Bleu d’Auvergne cheese . French blue cheese made in the Auvergne region , with AOC designation since 1975 . Its production is limited to two departments , Puy-de-Dôme and Cantal , and some neighboring regions (in Aveyron , Corrèze , Haute-Loire , Lot and Lozère ).
Summary
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- 1 Description
- 2 Origin
- 3 Manufacturing
- 4 Tasting
- 5 Sources
Description
This cheese is made from milk from cows, pressed paste raw (the term pressed paste defines cheese whose curd is squeezed to the maximum to remove the lactoserum and proceed to tune), weighing 2 to 3 kg . Currently only a small part is made from raw milk.
The dough is creamy, buttery, and tastes less salty and strong than Roquefort cheese . It has many streaks of greenish-blue mold, and its bark is soft with a thin layer of natural mold. The cheese is shaped like a cylinder about 20 cm in diameter by 8 to 10 cm high.
Origin
The Bleu d’Auvergne was invented in the mid- 19th century , by a farmer who lived about 40 km from Clermont-Ferrand . In the region and an it was made blue cheese type Roquefort , but are not getting that mold will spread through all the cheese. He tried adding a little of the blue mold on the rye bread to the fresh cheese, and pierced the cheese with a needle to allow air to enter several places to achieve uniform marbling. With air in the fresh cheese paste, the mold spread in small specks inside. The fame of the cheese soon gained the entire region and the people of Auvergne became familiar with the technique. In order for the cheese to ripen slowly, they took advantage of the numerous natural caves in the area, cold and wet.
Manufacturing
Currently, its refining, which lasts a minimum of four weeks, is still carried out in fresh and humid caves. Fermentation occurs with Penicillium roqueforti . In order for blue mold to develop throughout cheese, Bleu d’Auvergne needs oxygen to penetrate deeply; therefore, it is pricked with needles before refining. Currently, the cheese is pierced by mechanical needles that allow a homogeneous distribution of the blue veins.
Around 5,500 tons of Bleu d’Auvergne are produced annually, with production of around 6,434 tons in 2003.
Tasting
Cheese flavor strong and aromatic, the bleu d’Auvergne owes its flavor to the quality of the milk produced in the region by cows fed grass rich in flowers ( bromus , gentian yellow , clover Alps , yarrow …) that they grow in volcanic lands. Its optimal tasting period is from June to August, but it is equally tasty from April to September.
It is traditionally recommended to accompany it with a fruity white wine such as Monbazillac , Pineau des Charentes or [[Vineyard in the Loire Valley
