Pérail

Appearance & taste

Pérail is a round, flat soft cheese in two sizes: the small cheese measures 78 to 88 mm and weighs at least 90 g, the large one measures 90 to 110 mm and weighs at least 130 g; both are 15 to 22 mm high. It has no rind but a fine, melting, supple skin in ivory to cream, which becomes slightly felty through the ripening flora, above all the fungus Geotrichum.

The paste is white to ivory-cream, supple, easy to cut, melting and creamy. Pérail smells of milk and sheep’s wool and slightly of wool grease, the fat that the sheep’s skin gives off into the wool. In the taste, sheep aromas, from curd to sheep’s cream, meet fresh, mild notes, occasionally with a hint of dried fruit.

The cheese is sold only whole and no earlier than the seventh day after renneting. It may not be packed in a protective atmosphere or vacuum. The label shows the name alone on one line; permitted additions include “moulage manuel à la louche” (moulded by hand with a ladle).

Production

The milk comes only from sheep of the Lacaune breed. As soon as the weather allows and as long as fresh grass grows, they go out to pasture every day; in the shed they receive on average at least 1 kg of hay (as dry matter) a day. On annual average at least 70 % of the feed comes from the area; only feed from a positive list and without genetically modified components is allowed.

Whole milk is processed without skimming, with lactic acid bacteria and rennet. The cheeses drain in the mould by gravity and their own weight alone, are turned in the process and are not pressed. Because the cheese is so flat, a lot of whey drains off, which according to the specification encourages the growth of Geotrichum. During ripening this fungus breaks down protein, makes the paste melting and creamy and prevents too many bitter substances. Milk production, cheesemaking and ripening take place in the area.

Origin & history

The area is an upland with plateaus, valleys and deep gorges in the south-west of the Massif Central, with the Grands Causses, the Monts de Lacaune, the Lévézou, the Ségala and the Rougiers. The climate is a temperate mountain climate with Mediterranean and Atlantic influences and rapid changes between heat and cold, rain and drought; the soils are poor, stony and shallow. Heath, garrigue and dry grassland grow here. Farming has therefore focused on dairy sheep of the Lacaune breed, which was bred from old local breeds in the Monts de Lacaune. Its milk is rich in fat and contains many short-chain fatty acids, which according to the specification produce the creamy texture and the smell of sheep’s wool.

Pérail was originally a farmhouse cheese for the farmers’ own use. Because the milk went to the Roquefort dairies, the farmers only made it at the end of lactation, when the dairies stopped production and left them the remains of the rennet. It was mostly made by women, from little milk and in the narrow space of the “Peralhièira”, a stone sink that gave the cheese its name. It is mentioned in Occitan as “Péral” at the end of the 19th century, and as “Pérail” in the “Larousse des Fromages” in 1973. Later it was also made by artisanal and industrial producers; according to the specification, it is known throughout France today.