Banon is a soft, almost runny cheese that matures without a rind forming on it. Depending on the Banon, it is made with milk from goats, goats and cows, or just cows, and sometimes any combination of the above can have sheep’s milk as well. Curds are formed from the milk, then pressed into little…
French Cheeses
Beaufort Cheese
Beaufort Cheese is a semi-firm, smooth French cheese, made in the Beaufort “commune” (township) of the Savoie region of France along the Alps. The cheese is made year round. The summer version of Beaufort Cheese is sometimes referred to as Beaufort d’été; the winter version is sometimes referred to as Beaufort d’hiver. Winter Beaufort Cheeses are…
Bleu d’Causses
Bleu d’Causses is a blue cheese made in Peyrelade, a village in the middle of the Gorges du Tarn in the centre of France, on the border of Lozère and Aveyron. This is the same area in which Roquefort is made. In Peyrelade, there are caves aerated by natural chimneys called “fleurines” in which the…
Bleu de Basque
Bleu de Basque is a modern French blue cheese made from sheep’s milk. The milk is “thermalized” but not pasteurized, then coagulated with calf rennet. Two sizes of wheels are made, 11 pounds and 4 pounds (5 kg and 1.8 kg.) The 11 pound sizes are about 12 inches wide x 2.7 inches tall (30…
Bleu de Bresse
Bleu de Bresse (aka Bresse Bleu) is a milk blue cheese. It is made in cylinders weighing from 125 to 500 grams. Outside, 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 has…
Bleu de Gex
Bleu de Gex is a blue cheese made from the unpasteurized milk of Montbeliardes cows. The milk is heated to 80 F (27 C), Rennet is added, then the curds are cut to the size of small peas, and moulded. It is dry-salted over a period of 4 to 6 days. It can be ripened…
Bleu de Termignon
Bleu de Termignon is a blue cheese currently (2004) made by one woman with 9 cows in the French Alps. Her cows graze in the National Park of Vanoise. The cheese is not inoculated with a blue cheese mould, as other blue cheeses are. Rather, her cows pick up bacteria from other animals, which gets…
Boursin Cheese
Boursin Cheese is a creamy (75% butterfat), mild cheese made from pasteurized cow’s milk to which is added cream and seasonings. It is sold either in 5 oz (150g) cylinders, or in packages of 6 individually-wrapped portion pieces. Either way, it’s wrapped in foil. There is a plain version, but more prevalent are the versions…
Brebis au piment d’Espelette
Brebis au piment d’Espelette is a firm sheep’s milk cheese rubbed with pimento powder. The cheese is made from milk from Manech and Basco-Béarnaises sheep. The curd is cut, moulded and pressed, then salted, and brushed with crushed smoked Espelette Chile Pepper powder, then aged for at least 3 months. The cheese is about 10…
Brebis de l’Abbaye de Belloc
Brebis de l’Abbaye de Belloc is a Basque sheep’s milk cheese. It is made (now partly made: see history below) at the Abbaye de Belloc in Urt in the Aquitaine area of France by Benedictine monks. The whole milk used is from the Manech breed of sheep. The cheese is semi-soft and dense with a…
Brebis des Pyrénées Cheese
Brebis des Pyrénées Cheese is a generic term for a group of cheeses. It means “sheep’s milk cheese from the Pyrénées”, which are mountains in France, on the border with Spain. Brebis means “female sheep” (aka “ewe” in English.)
Brebis du Lochois
Brebis du Lochois is a soft sheep’s milk cheese made in Touraine, val de Loire, France. It is round, about 2 3/4 inches wide and just over an inch tall (7 cm wide x 3 cm tall), and weighs about 4 oz (120 g.) The curd is not pressed or cooked. It is aged 2…
Brebis Pardou
Brebis Pardou is a semi-firm pressed (but not cooked) sheep’s milk cheese made in Vallée d’Ossau, Béarn, Aquitaine in France. Pardou is the name of the company that makes it. The milk comes from the local breed of sheep called “béarnaise” and it is made from raw, whole milk. To make Brebis Pardou, the temperature…
Brie Cheese
Brie Cheese © Denzil Green Brie is a creamy French cheese popular for its smooth yet tangy, slightly acid taste and its woodsy smell. The cheese ripens quickly, and must be eaten before the flavour and aroma become offensive. The cheese is a pale yellow inside with a crust like a soft white velvet. Brie…
Brie de Coulommiers Cheese
Brie de Coulommiers is a particular version of Brie cheese made in Seine & Marne, France throughout the year. It has a more pungent smell than other Bries. The cheese comes in two sizes: 2.5 to 3 cm thick by 25 cm wide ( 1 x 10 inches), weighing approximately 1.5 kg (3 1/4 lbs);…
Brie de Meaux
Brie de Meaux is a Brie cheese with a very pale yellow inside and a white velvet rind. It develops a nutty flavour as it ages. It is made from raw cow’s milk (the milk has to be unpasteurized to meet its AOC specifications.) Rennet is added, and the milk heated to 37 C (98.6…
Brousse du Rove
Brousse du Rove is a fresh, unaged goat’s milk cheese very popular in Marseille, France. It is a soft, liquidy, creamy cheese that melts in your mouth. Brousse du Rove is made in the small village of Rove (population 4,000 as of 2005), just west of Marseille, France. The milk used is from a breed…
Brousse du Var
Brousse du Var is a fresh cheese made from sheep’s milk. In fact, it is so fresh, that the cheese is sold on the same day it’s made. It is usually made for 1 to 1 1/2 months after Easter. The area of production is the French Varois coast, especially near Toulon (between Marseille and…
Camembert Cheese
Unctuous, oozing Camembert Cheese © Denzil Green Camembert is a mild, creamy cheese that is slightly salty. The outside crust will have a few splashes of red. Camembert starts off as a solid, soft cheese formed into thin wheels that have a coating of white surface bacteria applied to them. The bacteria does the ripening;…
Campénéac Cheese
A cheese that is “sister” cheese to Timadeuc Cheese, in that both are “Port du Salut” style cheeses, and the Abbey where it is made by nuns, l’Abbaye de la Joie Notre Dame, is sister abbey to the monastery, l’Abbaye Notre-Dame de Timadeuc The cheese is very pliable and has tiny holes. Its very strong…
Cantal Cheese
Cantal Cheese is a cheese made in the Cantal region in the south of Auvergne, France. It is a semi-firm cheese, but hard by French norms. Cantal Cheese is made from cow’s-milk from up to three different breeds of cattle, one of which is Salers cattle. There are both pasteurized and unpasteurized versions. Cantal Fermier,…
Chaource Cheese
Chaource Cheese © Denzil Green Chaource is a tall, round Brie-like cheese made in the Champagne and northern Burgundy regions of France, and particularly in its namesake town of Chaource, Champagne. It is made in two sizes: about 1 pound (450g), and a smaller one, 8 oz (225g) which is about 2 1/2 inches (6…
Chèvre
While many countries make cheese from goat’s milk, Chèvre means (at least theoretically) French cheese made from goat’s milk. The milk is generally pasteurized, and the cheese aged. The shapes and brand names will vary. Chèvre has a lower moisture content and more pronounced flavour than Chèvre Frais (unaged goat’s cheese.) Some American companies are…
Chèvre Frais
Chèvre frais is a generic term for unaged French cheese made from pasteurized goat’s milk. These cheeses will be milder tasting and have higher moisture content than aged ones. Chèvre frais cheeses are available under many different brand names and in many different shapes; some will be flavoured or rolled in herbs or spices. Cooking…