Cheese - the soul of the earth

 

ter·roir 

[French ter-wahr / ter' wa] noun

The conditions in which a foodstuff is grown or produced giving the food its unique characteristics. 

The French Ministry of Agriculture definition : a combination of land specificity and human savoir-faire.   

Origin: French: literally, 'soil, land', from Medieval Latin terratorium 

In France, this mythical word represents simply the land. And yet, it is more than the soil and climate or geological and hydrological conditions. It is the quintessence of agriculture, the combination of geography, people and culture. While the meaning has been greatly debated across the wine world as to whether it is a real factor or not, in the art of cheese, it is self-evident. This is not an elitist concept; rather it is a respect for the locality, the history and the people who create the product. 

With cheese in France, as with many other artisanal products here, these elements of tradition can be traced to when people were isolated from one another and other communities. With their particular climate, the vegetal species, the race of their animals and the chemical structure of their milk and personal interaction, individuals in small communities began to produce products particular to their region; each exhibiting differences in taste, in texture and in shape. 

Terroir represents locality, continuity and consistency which we find in region specific cheeses. Each of them provides us with a vision of the cultural diversity of their area as well as the shared habits of the local people and their interaction with the surrounding environment. We come to realize that "terroir is all about human intervention."  

Terroir represents locality, continuity and consistency which we find in region specific cheeses. Each of them provides us with a vision of the cultural diversity of their area as well as the shared habits of the local people and their interaction with the surrounding environment. We come to realize that "terroir is all about human intervention." 

Interactive map

To codify this combination of the basic identity, the knowledge it represents and to help preserve the regional specificity of a group of categories of foods, produce, wine and cheese, the French developed a system known as l’Appelation d’Origine Controllée (AOC). The process is in-depth and exacting. It documents the essence of the cheese: its historical framework, the its agricultural dictates such as breed of animal, location, vegetation and all the processes used to create the cheese. 

The process attempts to define, if not the soul of a cheese, its roots. The first AOC cheese to be protected by this status was Roquefort in 1925. Currently 46 cheeses have l’Appellation d’Origine Contrôlée designation in France; 29 cow, 14 goat and 3 sheep milk cheeses. There hundreds more French cheeses which display unique regionality and typicity.  There are some fun websites that let you view the regions and their associated AOC cheeses, which you click on a region and the AOC cheeses will come up. 

The European Union has used it as the basis of an EU wide programme – l’Appellation d'Origine Protégée (AOP) which is of similar scope and more stringent in some of its requirements.

Our fascination with this intervention, this interaction, this portal into the soul of the earth is what we here at Domaines & Terroirs seek to discover through journeys into the countryside.

Heavenly Époisses !

Mousse tiède d’époisses au pain d’épices et sa tartine 

Is it possible to improve on something that is already perfect? As most cheeseheads know, Époisses as a cheese is, well perfect. And in my humble opinion, it is the best, the one, the king of cheese. Onctuous, flavourful, full of umami and yes smelly. This weekend we were in Bourgogne (Burgundy) to research this area of beautiful scenery, fabulous wine, amazing food and yes cheese! Some of France's most beautiful châteux, the best wines and starred restaurants can be found in this region, just a couple hours south of Paris. Also Burgundian cheeses (in French) are some of the best French cheeses...Époisses, l'Ami du Chambertin, Brillat-savarin, Chaource, Charolais, Clacbitou, Langres, Soumaintrain and many many more.  

One of the things one does when one goes to research a place is sample all of the wonderful products that come forth from its amazingly rich terroir and Bourgogne does not disappoint. So after doing some damage to the pocketbook at Le Château Pommard, off we went to lunch in this tiny little village at what would turn out to be the best find of the trip, the restaurant Auprès du Clocher, where chef Jean-Christophe Moutet practices his magic. And ô! what magical things come out of that kitchen.  

The entrée was l'Oeuf à la neige en meurette d'escargots de Bourgogne (a poached egg in an egg white soufflé sitting in a pool of a red wine and shallot reduction and Burgundian escargots), followed by the main - Joue de boeuf confite au vin rouge en Parmentier (a red wine confit of beef cheek under a cloud of potatoe purée) and the finale was a thing of intense beauty: Mousse tiède d'époisses au pain d’épices et sa tartine (a warm mousse of époisses with a gingerbread base accomanied by its very own slab of perfect époisses on toast)!

Each one of these dishes was more intense than the one before it, and yet for a cheesehead, the dessert was kind of like heavan on earth. The mousse was a warm, feather light cream, like a sabayon, of époisses with crunchy pieces of toasted pain d'épices at the bottom, in to which you dunked a toasted slice of pain de campagne topped with slabs of absolutely perfect époisses...as I said more perfect than perfect. Époisses is pretty big as a cheese but somehow each bit of this combination was an A Ha! moment. All the beautiful, round flavours of this meaty cheese were on display, smoothed by the cream and punctuated by the sweet, toasted gingerbread. Félicitation au chef! c'était un merveille!

If you are ever in the region, make sure you head straight to Pommard to visit this most charming chef. By then, he will certainly have stars attached to his name !

 

Auprès du Clocher

 

Auprès du Clocher
1 rue de Nackenheim
21630 POMMARD

Tél: +33 (0)3 80 22 21 79 



 

l'Oeuf à la neige en meurette

Joue de boeuf confite en Parmentier

The New Art of Cheese Writing

'Galets de Cher  It’s like getting the high of a Bikram Yoga class without the heat, the postures and the drill sergeant instructor.'   

Now that's what I call a description!  Apparently in the US, and in particular in NY, cheesemongers create little odes to each of their cheese to help tantalize customers into trying a cheese.  So a bit of creative writing added to great personalities with lots of knowledge about this most wonderful product and wow, how cool is that? I can imagine this happening in the UK but never in France!  This is too bad as it really seems like a natural part of the process of marrying nature, terroir, skill and personality.  

Take a look at this article In the Dairy Case, Ripe Prose, by Jeff Gordinier, in the NYTimes January 22, 2013 and read all about it.

Cheese, Fat and Sodium

An interesting article in the NYTimes, Ask to Get Slim, Cheese Resists, by Harry Fountain - The U.S. Cheese Industry Works to Reduce Sodium and Fat.  All about how America is trying to make cheese with less fat and less salt and still have something that approximates cheese. Not certain there is a point to this since cheese derived its character from the milk fat and salt acts as a preservative and flavour enhancer.

le Salon International de l'Agriculture 2012

Unbelievable, enormous and incredible!  This exposition, le Salon International de l'Agriculture, is always something to see. The animals, the products and the people are a tour de force. The French are incredibly proud of their agricultural heritage and their attachment to the land. This is the place to see it in full swing, 360 animal races, 2300 animals and 4000 products artisanal and industrial to discover and taste, you could spend days out at the Porte de Versailles trying to take it all in. 

In addition, the milk industry holds a Salon for cheese and milk product professionals. It is a real "Who's who" for the cheese industry. Small producer, collectives, industrial producers are there to show off their wares and convince new clients to give them a try. 

We went and met some of them such as the two women from the Cévennes whose cooperative, La Fromagerie des Cévennes, regroups the goat milk of 22 producers from le Gard, la Lozére and les Cévennes to produce favourites like le Pélardon AOP; Moissac des Cévennes and le Seillou. They have introduced rediscovered or new cheeses such as the tomme la Parpaillote or le Réboussier.  You can visit their farm and meet them in person.

Or another group, Etoile du Quercy, which is part of the company les Fromagerie de l'Etoile, who introduced two interesting cheeses - le Compostelle and le Rocamadour Grand Cru. Each are 100% raw goat milk from the region of Quercy in the south west and really wonderful, creamy examples of the goat cheeses from this region. The Compostelle is a cross between a Rocamadour and a traditional Cabécou.  It is a little bit bigger and thicker with a firmer pate. What makes the Rocamadour Grand Cru special is the traditional cheese comes in it's very own little wooden box just like a Camembert, which makes it perfect for cheeseboards.

Monsieur Jean-Yves Bordier, the famous fromager turned Maître de Beurre, was there showing off his skills. He produces le Beurre Bordier, a beurre de baratte which uses several time consuming techniques, barattage and malaxer to form the butter. When the raw butter is at a specific temperature and texture, it is beaten with two small wooden paddles and shaped either into unique little forms or huge 5 kilo portions for la crème de la crème restaurants. Besides doux, demi-sel ou salé, some of his unique butters are smoked, with Algae or Piment d'Espelette.

This expo is so amazing that you really can spend days going from building to building, looking at cows, watching goat be born, chicks hatched, the competitions, sampling all the delicacies from the various regions and just absorbing the culture.  I always invite people to go with me just to see their reaction to this spectacle of the countryside.  It is really something not to miss and now we are seeing other countries start to participate, which means it will only be bigger next year.