Cheese Tasting #2

I came home from work to another cheese surprise the other day. Kimmy had picked up two new cheeses at the Versailles market again. Lets dig in.

Selles-sur-Chers, Fermier au lait cru

We started with Selle sur Chers, an unpasturized goat cheese. This cheese was actually recommended to us by Kimmy's friend Marta. If you look at the photo above, you can see that even in the display case it was already losing its form. We had left it out in the kitchen while cooking, and the heat of the oven had caused the cheese to spread out even more across our new cheese plate. This was a really gloopy cheese, with a dark rind of long strands of purple mold. But don't let that description disgust you because it tasted absolutely amazing. It was extremely rich, and tasted as though it had been seasoned with beef stock, garlic, and herbs. Each bite was like eating a whole Thanksgiving meal drowned in French onion soup. It amazed me that such a rich flavor could just come from sour milk and mold.

St. Nectaire, affinage traditioneel, Fermier au lait cru, AOP

Next was a semi-soft washed rind cow cheese called, Saint-Nectaire. This cheese isn't supposed to be named after the Saint, but instead the Marshal of Senneterre who served it to Louis XIV. It was an unpasteurized "fermier" variety with an AOP designation. AOP (Appellation d'Origine Protegee) is the top step of the new quality ladder used mainly for wines and cheeses in France and throughout Europe. AOC (Appellation d'origine controlee) used to be the old designation that wine drinkers should be very familiar with. But now, there is a new system in place, to cover all of Europe. In the case of cheeses it indicates that every step of the cheese making process (from cow rearing to curdling) follows strict guidelines that are unique to each product. These ranges from the health and happiness of the cow, to the time and temperature to age the cheese, and of course the region from which it is manufactured.

This St Nectaire cheese had a strong stink to it, typical of washed rind cheeses. I found the taste light, and slightly metallic with a almondy roundness. On the first night we really did not prefer it, it wasn't until the Selles-sur-Chers got older and gloopier that we started to turn our attention more to the St. Nectaire. It may have just been the deterioration in quality of the Selles-sur-Chers, but I really started to prefer the St. Nectaire by mid-week. It was so much lighter than the goat cheese, while maintaining a very complex flavor profile that I can't really explain. It had many notes to it, that while strong didn't stick around on your palate.

The second we finished these cheeses we got two more...

A simple goat on the left and a tame stink on the right

From the same marche stand we picked up Le Mothais sur Feuille by Villageois (au lait cru, Fermier), and a Morbier au lait cru (AOP). The Villageois was a very simple, mild goat cheese. It had that chalky texture that goat cheeses have when they are cool. I really enjoyed it but it wasn't anything super special. It sits on a chestnut leaf that is supposed to instill the cheese with a particular flavor. It might have, but all I noticed was the visual aesthetic. We picked the Morbier because we thought it had a line of blue cheese running down the middle, but in fact it was just a layer of ash. Traditionally, cheesemakers would end the day with some leftover curds that they'd press into a mold and spread with ash. If it wasn't enough for a whole wheel, they'd top it off in the next day with morning milk, thus the ash line. In some cases this ash line is replaced with vegetable dye. I'm not sure of the exact production process of our particular Morbier wedge but I am interested to find out next time we're at the cheese stand. It has a strong stink but a very rich flavor. Both the texture and flavor reminded me of the St. Nectarie.