Comté

Appearance & taste

Comté comes as a wheel 55 to 75 cm in diameter, 8 to 13 cm high and weighing 32 to 45 kg. The side is straight or slightly convex; the brushed, firm and grainy rind is ochre yellow to brown. The paste is ivory to yellow and may have holes up to the size of small cherries. The cheese contains 45 to 54 g of fat per 100 g of dry matter, at least 62 g of dry matter and at least 0.6 g of salt per 100 g of cheese.

The specification describes the taste as complex, with fruity, milky and toasted notes. It names six aroma families (fruity, milky, toasted, vegetal, animal, spicy) with more than 90 nuances; no two wheels are said to be exactly alike.

Each wheel bears a green or brown band with the “Comté clochette” logo and the EU symbol, as well as a label from the ripening company. Comté is also sold in pieces or grated; when prepacked, it must be cut or grated in the area. It is to be stored at 4 to 8 °C. If a ripening time is stated, it is given as a minimum number of months.

Production

Milk production, cheesemaking and ripening take place in the defined area. Almost all the dairy cows there belong to the Montbéliarde breed. They are kept on pasture for as long as the weather, the bearing capacity of the soil and the growth of the grass allow; the pastures are used extensively. The basic ration comes largely from the area, and supplementary feed is limited to 1,800 kg per cow per year.

Only milk, starter cultures, rennet and salt are allowed as ingredients. The cheesemakers work in open vats and decide the right moment for cutting, stirring and heating the curd and for drawing off the whey. The cheese is then pressed and salted on the surface or in brine. During ripening a smeared rind forms and the protein is broken down; this breakdown is measured and must reach a prescribed minimum value. The wheels ripen on spruce boards, and the affineur adapts the conditions to each batch.

Origin & history

The area covers the Jura arc, a range of limestone plateaus, and a small part of the adjoining plain. The soils are poor and the terrain very mountainous. The climate is continental, with large temperature differences, many days of frost and precipitation throughout the year. Forest, half of it spruce, alternates with pasture; the natural meadows have a great diversity of plants. According to the specification, two scientific studies confirmed the link between this diversity and the cheese’s wealth of aromas in 1994.

As early as the 13th century, farmers in the region pooled the milk of their herds every day to make a large cheese wheel. A long-keeping cheese was the way to carry the plentiful summer milk through the long winter. Because there was plenty of firewood, a cooked paste was chosen. To this day most milk producers are organised in cooperatives and process their milk together in a dairy, the “fruitière”.