Bleu des Causses

Appearance & taste

Bleu des Causses has the shape of a regular, flat cylinder 19 to 21 cm in diameter and 8 to 12 cm high; a wheel weighs 2.2 to 3.3 kg. The surface is clean, without excessive smear and without stains. The cheese contains at least 50 % fat in dry matter.

The paste is uniformly ivory-white, with fine, even veins of blue-green mould; traces of the needle holes may be visible. It is creamy and melting. The taste is clean and delicate, with the typical aromas of blue mould and sometimes a slight bitter note, but neither too sharp nor too salty.

The label gives the name in characters at least two thirds the size of the largest characters on it. Apart from manufacturer’s or trade marks, the only addition to the name allowed is the statement “ripened in natural caves”.

Production

At least 80 % of the basic ration of the dairy cows comes from the area. Outside the grazing season each cow receives at least 3 kg of hay (dry matter) a day. As soon as fresh grass is available and the weather allows, the lactating cows are put out to pasture, for at least 120 days a year. Supplementary feed is limited to 1,800 kg of dry matter per cow per year. Genetically modified feed plants are prohibited, as is growing them on any of the farms’ land.

The whole milk is not homogenised, which according to the specification contributes to the colour of the paste, and is coagulated with rennet. After cutting, the curd grains are stirred in the vat so that they are coated with a fine film and do not stick together during moulding. In the mould the cheese drains by itself, without pressing, so that spaces remain between the grains. Before ripening it is pierced with needles; oxygen reaches the paste through the channels.

The cheese then ripens in a damp natural cave ventilated by rock fissures, where Penicillium roqueforti develops. Once the mould has developed well, the cheese is “sealed”, that is, wrapped individually, and continues to age without oxygen. In this phase the growth of the mould slows down, but the enzymes continue to break down protein and fat: the paste becomes creamy and melting, and the bitterness gives way to a clean, delicate taste. Milk production, cheesemaking, ripening and ageing take place in the area.

Origin & history

The area lies in the south-east of the Massif Central, bounded by the Monts d’Aubrac in the north, the Margeride and the Cévennes in the east, the Monts de Lacaune in the south and the foothills of the Aquitaine Basin in the west. It is shaped by the stony limestone high plateaus, the Causses. Water has hollowed out karst caves beneath them, into which numerous fissures lead, the fleurines. The outside air flows in from above, takes up moisture from the damp rock walls, cools and leaves again at the bottom; the drier and warmer it is outside, the stronger the air current and the cooler the cave. The climate is influenced by the ocean and the Mediterranean, with usually more than 2,000 hours of sunshine a year.

According to the specification, the cheese has always been made in the region of the Causses. It took off after a French law of 26 July 1925 that prohibited the making and ripening of cheese from milk other than sheep’s milk in the municipality of Roquefort. This gave rise to a separate industry for blue cheese made from cow’s milk in an area dominated by sheep farming. The cheese, at first called “Bleu de l’Aveyron”, was described by decree in 1945 and recognised as a controlled designation of origin under the name “Bleu des Causses” on 21 May 1979.