Chaource

Appearance & taste

Chaource is a tall cylinder with a flat top and bottom. When ripened, the large cheese weighs 450 to 700 g with a diameter of 110 to 115 mm, the small one 250 to 380 g with 85 to 90 mm. The rind is mainly covered with white mould (Penicillium candidum) and may be marbled or furrowed by Geotrichum.

The salty paste contains at least 40 % dry matter and at least 48 % fat in dry matter. It is creamy, light and at the same time firm, and ripens from the outside in: the edge becomes creamy, while the core stays fine and slightly grainy. The cheese smells slightly of mushrooms, can develop fruity and nutty aromas and taste slightly of fresh mushrooms. According to the specification, larger cheeses that are still fresh have a more lactic taste than the small, ripened ones.

The label states the name, the “AOP” mark and the name and address of the affineur. Also permitted are, among other things, the term “artisanal” for recognised craft cheesemakers and references to ripening such as “affiné par”.

Production

On average at least 75 % of the dairy cows’ feed (as dry matter) comes from the farm itself, and at least 85 % from the area. The cows are on pasture for at least five months a year, with at least 20 ares per cow, and grass makes up at least 30 % of the roughage. Supplementary feed is below 27 % of the ration on an annual average. Heifers must graze in the area for at least four months before their first lactation.

Whole cow’s milk is used, from which neither fat nor protein is removed and to which neither is added; it is collected and processed separately from other milk. Coagulation takes at least twelve hours. The lactic curd then drains slowly and on its own in the tall moulds, by gravity alone. The paste is salted with dry salt. Milk production, cheesemaking and ripening take place in the area.

Origin & history

The area covers the wet Champagne with the municipality of Chaource at its centre, bounded by the forest of Aumont and the Seine in the north, the forest of Maulnes and the Armançon in the south, the limestone plateau of the Pays d’Othe in the west and the Sarce in the east. The impermeable, calcareous and clayey subsoil mainly supports natural meadows and is poorly suited to arable farming; many streams and springs run through the harsh area with its continental climate.

According to the specification, there was already cheese here in the Middle Ages, thanks to the numerous abbeys and commanderies, whose monks had enough meadows and woodland for the livestock. In the 17th and 18th centuries the women of the region made cheese for their own families. Because they had little time besides the farm work, they let the milk coagulate on its own for a long time and the curd drain unattended; this is the origin of the lactic character and the long production steps. In summer the cheese was mostly eaten fresh; in favourable conditions it could be kept for up to two months. This gave rise to today’s two sizes.

Oral tradition has it that farm women in the Chaourçois were already making a “cheese from Chaource” in the first half of the 19th century. Traders, the cossoniers, collected it and sold it at local markets and in cities such as Paris, Lyon, Dijon and Reims. Dr Pourriau (1872) and Huguier-Truelle (1883) described the cheese and how it was made. When the farm women preferred to deliver their milk to dairies, the cossoniers began making cheese themselves; by the early 1960s, craft cheesemaking had taken over from the farm women.