Soumaintrain Cheese. CandBee / wikimedia / 2010 / CC BY-SA 4.0
Soumaintrain is a very whiffy French cheese with a taste that is both sweet and salty.
The cheese will have either an ivory-yellow velvet rind or a sticky orange-caramel coloured rind. The orange rind is salty-tasting and edible: its colour is indicative of the presence of brevibacterium linens bacteria typical of smear-ripened cheeses.
Inside, the cheese is soft but not runny.
Both farmhouse and creamery versions are made. Farmhouse versions use raw milk; creamery versions tend to use pasteurized milk.
Production
To make Soumaintrain cheese, cow’s milk is curdled, then the curds are cut, put into a small round mould, but not pressed. The cheeses are unmoulded, and as they age, washed with a mixture of brine and marc (aka grappa). The proportion of marc in the wash is increased as time goes by.
Each cheese is a flat cylinder ranging in diameter from 9 to 13 cm (3 ⅓ to 5 inches), and weighing between 180 g and 600 g (6 to 21 ounces).
The cheeses are aged a minimum of 3 weeks.
Soumaintrain is made in the Côte-d’Or et Yonne départements in the northern part of the historic Burgundy region, and in the département of Aube just to the north of them.
Soumaintrain cheese. Pierre-Yves Beaudouin / wikimedia / 2015 / CC BY-SA 4.0
Nutrition
Soumaintrain cheese has a 45% fat content.
History
In 2011, an association was created to promote the cheese.
On 14 June 2016, the cheese was awarded PGI designation.
Further reading
Soumaintrain Product specification sheet (2015)
Soumaintrain cheese cross-section. Pierre-Yves Beaudouin / wikimedia / 2015 / CC BY-SA 4.0