Beaufort

Appearance & taste

Beaufort comes as a flat wheel with a concave side, 35 to 75 cm in diameter, 11 to 16 cm high and weighing 20 to 70 kg. The rind is rubbed, clean and firm and evenly yellow to brown. The paste is supple and creamy, ivory to pale yellow, and may have a few fine horizontal cracks and a few small holes, the “partridge eyes”. The cheese contains at least 48 % fat in dry matter and at least 61 % dry matter.

According to the specification, the paste is firm on the palate at first, then melting, without being too sticky. The aromas should be varied but not too strong. Beaufort differs from other pressed cooked cheeses above all in its fat content.

Packaged cheese is only sold with a piece of the typical rind. Once grated, it may no longer be called “Beaufort”. The only additions allowed on the label are brands and the terms “été” (summer) and “Chalet d’Alpage” (mountain pasture farming), the latter under the conditions of the specification.

Production

The milk comes from cows of the local Tarine and Abondance breeds; a herd may give an average of at most 5,000 kg of milk per cow per year. At least 75 % of their requirement for hay and pasture grass is covered within the area, and the pastures must be located there. Silage, other fermented feed and beet pulp are prohibited on the farm. During the grazing season supplementary feed is given only in exceptional cases, on the mountain pasture at most an average of 1.5 kg per cow per day.

The milk reaches the dairy shortly after milking and is processed as “warm milk” without skimming; the cheesemaker adds thermophilic lactic acid bacteria he has cultured himself. The curd is cooked and pressed in a wooden mould, the cheese hoop, which gives the wheel its concave side. It is salted first in brine and then on the surface. Ripening in a cool vaulted cellar ensures that the paste has no or almost no holes. Milk production, cheesemaking and ripening take place in the defined area.

Origin & history

The area belongs to the inner Alps. 95 % of the farmed land is permanent grassland, and a large part of it is mountain pasture. Studies cited by the specification count 250 to 300 plant species on this grassland. In summer the herds move for 100 to 110 days “always following the growth of the grass” from 1,500 to 2,500 m altitude; mobile milking units follow them. Most of the milk is processed by dairies in the valleys, where the herds also spend the winter.

According to the specification, this grazing system has existed since the 17th century. At the beginning of that century the making of pressed cooked cheese also emerged, which made it possible to use the surplus summer milk from the mountain pastures into the winter. In the Beaufort area it took on its own features: whole milk and cool ripening. An agricultural survey of 1929 already distinguished “Beaufort” from other Gruyère types, and in 1945 the name was laid down by decree.