Fourme de Montbrison

Appearance & taste

Fourme de Montbrison is a cylinder 17 to 21 cm high and 11.5 to 14.5 cm in diameter, weighing 2.1 to 2.7 kg. The dry, orange rind has a downy coat of mould and may have white, yellow and red mould spots. The cream-coloured paste has hardly any holes and is marbled with light blue mould. When ripened, the cheese contains at least 52 g of dry matter per 100 g.

The texture is homogeneous, slightly firm and melts on the tongue. The aroma is delicate and fragrant, the flavour fruity and milky. Because the blue veins are not very pronounced, the cheese is relatively mild; a slight saltiness and a slight bitterness are permitted. According to the specification, it is less salty than other blue cheeses.

Pieces over 50 g must have rind. The label shows the name in characters at least two thirds the size of the largest lettering, together with the EU logo for protected designations of origin.

Production

At least 70 % of the dairy cows’ feed (as dry matter over the year) comes from the area. Grass, whether grazed, wilted or ensiled, makes up at least 80 % of the ration and maize silage at most 20 % of the basic ration; supplementary feed is limited to an average of 1,800 kg of dry matter per cow per year. As long as fresh grass is growing and the weather allows, the cows graze outdoors, for at least 150 days a year. Outside the grazing season they receive at least 3 kg of hay (dry matter) a day.

The milk is curdled with rennet and the curd is stirred into small grains of about 0.5 to 1 cm. Salting is done in the vat, before filling the moulds, and only lightly on the outside. The paste is neither pressed nor heated. A special feature is the additional draining on softwood channels: the wood holds the surface flora and prevents the rind from drying out too quickly; together with the salting technique, this shapes the orange rind, according to the specification. The small curd grains produce small holes in which the mould Penicillium roqueforti spreads less than in other blue cheeses, hence the mild flavour.

Milk production, cheesemaking, ripening and storage up to the 32nd day from renneting take place in the area; only then may the cheese bear the designation of origin.

Origin & history

The area covers 27 municipalities in the Loire department and 5 in the Puy-de-Dôme department, mainly on the Hautes-Chaumes, the high ground of the Monts du Forez, and on the eastern slope of the range. It is an upland range on granite, up to 1,634 m high, with heathland on bare high plateaus with rounded summits, many bogs and pastures, surrounded by coniferous forest. It rains a lot, on average over 1,000 mm a year; the winters are long and cold with frequent snow. Because of the altitude and the rain, feed is based mainly on permanent grassland.

According to the specification, production in the Haut-Forez goes back to the High Middle Ages. Until the Second World War a summer pasture economy survived here: in summer women made the cheese in the “jasseries”, mountain huts on both sides of the Monts du Forez, from the milk of small herds, while the men did the field work in the village. The channels (“chéneaux”) on which the cheeses drained were made from hollowed-out conifer trunks. The cheeses were often kept until the herds came down from the mountains and then sold at the markets on both sides of the range, above all in Montbrison. According to the specification, the relatively small size goes back to these origins: small herds with little milk and production by women.