from
Behind the French Menu
by
Bryan G. Newman
behindthefrenchmenu@gmail.com
Beaufort
Beaufort AOP – Beaufort AOP is a fabulous 33% fat, semi-dry cow’s cheese made from non-pasteurized milk; it is produced in both departments of the Savoie (Savoy) in the region of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes in south-eastern France. The cheese varies in color from ivory to pale yellow, and when ripe, has a smooth and firm, creamy texture; it is matured for at least five months before it is sold. Beaufort AOP has a clean taste with an aroma that reminds you of the herbs and grasses in the high pastures. The milk comes from the Tarentaise or Abondance cows that for seven-eight months of the year graze freely in the high pastures of the Alps.
The
Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes
Photograph courtesy of Webzine Voyage
Beaufort AOP, is a Gruyere-type cheese, and it is the most important cheese in a Fondue Savoyard, the region’s famous cheese fondue. Beaufort is also the cheese of choice in many other traditional Savoie recipes. Locally, the producers claim that the cheese dates back to the Roman occupation of France beginning in 121 BCE. Whether or not the recipe for this cheese is really over 2,000 years old we cannot be sure, but the Romans who came to the Savoie certainly planted grapevines whose descendants still produce some of the Savoie’s wines. The Romans also left parts of roads, bridges, and other buildings and brought fruit trees, including the apricot, cherry, almond, and many others.
Beaufort AOP
Photograph courtesy of
Frédérique Voisin-Demery
www.flickr.com/photos/vialbost/4518685736/
Beaufort is a unique French cheese that has three distinct grades:
Beaufort AOP – This is the most popular grade and the cheese that will be in fromageries, cheese shops, all over France. The cheese will be produced in dairies; the milk may only come from free-grazing cows or in the winter from cows fed the same local grasses or hay from the area where they graze in summer. The cows cannot be fed silage.
Production in a Beaufort AOP dairy.
Photograph courtesy of elPadawan
www.flickr.com/photos/elpadawan/5501564549/
Beaufort d'Été, AOP - For this grade, the milk used may only come from cows grazing in the Alpage, the hills leading to the Alps, and then only during the months of June through October.
Members of the Beaufort AOP production team
Photograph courtesy of Guilhem Vellut
www.flickr.com/photos/o_0/45189178791/
Beaufort Chalet d'Alpage AOP - The rarest of the three Beauforte AOP grades. The Beaufort Chalet d'Alpage cheese must be made in the farmer's Alpine mountain chalets, and the milk used must come from free-grazing cows in pastures over 1,500 meters high. The cheese can only come from a single herd, and each farmer must make their own cheese. The cheese from each farmer's herd is tested and tasted separately.
The production regulations covering Beaufort Chalet d'Alpage makes it a very noteworthy cheese; only two other French AOP cheeses have such stringent requirements. The other cheeses are the farm-made Reblochon also from the Savoie and the Fourme de Salers AOP, from the Auvergne part of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes
Cave de Beaufort, Maturing Beaufort cheeses
Photograph courtesy of La Koop
Tasting the different grades of Beaufort AOP
It will be surprising if two of the three grades of Beaufort are on the cheese trolley in a restaurant. Serving ten or fifteen perfectly ripe cheeses is very expensive, and space will rarely be kept for two closely related cheeses. Go to a local fromagerie, a cheese shop, and buy 100 grams of two of the grades; that’s enough for a tasting for four persons, and add another 100 grams each of two other Savoie cheeses. Then buy a bottle of one the Savoy’s excellent white wines and have the hotel put it in their refrigerator overnight. The next day buy a fresh baguette and have a mid-day picnic. Together with the wine, the Beaufort cheeses become a memorable and tasty experience; later, they taste even better after the first bottle of wine.
N.B. If you buy cheese to take home, do not ask to buy a whole truckle (barrel) of cheese. Individual cheeses weigh between 20 and 70 kilos each, and all the airlines would love you to check-in overweight with even the smallest whole cheese.
Domaine Labbe Abymes, a white wine from the
Savoie
Photograph courtesy of Jameson
Fink
www.flickr.com/photos/jamesonfink/12917731515/
To take Beaufort cheese home, order a one-kilo wedge of cheese or more if you have space, and have the cheese vacuum packed. It will keep well even for a two-day trip home. Then at home, keep it in plastic wrap in the refrigerator, not in the freezer, there it will keep well for one month plus. Leave it for one hour before serving; Beaufort should be served at room temperature. For more about buying cheese in France and taking it home, click here.
N.B. A word of warning, do not loudly discuss the differences in the grades of the cheese in a restaurant when there are locals at nearby tables. If they speak some English, they may begin long monologues on the different types of Gruyere and Beaufort cheeses. The tastes of the local cheeses are very much a matter of personal preference, and arguments among the local cognoscenti can get very emotional. The monologues can go on for as long as cheese remains, and the wine flows, and you are paying, I know.
Altesse white wine from the Savoie
Photograph courtesy of Anna &
Michal
www.flickr.com/photos/michalo/4754043065/
Beaufort AOP on Savoie menus:
Fondue Savoyarde – Recipe for dishes similar to today’s cheese fondues date back two or three hundred years, but the Savoie cheese fondue became famous with the growth of winter sports in the 1950s. Today’s Fondue Savoyarde will include at least two Savoie cheeses, with Beaufort AOP nearly always being one. The other local cheese or cheeses that may be included are Abondance, Emmental de Savoie, and sometimes a local Gruyère. The cheese will be melted in white wine, usually from the Haut Savoie. Since the taste of the fondue changes with the percentages of the different cheeses used, every restaurant’s fondue has its own unique flavor. There are also cheese fondues made with additions of the Savoie’s much-appreciated kirsch cherry liquor.
Cheese fondue
Photograph courtesy of Pedro Cerqueira
www.flickr.com/photos/pcerqueira/5402321948/
Risotto de Crozets au Beaufort – Crozets, the Savoie’s own pasta made into a risotto with Beaufort AOP. The name Crozet may be used in this menu listing, but for risotto, the chef may use potato flour or buckwheat flour and a different shape to the usual small pasta squares. For local specialties like this, much will depend on the chef’s grandmother’s recipe.
Another cheese fondue
Photograph courtesy of Rosmarie Voegtli
www.flickr.com/photos/rvoegtli/25800889728/
Gratiné de Noix de St Jacques aux Noix et Beaufort – The meat from the King scallop is prepared with walnuts and then covered in Beaufort cheese and browned under the grill.
Gratin Savoyard au Beaufort - Boiled potatoes baked in butter and beef stock and covered with Beaufort AOP cheese and browned. If served with a salad, this gratin maybe a lunchtime main course when part of a fixed price menu or served as a garnish for the main course for dinner.
Maturing the Beaufort cheese
All Beaufort AOP cheeses are matured for at least five months, with some being aged for up to 12 months. During the aging, the temperature will be kept below 10 °C (50°F), with a high humidity. To ensure the cheese matures evenly and develops its aroma, it must be washed with brine and turned every two days.
The Beaufort AOP is made in four Savoie valleys:
Beaufortain Valley - Here, the small town of Beaufort (also called Beaufort-sur-Doron), with a population of close to 2,000, gave its name to the valley and the cheese. The Arêches-Beaufort area has an English language website:
https://www.savoie-mont-blanc.com/en/offre/fiche/areches-beaufort-tourist-office/478549
Tarentaise Valley - An area beloved for its winter sports and located in the department of Savoie; it has an English language website:
https://www.savoie-mont-blanc.com/en/Savoie-Mont-Blanc-s-region/Tarentaise
Maurienne Valley - One of the great transverse valleys of the Alps with an English language website:
http://www.maurienne-tourisme.com/
Val d’Arly - The Val d’Arly valley is in the heart of the French Alps between the Mont Blanc, Beaufortain, and Aravis in the department of Haute Savoie. Here is a uniquely varied terrain with the Mont Blanc as a stunning backdrop. The Val d’Arly has an English language website:
https://www.savoie-mont-blanc.com/en/offre/fiche/tourist-office-of-val-d-arly/472329
Climbing Mont Blanc, Haute-Savoie.
Photograph courtesy of Hugh Llewelyn
www.flickr.com/photos/camperdown/50678543506/
The most famous Savoie cheeses that in addition to the Beaufort AOP are available all over France:
Abondance
AOP (cow’s milk).
Persillé des Aravis (goat's milk).
Chevrotin AOP (goat’s milk).
Emmental de Savoie IGP (cow’s milk).
Persillé de Haute-Tarentaise (goat’s milk).
Reblochon
AOP (cow’s milk).
Tomme
de Savoie IGP (cow’s milk).
Persillé des Aravis (goat’s milk).
Persillé de Haute-Tarentaise (goat’s milk).
Persillé de Tignes (goat’s milk).
Tome des Bauges AOP (Cow’s milk).
The Savoie departments have many other excellent cheeses; however, with their limited production, you will only be able to taste most of them locally.
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