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

Comté AOP - The Premiere Cheese of France. Comté in French Cuisine.

from
Behind the French Menu
by
Bryan G. Newman

behindthefrenchmenu@gmail.com

 

     


Comté AOP cheese.
  
Comté or Gruyère de Comté is a firm, semi-hard 31.3% fat, yellow, rich, nutty-tasting, unpasteurized, cow’s milk cheese. The cheese comes from the high pastures in the Jura Massif mountain range, in the new super-region of Bourgogne-Franche-Comté.

Comté has been produced for over 700 years, some claim 1,000 years, and it was the first cheese with a substantial and well-organized production to be awarded an AOC.  Furthermore, Comté is one of the few cheeses where each and every cheese is checked and graded before being permitted to carry the AOC/AOP label.
   


The AOP logo
  
The flora in the Jura Massif is extraordinarily diverse.  Depending on where the Montbeliarde or Simmental cows that provide the milk graze there will be grasses with different wild flowers and herbs.  These differences are reflected in the milk and, ultimately, in slightly varying flavors and colors of the cheese.  In their winter barns, the cows are fed the local grasses collected in the summer and a limited amount of grain. No silage can be fed to these cows at any time and French law forbids any use of coloring additives for all its cheeses and butter.  So in the summer, the Comté cheese will be a bright yellow from the milk as the cows graze in the high pastures; while cheeses produced by the same cows in the winter will be lighter in color.  The calves must be raised by their mothers, and antibiotics and growth hormones are forbidden at any time. The slightly different tastes in the cheeses produced at different times of the year and in from different herds will not be noted except by the experts who buy the cheese for distribution, and, of course, some real cheese mavens.

A leading member of the Montbeliarde Comté production team
www.flickr.com/photos/ylliabphoto/26290088954/
  
Comté cheese on French menus:

Cordon Bleu de Veau au Comté - veal escalope wrapped around a slice of boiled ham and cheese.  Traditionally that is a French Gruyere, and Comté’s other name is the Gruyère du Jura. After wrapping the escalope is breaded and fried. Cordon Bleu de Veau and the same dish made with chicken breast are recipes from the mid-20th century; however, the Cordon Bleu, the award of the blue ribbon, is much older. The Cordon Bleu was part of an award created by King Henry III of France, in 1578, for outstanding service to the French Crown.

Croque Monsieur au Comté - Croque Monsieur; a simple but tasty French fast food.  This is a toasted sandwich made with Pain de Mie, French sandwich bread, cooked ham, and cheese. The sandwich is soaked in beaten egg and then fried gently or toasted until the outside is golden brown and the cheese inside melts. Croque Madame is the same recipe with an added fried egg. In France Croque Monsieur is nearly always made with Comté or French Gruyere.

Fondue Savoyarde (2 Personnes Minimum), Comté, Beaufort et Emmental, Accompagnés De Salade  – A Savoy cheese fondue from (for a minimum of two persons) made with three cheeses, Comté, Beaufort and Emmental and accompanied by a small green salad. Recipes for dishes similar to this cheese fondue date back two or three-hundred years, but cheese fondues only became famous internationally with the growth of winter sports in the 1950’s. Today’s Fondue Savoyarde will usually include three Savoie cheeses. The first two will be Beaufort AOP and Comté AOP the third will be chosen from among the  Abondance, Emmental de Savoie or French Gruyère cheeses. The Fondue Savoyard calls for the cheeses to be melted in white wine with a light touch of garlic. Since the taste of the fondue changes with the percentages of the different cheeses used every restaurant’s fondue has its own unique taste. There are also cheese fondues made with additions of the Savoie’s much-appreciated kirsch cherry liquor.
    
Fondue Savoyarde
www.flickr.com/photos/pcerqueira/5402321948/
  
Risotto d'Épeautre au Comte – A risotto made with spelt and Comté cheese. Spelt or Dinkel wheat is a relatively coarse, but mild, and slightly nutty flavored ancient member of the wheat family; it is the forerunner of modern wheat. In France, spelt is grown commercially in Provence, and there it may be cooked like a rice dish, prepared as a risotto as in this recipe, served as a vegetable or used to give body to a soup or stew.
  
Soupe à l'Oignon Gratinée au Comté - Paris and Lyon claim the original recipes for French onion soup and both are outstanding. Here the menu listing fails to note the recipe's origins but the soup will have been made with toasted bread with Comté cheese on top and browned under the grill. 

French onion soup glistening with the cheese on top.
www.flickr.com/photos/hdv-gallery/6992212974/
.
Comté Vieux de la Fruitière et sa Confiture de Cerises  - Avieux”  matured Comté direct from the fruitière, the dairy, and served with a cherry preserve, a cherry jam. Since all Comté cheeses are matured for at least four months this menu listing will be for a cheese that has been matured for at least one year.
   
The Comté production

With Comté’s huge popularity it is not a simple matter to control the production.  The regulations require the milk to be made into cheese within 24 hours and the cows are milked twice a day.  The farmers keep the dairies working round the clock and so it will be extremely rare for milk to wait even 12 hours before the cheese making process begins.
   
To keep to that tough schedule, the farmers use co-operative dairies called fruitieres.  Each fruitiere serves fifteen to twenty farmers, and none will be more than 25 km (16 miles), from each farmer’s herd.  The cows do not go on holiday so every fruitiere must work 365 days a year.

Aging Comté cheese

Nevertheless, the dairy, the fruitiere, that makes the cheese does not do the aging. The fruitiere does, however, choose the aging cellar; the maison d’affinage. To add to the decision-making process, each maison d’affinage has different qualities, and each group of cheeses may differ.  The changes occur all the time, and each aging cellar is chosen for the heat and humidity level that it offers.  Comté cheeses are aged for a minimum of 4 months with the best cheeses being aged for one to two, or even more years.  The registers showing where last week’s cheese and the cheese from two years ago is aging, and that can create transport scheduling headaches. Comté like other firm yellow cheeses, including Salers AOP,  English Cheddar, and others are best when well-aged.  On a restaurant’s list of cheeses or in a fromagerie, a cheese shop, look for a Comté Vieux, an old Comté  or a Comté Affinée an aged Comté  Good cheese shops will offer you a sliver of two different Comtés to compare before buying and you can't do that in a supermarket.

Comté Vieux – Aging Comté Cheese.
www.flickr.com/photos/barneymoss/9520659622/
    
The testing of every single cheese labeled Comté AOP.
    
Every single Comté cheese is tested, and that includes organoleptic tests. Organoleptic tests cover taste and smell. While the taste makes for some 50% of the grading the external appearance of the cheese and defects such as external cracks and holes also affect the final grade.  Cheeses with over 15 points, out of a maximum of twenty, earn the right to use a green label and to be called Comté Extra. Cheeses with grades of 12 to 15 points are labeled with brown labels and marked Comté AOP.  Cheeses with less than 12 points may not be sold as Comté and will be sold to commercial cheese producers for cheese spreads and other cheese flavorings.
  
Green labeled Comté cheese
Green is not necessarily better than brown.
  
Comté and Comté Extra
 
Many French men and women also automatically assign a better taste to the green label and the words Comté Extra.  Despite that, the taste of the brown labeled Comté cheese is rarely very different to the green.  Do not pay more, without tasting, for that green label.  Within the grading system, the shape and appearance of the outside of the cheese can add one or more points, and a poor looking cheese can have a fine taste but lose a point or two because of a poor exterior surface. A cheese marked Comté Extra, and a less valued Comté AOP may have the same taste.  N.B. Within all Comté cheeses, there are usually small holes; this is a natural part of the cheese-making process and seen in all French Gruyère type cheeses and does not affect the taste in any way.

Where does Comté come from

The Comté’s appellation covers parts of five French departments: Ain, Doubs, Jura, Saône-et-Loire, and Haute-Savoie.   Other great French cheeses come from here, and they include Bleu de Gex AOPMont d’Or AOP, and Morbier AOPCharolais AOP, Maconnais AOP, Chevrotin AOP, Tomme des Bauges AOP, Reblochon AOPAbondance AOPBeaufort AOP, Tomme de Savoie IGP and French Gruyere. They may all be tasted and enjoyed when traveling in the area

Lunchtime for the production crew
www.flickr.com/photos/ylliabphoto/17473436186/


The Comté cheese roads.
  
If you are traveling to the Jura you arrive, or even before you leave home, call the French Government Tourism Office; ask for a copy of their Les Routes du Comté, the Comté cheese roads. 

The official Comte website that gives information on the cheese roads is only in French. Nevertheless using the Bing and or Google translate apps make the website clearly readable.


The cheese roads offer access from all parts of the cheese making areas. The roads take you past farms, dairies and maturing cellars, as well as vineyards, wineries, local cheese museums, and of no less importance, a variety of restaurants.  Combine this map with the well-designed Jura wine road; called La Route Touristique des Vins.  A lot of thought went into planning this wine route; it includes, apart from vineyards and vintners, cheese producers and other places of agricultural, gastronomic and historical interest along with nature walks and much more.  See how these maps interconnect and then take the combined route.

Like the cheese road, the website for the wine road is only in French, but Google, Bing and others translate the website very well.


The wines that will be recommended to accompany Comté and other local cheeses are the two most famous sweet wines of the Jura:  the Vin Jaune, their yellow wine, and their Vin de Paille, their straw wine.  To accompany your meals try their Arbois AOC, reds, roses and whites along with their sparkling Cremant de Jura their Vins de Franche-Comté IGP and for your digestif cherry liquor the Kirsch de Fougerolles AOC or the Macvin AOC.
     
The Macvin AOC comes with an ancient tradition, and from my investigations, it is so ancient that no one seems to be very clear about it when it all began!    The Macvin AOC is produced in a similar manner to the Pineau de Charente from the Cognac region and Pommeau from the Calvados apple brandy.

The Jura in summer.
Photograph courtesy of deepakhere.mypixels
www.flickr.com/photos/7164796@N04/7890070334/

To add to your enjoyment of the breathtaking scenery in the center of the French Jura are beautiful lakes and this is one of the less traveled parts of France.  Even the Prefecture of Jura, the provincial capital, Lons-le-Saunier, has only 20,000 inhabitants. The Jura Massif includes most of the region of Franche-Comté and part of the departments of  Saone-et-Loire in Burgundy and Ain and  Haute Savoie in the Rhone-Alpes. Visit the regional Jura park, the Parc Naturel Regional du Haut-Jura.


The Jura in Winter.
Photograph courtesy of kbxxus
www.flickr.com/photos/kbxxus/16284772250/
  
If you arrive in winter you may still enjoy the cheese, but the mountains and valleys of the Massif  will be covered with snow; so take your skis. The Jura  provides some of the best skiing in France  
        
Taking Comté AOP cheese and other French cheeses home.
            
 f you wish to take a whole Comté AOP cheese home, you may have some difficulty with one of these cheeses in your hand luggage.  The average Comté AOP cheese weighs between 30 to 48 kilos (66 – 105 lbs)!  In a fromagerie, a cheese shop, anywhere in France, order a one-kilo wedge, or more if you wish, and have the shop vacuum pack the cheese. Failing the availability of vacuum packing use plenty of tightly wrapped plastic wrap.
  
At home, the Comté AOP cheese will keep well when refrigerated like other hard yellow cheeses but never freeze it; it will lose its taste. See the post: Buying Cheese in France. Bringing French Cheese Home.

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

Behind the French Menu
by
Bryan G. Newman

 

behindthefrenchmenu@gmail.com

 

Copyright 2010, 2012, 2013, 2017, 2019

For information on the unpublished book behind this blog write to Bryan Newman
at
 
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Camembert Cheese; France's most Famous Cow's Milk Cheese.

from
Behind the French Menu
by
Bryan G. Newman

behindthefrenchmenu@gmail.com

 

  
 
Camembert de Normandie
and a glass of Blanc de Blancs Champagne
     
Camembert, France's most Famous Cheese.
    
Camembert is a soft, 22% fat, cow's milk cheese and when perfectly ripe it is creamy and spreadable, but not runny and has a fresh mushroomy smell. Among the French Camemberts, those made with unpasteurized milk are considered the very best, though from my experience there are plenty of excellent French Camembert cheeses made with pasteurized milk. Only real cheese addicts can tell the difference when two well-aged cheeses meet in a blind tasting.  Camembert’s rind is natural (and edible) with a white to light brown color.  When choosing Camembert from a restaurant’s cheese tray or trolley the center should be soft, just beginning to bulge when but not running.  Any cheese that looks hard or chalky should be left for the mice.
  
A light Camembert
President is one of France's largest industrial dairies.

The dairies that take pride in their product age their cheese for it for at least 21 days before they sell it and then you may find it on the supermarket shelves.  Just pressing the cheese lightly in the center will tell you if the cheese is ripe or needs more aging.  An unripe Camembert will be firm when pressed and bland when eaten.  See the paragraphs on choosing a Camembert later on in this post.
  
Preparing Camembert in the 19th century.
Louis Figuier. - Paris : Furne, Jouvet, [1873-1877]
www.flickr.com/photos/fdctsevilla/4305560559/
  
    
On the Left a Camembert de Normandie         On the right a generic French Camembert.
  With the yellow AOP label.The genuine           without the label.                         
   Article.
  
Camembert's name is not protected.

Camembert is the most popular cheese in France and around the world it is the most famous of all French cheeses. However, the tiny village of Camembert in Normany (population 200) never got around to changing its name, and so the cheese may be made anywhere in the world. Among French Camembert cheese, the very best can be identified if you read look for the yellow AOP label on the box.  The wording will also be precise "Camembert de Normandie" with the Giveaway Yellow AOP label ( In Engish the same label will read PDO.

Only the supervised and inspected unpasteurized milk Camembert from Normandy may be called the "Camembert de Normandie AOP." Other French Camemberts may be made in Normandie (Normandy) or elsewhere in France, but the exact wording will be different.
  
French AOP label
The Protected Designation of Origin

Camembert and Brie

Camembert is sometimes compared or confused with Brie. When ripe, they have a  similar look; but, the flavor is very different with Brie being milder and slightly creamier. The traditional Brie also comes in much larger sizes than Camembert and so you'll either buy a triangular wedge of taken home a 2 -kilo (4.4lb) plus cheese.
     
A perfectly ripe Camembert.
Note the cheese is not runny, just beginning to bulge.
Photograph from Yay images and monkey business
  
Camembert on French menus:

Beignets de Camembert et sa Confiture de Myrtilles – Deep fried pieces of Camembert served with bilberry jam.

Croustillants de Camembert Chaud, Poitrine Fumée, Pommes Grenailles, Noix, Tomates, Salade, Vinaigrette Balsamique – Crisply fried pieces of hot Camembert served with smoked bacon, small new potatoes and a salad with walnuts, and tomatoes with a Balsamic vinaigrette.
  
A strawberry, arugula,
and Camembert salad.
www.flickr.com/photos/stuart_spivack/2414771125/

Demi Camembert au Four et son Jambon Cru – Half of a baked Camembert served with cured ham.  Cured ham is sliced very thinly and cannot be cooked; it would lose all its taste and texture; the ham will be added just before serving.

Flammeküeche au Camembert (Fromage Blanc à la Muscade, Crème Fraîche, Lardons, Camembert) – Flammeküeche is also called Tarte Flambée and very popular dish from the Alsace in the new (1-1-2016) super-region of the Grand Est. It is a rolled out, very thin, pâte à pain, bread dough, covered with crème fraîche and a soft white cheese; usually,  the local cheese called bibeleskaes, here flavored with nutmeg.  To this base will be added thinly sliced onions and lardons, smoked or fried bacon bits. Finally, for this menu listing the Camembert cheese is added. (Flammeküeche/ Tarte Flambée may be on the menu with many different cheeses including the region’s own Munster AOP cheese).
  
Cheese Fondue with Camembert
 
Suprême de Pintade Parfumé à l'Andouille Sauce Camembert – Guinea fowl breast flavored with Andouille sausages, and served with a Camembert cheese sauce.  Andouilles are a pork and or veal tripe smoked sausage and not to be confused with Andouillettes.

Buying   your Camembert in a France

France has over 400 registered cheeses, that's different types of cheese, not the number of manufacturers which is probably ten times that number. The larger French supermarkets will have two aisles devoted to cheese; then as you travel around France, the choice will change with local producers having more space. But national favorites like Camembert will be on sale everywhere.
  
Cheese in a French supermarket
And it goes on and on
www.flickr.com/photos/wheatfields/2860191707/
  
  
However, your Camembert, like other cheeses, will not mature in a refrigerator; it will remain as you bought it and slowly dry out.  To age a cheese, you need cool basement or a wine cooler. In winter a cold, but not freezing, garage will do just as well.

To choose a Camembert, lightly press the center through the wrapping, if it's hard or firm it is not ripe or even close.  If it's slightly springy, then we are getting there, if it is soft, then it's ripe or close to it.  Still, if you are in France choose to buy your cheese in a Fromagerie, a cheese shop.
  
Fromageries offer educated choices
 
Most fromageries have at least one member of the staff with adequate English, and they sell cheeses like Camembert and Brie by the day their customers plan to eat the cheese.   The Camemberts offered will not have been refrigerated; instead, they will have been kept in a temperature-controlled room or cellar, and brought out as the cheese ripens. To take home a cheese that will be ready in three days ask and that is what you will be offered. If you want a Camembert that will be ready in ten days, ask.

Is non-pasteurized cheese safe?

 In the European Union, you can take home cheese that has been made with non pasteurized milk if it comes from France, but that not OK for the USA. Worry not, Camembert is also made with pasteurized milk, and when that is written on the box, you can take that cheese back to the USA.  So look for the box with the words "Fabrique au Lait Pasteurisé," made with pasteurized milk.   N.B. All good fromageries vacuum-pack cheeses for travel.

For more about buying cheese in France and taking it home, read the post: Buying Cheese in France. Bringing French Cheese Home and a Lexicon for buying French Cheese.,
   
Buy your cheese in a fromagerie
Photograph courtesy of Kent Wang

Camembert Labels:

Camembert au Lait Cru – Camembert made with unpasteurized milk. If a French shop or supermarket is making is this claim, make sure that they are offering a Camembert de Normandie AOP, that is the best.  Normandie Camembert AOP will be clearly written on the packaging.

Camembert au Lait Cru Moulé à la Louche – More supermarket or cheese shop advertising!  This describes a Camembert cheese made with unpasteurized milk and prepared using a unique cheese ladle. Those other words, moulé à la louche, molded on the ladle, may make you feel that you are being offered something unique but do not pay more for it. All French unpasteurized Camembert cheeses are made this way anyway!

The AOP initials on Camembert de Normandie
    
The French AOC initials on the labels of many French foods and wines have protected the name, origin, and method of manufacture of many these products, for nearly 80 years and Camembert for almost 40. These French initials are now replaced by the Pan-European  AOP which gives similar protection to the European consumer for all food products as the European Union.  In November 2019 there will be changes in the way the AOP Camembert de Normandie and other Camemberts may be labeled.  Not that these new regulations will make things any clearer. For more about the AOC and the change to AOP on French foods click here,

For more about the new French wine labels and the AOC, AOP, IGP and Vin de France on French wines, click here.
  
The village of Camembert

Camembert's history began just outside the village of Camembert in the department of Orne, Normandy.  Despite the village's fame it still has less than 200 inhabitants. According to tradition, Camembert cheese was created by a Ms. Marie Harel, the owner of a farm just outside the village. This was at the end of the 18th century, during the French revolution. The classic tale includes a priest who helped Ms. Harel in the creation of the cheese. In return, Ms. Harel hid the priest from the revolutionaries.  Despite the tradition Camembert cheese probably pre-dates Ms. Harel by a few hundred years.   


Vimoutiers the town, the promoter, and the protector of Camembert.
     
Close to the village of Camembert 3km, (2 miles) away, is the small, but bustling town of Vimoutiers with just under 5,000 inhabitants.  Vimoutiers has taken over the responsibility for merchandising Camembert de Normandie AOP.  The town has erected two statues: one in memory of Marie Harel and the second for the Viking and now the Norman Cow.
  
The statue of Marie Harel in Vimoutiers.
 
The town of Vimoutiers has a french-language website that offers a small amount of information in English.  You will get more details if you use the French site with the Google or Bing translation apps.

   
The Statue of the Norman cow (Ratisfaite), in Voimoutiers
 (The cow is named, for a reason I have never found Ratisfaite).

To assure that visitors to Vimoutiers are only offered the best Camembert cheese, there is a very active Confrérie.  The Confrérie des Chevaliers du Camembert is the Brotherhood and Sisterhood of the Knights of the Camembert.  These gallant knights promote the Camembert de Normandie AOP and do battle with all the pasteurized milk versions of their beloved cheese.
  

A Camembert Fabrique en Normandie AOC.
 
 
It is not easy being a Knight of the Camembert as they have to work alongside another confrérie which guards the tradition of a True Normand. A True Normand is a glass of Calvados, or sometimes a Calvados sorbet offered at least once during a traditional Norman meal. After too many True Normands the Knights of the Camembert may lose their jobs,  When visiting Vimoutiers, you quickly realize that there is a great deal of activity at the dinner table among those who enjoy real Pays d’Auge Norman cuisine.  Of course, in the spirit of the place, you must include Camembert in the cheese course and one of the three Calvados apple brandies.  Later you should choose an aged Napoleon Calvados as your digestif.     The Knights of Camembert also have to dress up in would be ancient costumes.     
Confrérie des Chevaliers du Camembert.

Vimoutier’s fairs and markets.
   
In April Vimoutiers has an Easter Fair where everything from the region is on sale. In October they celebrate the Foire de la Pomme, their apple fair promoting the regions apple juice, ciders, Pommeau, and Calvados apple brandies. The small Musee du Camembert, the Camembert Museum shows a film on the production of camembert and for an additional small donation offers a taste of Normandy’s four AOP cheeses  Camembert AOP, Livarot AOP, Pont l'Evêque AOP, and Neufchâtel AOP.  

Camembert de Normandie AOP cheeses and other local cheeses, cider, and Calvados are on sale at Vimoutiers farmers’ markets on Monday afternoons (2 pm - 6 pm)  and Friday morning  (8.30am – 1 pm),.
  
Normandy’s milk, cream, butter, and cheeses.

Camembert is one of Normandy’s four AOP cheeses; the others are Livarot AOP, Pont l'Evêque AOP, and Neufchâtel AOP.  As may be expected with so much butter and cream coming from Normandy they are all cow’s milk cheeses. When you visit Normandy you will find many local cheeses in the cheese shops and on the cheese trolley; these are cheeses that not have the production for national sales but are a joy when first encountered.

 Normandy is also the source of one of France’s three AOP butters the Beurre d'Isigny AOP and the only AOP crème fraiche, the Crème d’Isigny Crème Fraiche AOP. Along with butter comes Norman AOP cider, Pommeau de Normandie AOP and three Calvados AOP apple brandies
  
Join the annual Paris - Camembert Europe Tour bicycle race.
  
The Paris to Camembert bicycle race.

If you are a Camembert aficionado, and also a competitive cyclist, join the annual Paris - Camembert Europe Tour bicycle race.  The Paris - Camembert is a one-day pro-cycling  200 km (124 miles) race held on the second Tuesday of April every year. To watch the race note that the Paris-Camembert race no longer begins in Paris or ends in Camembert; the start and finish points change annually.   Use the Google or Bing translate apps to check route using the race’s French-language website for the Paris - Camembert Europe Tour bicycle race



Camembert’s wooden boxes

There is a threat to the traditional wooden Camembert boxes, the cheaper options already come in cardboard.  France is facing a shortage of poplars, the tree from which comes the wood to make the packaging of this famous cheese. The poplar also supplies the wood for fruit crates and other boxes.  Since 2015 the industry is, supposedly, planting the poplar, which is a profitable and environmentally friendly tree, in numbers that can keep up with the demand.



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

Behind the French Menu
by
Bryan G. Newman

 

behindthefrenchmenu@gmail.com

 

Copyright 2010, 2013, 2017, 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 400 articles that include over 3,000 French dishes with English translations and explanations.
  
-----------------------------



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