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.
Steak and Blue Cheese Baguette
Photograph courtesy of Hotel
du Vin & Bistro
https://www.flickr.com/photos/hdv-gallery/25151339657/
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).
Grape, Blue Cheese and Walnut Salad
Photograph courtesy of Jen Arrr
https://www.flickr.com/photos/jenarrr/8902807293/
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, 2026.
--------------------------------
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