way. The bridge spans the gorge valley of the River Tarn though many traveling south enjoy the scenery rather than the autoroute and then connect to the bridge.   The whole area is beautiful and a stopover in the towns of Sainte-Afrique, Millau, Roquefort and or Laguiole will introduce you to some of the tastiest parts of France and the local wines are recommended with the red or rose Marcillac not to be missed.    
  
Marcillac Rose

-----------------------------------

Behind the French Menu
by
Bryan G. Newman

 

behindthefrenchmenu@gmail.com

Copyright 2010, 2019.

---------------------------

Searching for the meaning of words, names or phrases
on
French menus?

Just add the word, words, or phrase that you are searching for to the words "Behind the French Menu" and search with Google. Behind the French Menu’s links include hundreds of words, names, and phrases that are seen on French menus. There are over 450 articles that include over 4,000 French dishes with English translations and explanations.

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Bleu d'Auvergne AOP, - The Bleu d'Auvergne French Blue Cheese. Bleu d'Auvergne in French Cuisine.

from
Behind the French Menu
by
Bryan G. Newman

behindthefrenchmenu@gmail.com

 

A wedge of Bleu d'Auvergne AOP 
Photograph courtesy of Andi Fisher

The Bleu d'Auvergne Cheese.
     
Bleu d'Auvergne AOP - A  creamy, crumbly, and tasty, 29% fat, blue, (fromage  à pâte persillés), cow’s milk cheese made from non-pasteurized milk from the department of Cantal in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes. (Pasteurized milk is used for exports to the USA). The cheese is aged for a minimum of four weeks before sale. On the menu Bleu d'Auvergne will be part of a French apéro, a pre-dinner drink and snack, or in a sauce with steak or fish, on a cheese plater or the cheese trolley, or part of a dessert with fruit. There is excellent dining in the region, with many Auvergnat dishes on French Menus, where the Bleu d'Auvergne has an important part to play.
    
A whole cheese weighs between 2-3 kilos, (4.5 -6.5 lbs).
Buying cheese in France and taking it home.

The original plan for Bleu d'Auvergne was for a cow’s milk version of the Roquefort sheep’s milk cheese. 

Bleu d'Auvergne is a strongly flavored blue cheese that was created by a farmer called Antoine Roussel almost 150 years ago. Originally Roussel planned for the cheese to be a cow’s milk version of the Roquefort sheep’s milk cheese and Roquefort is a very potent blue cheese.  While Bleu d'Auvergne is a strong cheese, it is not up there with Roquefort among the powerhouse blue cheeses.
    
The dog that ate too much Bleu d’Auvergne cheese.
    
Bleu d'Auvergne on French menus:
     
Bavette d'Aloyau à la Plancha, Sauce au Bleu d'Auvergne – A flank steak cooked on a thick iron plancha and served with a Bleu d'Auvergne sauce.
 
Moules au Bleu d'Auvergne, Frites Moules Frites - Mussels cooked in a broth flavored with Bleu d'Auvergne and served with French fries, chips, accompanied by fresh mayonnaise.
 
Pavé de Bœuf "Aubrac," Sauce au Bleu d'Auvergne et Aligot – A rump steak from the Label Rouge, red label, Aubrac beef served with a Bleu d’Auvergne sauce and accompanied by Aligot.
 
The Aubrac cattle are raised on the Aubrac plateau. There the cattle freely graze, in summer, from the south of the Massif Central through parts of the department of Cantal in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes and the department of Lozère in the region of Occitanie.
  
Aligot is a traditional, tasty, mashed potato and cheese dish that remains very popular.

N.B. On 1-1-2016 France changed the borders of its mainland regions creating super-regions including Occitanie and the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes. Thereby, reducing the number of mainland France regions from 22 to 13.
    
Aubrac cattle.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/loloieg/9583448627/sizes/m/
     
Truite de Vourzac au Bleu d'Auvergne  - Trout, from the department of Haute-Loire in the south of the Auvergne - Rhône-Alpes prepared with the Bleu d’Auvergne cheese. On a menu listing like this, you may usually choose if you prefer your fish grilled, fried or steamed.
   
Fishing in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/129993975@N04/21025503022/
  
Velouté d'Asperges, Poire au Bleu d'Auvergne – A velvety soup made with asparagus, pears and the Bleu d'Auvergne.
   
Chilled asparagus soup with Bleu d'Auvergne and goat's cheese.
        
The town of Riom-ès-Montagnes
  
In the department of Cantal in the region of Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes is the small, walkable, town of Riom-ès-Montagnes. The town is the center for farmers whose cows provide the milk for the Bleu d’Auvergne cheese; nearly 25 liters of milk are needed for every kilo of cheese. 
                           
Riom-ès-Montagnes and its farmers are also very proud of the gentian plants they grow. The nationally popular, alcoholic drink called Suze is made with gentian roots though the primary use of gentian is for homeopathic medicines.  Riom-ès-Montagnes has a gentian festival, their Fête de la Gentiane on the first weekend in July and then six weeks later they have a festival for their famous blue cheese their Fête du Bleu d'Auvergne.
 
For more about Riom-ès-Montagnes use the Bing or Google translation apps and click on these two French language websites with links to the town:
 
   
The Fete of the Fromage Bleu d'Auvergne.
     
The Fête du Bleu d'Auvergne, is held in Riom-ès-Montagnes during the third weekend in August. Their website, like the others, is in French only, but with a translation app is easily understood.

         
The Regional Natural Volcano Park of the Auvergne
    
Riom-ès-Montagnes is inside the Regional Natural Volcano Park of the Auvergne, Le Parc Naturel Régional des Volcans d'Auvergne. The park is the largest regional park in France, and apart from more than 80 enthralling, but extinct, volcanoes in the summer there is hiking, fishing, and water sports; all that apart from the Bleu d’Auvergne cheese.
   
Inside the Volcano Park.
       
The park’s English language website is:
    
All the AOP cheeses from the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes.
 
Depending on how you count them the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes is blessed with 15 or 16 AOP cheeses, more than any other region in France:
   
Abondance AOP, a hard, yellow cow’s milk cheese.
Beaufort AOP, a hard, yellow cow’s milk cheese.
Bleu d'Auvergne, the subject of this post.
Bleu du Vercors-Sassenage AOP a mild, pasteurized, cow’s milk, blue cheese.
Cantal AOP, a hard, yellow, cow’s milk cheese.
Chevrotin AOP, a soft, goat's milk cheese.
Fourme d’Ambert AOP, a blue veined, mild, cow’s milk cheese.
Fourme de Montbrison AOP, a mild cow’s milk blue cheese, very much like the Fourme de Ambert AOP.
Picodon AOP, Picadon de l'Ardèche AOP or Picodon de la Drome AOP, the first goat's milk cheese to be awarded an AOC.
Reblochon AOP, a soft, cow’s milk cheese.
Salers AOP, a hard, yellow cows’ milk cheese.
Rigotte AOP or Rigotte de Condrieu AOP, a soft, goat’s milk cheese.
Saint-Nectaire AOP a creamy and nutty, semi-firm, cow’s milk cheese.
Tome des Bauges AOP -  a semi-hard, cow’s milk cheese.
  
Other cheeses from the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes:
   
Bleu de Gex AOP is also called the Blue du Haut Jura and the Blue de Septmoncel. – A mild, cow’s milk, blue cheese, claimed by the region of Bourgogne-Franche-Comté (Burgundy and Franche-Comté) where about 50% of the cheese is made in the department of Jura.  The other 50% comes from the department of Ain in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes.
  
Gruyere Francaise IGP  -  French Gruyere IGP, a hard, yellow cheese.  Not unsurprisingly French Gruyere tastes somewhat similar to the Swiss Gruyere. While, the French cheese has small holes, and the Swiss has none.  The French lost the rights to call their cheese Gruyere AOP in the European Union as the town of Gruyere is a Swiss city.  Nevertheless, French Gruyere will be on many menus in France and then it is usually just called Gruyere without any declared nationality.
 
Tomme de Savoie IGP - A semi-soft cow’s milk cheese. A very popular and tasty cheese that remains without an AOP. I learned to love this cheese while spending a week travelling around Lake Annecy.  Lake Annecy is in the department of Haute-Savoie in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes
    
Connected Posts:
 
 
 
  
Beaufort AOP, One of France's Finest Cheeses.
 
 
 
 
  
 

 
   
 
 
 
    
   
    
   

Behind the French Menu
by
Bryan G. Newman

 

behindthefrenchmenu@gmail.com

 

Copyright 2016.
   

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