Bleu de Bresse

Bleu de Bresse cheese. Photosimysia / Getty Images via Canva Pro.

Bleu de Bresse (aka Bresse Bleu) is a mild blue cheese.

It has a mild, mushroomy aroma and flavour.

It has a smooth, off-white rind similar to the rind on Brie and Camembert cheese. Inside, it is creamy and soft like Brie, almost spreadable, with patches of greenish-blue mould.

It is made in cylinders weighing from 125 to 500 grams (4 oz. to 17 oz.)

Production

The cheese is made from pasteurized cow’s milk.

The curd is made, cut and stirred, then turned, drained and salted. It is injected with the Penicillium roqueforti mould starter. Then the cheese is moulded, then taken out of the mould, and dusted with Penicillium camemberti to grow on the outside and form the skin.

It is aged 3 to 4 weeks, then packaged and shipped.

Substitutes

Gorgonzola, or another mild blue cheese.

History Notes

Bleu de Bresse is a modern cheese, invented by the Société Laitière Coopérative Agricole de Servas in Servoz, Bresse in the Rhône valley of France.

In 1984, the makers tried to start calling the cheese “Fourme de Bresse“. They were challenged in this by the makers of Fourme d’Ambert and Fourme de Montbrison cheese. The legal battle went on for a few years, until finally in October 1993 the “Cour de Cassation” forbade the Bresse makers from using the term and declared invalid the trademark they had tried to register for it. ^[1]De Banville, Étienne. Les fourmes de Montbrison et d’Ambert: des jasseries aux familles et aux groupes. Université de Saint-Etienne. 2006. Page 37.

Eventually the cooperative grew into becoming the “Bressor Alliance”, which in 1990 associated itself with Bongrain company.

Sources

Bongrain SA. Les Grandes Étapes du Développement de Bongrain SA. March 2008. Page 3.

Hirczak, Maud et Amédée Mollard. Différenciation par la qualité et le territoire versus coordination sectorielle : conflit ou compromis ? L’exemple de la Bresse. Ruralia, 2005-16/17. Page 7.