Maroilles

Appearance & taste

Maroilles is square, with a side length of 12.5 to 13 cm (inside dimension of the mould); the side may bulge slightly outwards. There are also smaller formats with their own names: Sorbais (12 to 12.5 cm), Mignon (11 to 11.5 cm) and Quart (8 to 8.5 cm). The washed rind is evenly orange-reddish, and the imprints of the racks can be seen on the flat sides. The paste is white to cream-coloured, has some holes and yields to finger pressure. The cheese contains at least 45 % fat in dry matter.

Maroilles smells intensely of cellar, damp brick and undergrowth, and slightly of ammonia. It tastes slightly salty and milky-sour, with a slight bitter note and aromas of soured milk, hazelnut and garlic. With longer ripening the flavour becomes stronger and more pronounced.

Production

The dairy cows graze for at least 170 days a year; each cow has at least 30 ares available, of which at least 15 ares are pasture. During the grazing period, grass makes up on average at least 65 % of the dry matter of the roughage. At least 80 % of the roughage comes from the area. Concentrated feed is limited to 1,800 kg of dry matter per cow per year and does not have to come from the area, because the area is relatively small and the farms do not produce all raw materials themselves.

The cheese is made only from cow’s milk and ripens for at least 35 days from the addition of rennet, Sorbais and Mignon for 28 days, Quart for 21 days. The affineurs tend it continuously: depending on how it develops, they rub or wash it with more or less salty water, with or without bacterial cultures. This helps the red-smear bacteria to establish themselves more quickly and keeps moulds, especially blue mould, from staying on the surface. Milk production, cheesemaking and ripening take place in the area.

Origin & history

The area corresponds to the Thiérache in the south of the arrondissement of Avesnes (Nord) and the north of the arrondissement of Vervins (Aisne), a hedgerow landscape between the plain of the Nord department and the chalk plateau of Picardy. It has short, steep slopes with meadows and woodland, mainly ash and beech, and more than 900 mm of precipitation a year. The clayey, impermeable soils retain moisture and favour grass growth; the hedges protect against temperature fluctuations.

According to the specification, the cheese goes back to the abbey of Saint-Humbert in Maroilles, founded in the 7th century, whose lands lay mainly in the present-day arrondissements of Avesnes and Vervins. In the 19th century arable land was converted into pasture. Originally the cheese was made only on the farms, in damp, ventilated cellars of brick and sometimes bluestone, which encouraged the red-smear bacteria. From the 19th century onwards, affineurs bought the young cheese at markets and farms and ripened it in their own cellars. According to the specification, the square shape goes back to traditional moulds made from the hard wood of the area’s trees, which does not bend easily. A judgment of the court of Château-Thierry of 17 July 1955 called it a genuine “terroir cheese”.