Selles-sur-Cher

Appearance & taste

Selles-sur-Cher is a flat disc with sloping edges that tapers slightly towards the top, about 9 cm in diameter and 3 cm high. Dusting with powdered vegetable charcoal gives the fine, firmly adhering rind a more or less even ash-grey colour, which turns grey-blue over time. The rind is formed mainly by the fungus Geotrichum candidum and yeasts. When cut, the cheese is ivory white, matt, smooth and even. It contains at least 45 % fat in dry matter.

The cheese smells at first of fresh goat’s milk and develops mushroom and goat aromas as it ripens. The texture is fresh, melting and somewhat pasty, and the taste balanced with salty, sour and bitter notes. The lactic note decreases with ripening.

Every cheese carries a label with the name “Selles-sur-Cher” and the EU logo.

Production

The milk comes from Alpine and Saanen goats or their crosses; at least 80 % of the young goats for restocking come from the area. At least 75 % of the feed comes from the area, and each goat receives at least 550 kg of roughage (dry matter) a year. At least 1,000 m² of forage area is available per goat. Grass and maize silage are prohibited, as are genetically modified crops and feed.

Only raw whole goat’s milk is used. It is curdled with lactic acid bacteria and a little rennet for 18 to 48 hours at below 25 °C. The curd drains in the traditional mould with a base, so that ripening begins while it is still relatively moist. The cheese is salted on the outside and dusted with vegetable charcoal. According to the specification, charcoal and salt form a layer with the surface flora of the rind that regulates the exchange with the ripening cellar, where the temperature is evenly relatively high. Ripening lasts at least ten days from curdling. Milk production, cheesemaking and ripening take place in the area.

Origin & history

The area lies in the west of the Sologne on a plateau through which the Cher valley runs from east to west. On the poor soils, which are hard to farm and where hardly any vines or cereals grow, goats have always been kept. The climate is temperate oceanic with 650 to 750 mm of rainfall a year, mild winters and rarely really dry summers. The Cher valley was also an important transport and trade route between Nantes and Lyon, along which knowledge of cheesemaking spread as well.

At first the cheese was made at home, mainly by women. They chose curdling with lactic acid bacteria and flexible ripening times because this could be combined with their other work in the house and on the farm. The cheese was stored in a storeroom, often built onto the north side of the farm building; to make it keep longer, it was first rolled in ash, later in a mixture of powdered charcoal and salt. At the end of the 19th century, poultry dealers, the “coquetiers”, also collected cheese on the farms; some ripened it themselves and sold it. Their centre was the town of Selles-sur-Cher, after which the cheese is named. At the beginning of the 20th century production grew to supply cities such as Tours, Blois, Paris and Lyon. Selles-sur-Cher was recognised as a designation of origin by a decree of 21 April 1975.