Vacherin Mont d’Or (aka Vacherin du Haut-Doubs) is a very soft cow’s milk cheese with a light beige or golden crust, sometimes with a powdery white mould on it. It is made in several different sizes.
The fat content of the cheese is between 45 and 50%.
For sale, the cheese is often packed in wooden boxes, especially the smaller-sized ones.
There are two versions, a French version made from raw milk, and a Swiss version made from pasteurized milk. It is illegal to import the French version into North America as it is made from raw milk.
Vacherin Mont d’Or is more sweet tasting than Vacherin Fribourgeois.
Production
Vacherin Mont d’Or is made from cow’s milk.
The curds are put into cloth-lined moulds to give the cheeses a wheel shape. Three sizes are made: a large one meant for stores to cut for customers which is about 30 cm (12 inches) across; a middle-size one about 16 cm (6 inches) across; and a small one meant to be purchased whole, about 12 cm (4 ½ inches) across. All sizes are about 4 cm (1 ½ inches) thick.
Once out of the mould, the cheese’s circumference is encased in a strip of bleached, sanitized spruce. These wood bands prop up the rind to help it contain the cheese inside, as well as diffusing a slightly resiny taste into the cheese.
The cheese is then washed in salt water, and let age for at least 3 weeks at a temperature below 14 C (57 F). During its ripening time, the wheels of cheese are turned, and brushed with salt water. The salt water brine both adds to the cheese’s flavour and helps the cheese keep better. As the cheese ripens, it gets very runny inside.
Sometimes the cheese’s crust will faintly show the marks of the cloth that lined the mould it was formed in.
Nomenclature
There is great confusion over what this soft-cheese is called.
The cheese has been made since the early 1800s in an area of Europe just to the north of Lausanne, Switzerland and to the west of Neufchâtel, Switzerland. The border in that area went back and forth between France and Switzerland over the years, and ended with the border putting some of the area in France, some in Switzerland. Makers of Vacherin Mont d’Or Cheese kept on making Vacherin Mont d’Or no matter what countries the tax collectors said their cheesemaking shed was now in.
Consequently, the cheese ended up being made in both countries. One major difference evolved, which is that the French made theirs from raw milk, while the Swiss came to make theirs from pasteurized milk.
Long after the shifting borders were history, another war started, this time over the cheese itself: who had the right, the Swiss or the French, to call it Vacherin Mont d’Or? Switzerland won the right in the 1970s, and so today the real, legally official Vacherin Mont d’Or comes from Switzerland. The French would have to call theirs Vacherin du Haut-Doubs (the Haub-Doubs being a plateau on the French side of Mont d’Or.) That wasn’t the end of it, though. Official French government documents will still refer to it as Vacherin Mont d’Or / Vacherin du Haut-Doubs in their first paragraph, as a nod to law, but then proceed to call it simply Vacherin Mont d’Or.
At any rate, officially at least, if the cheese is made in Switzerland, it is called Vacherin Mont d’Or, and if it’s made across the border in France, it is called Vacherin du Haut-Doubs.
Aside from the raw (French) vs pasteurized (Swiss) milk difference, both cheeses have everything else in common.
In this area of France, Franche-Comté, the French also copy two other Swiss cheeses: they make a version of Gruyère, which they call Le Comté, and a version of Emmenthal, which they call Emmenthal grand cru.
AOC status in France
The cheese in France has protected “Designation of Origin” (called “AOC” in France) status. In France, the cheese must be produced at an altitude of at least 700 metres, between le Saut du Doubs in the North and the mouth of the Doubs in the South. The protected area takes in the cantons of Mouthe, Morteau, Pontarlier, and parts of the cantons of Levier, Maîche, du Russey and de Montbenoît.
Cooking Tips
The cheese is made between 15 August and 31 March each year. The first ones of the year will start appearing at the stores at the start of November; the last ones will disappear from the stores by the start of May. Select ones whose consistency inside seems to “ripple” when you press on the rind.
To eat the cheese, set outside of fridge at room temperature for at least an hour first. Run a knife along the top crust and peel it back. Eat the insides with a spoon. If there is any left, put the crust back on. Generally, people don’t eat the crust, though some people do enjoy it.
The cheese can also be used for cooking and in fondues.
Storage Hints
Keep refrigerated; use within a few days of bringing it home.
History Notes
The earliest written record of this cheese is a letter to Parmentier advising him to eat it with potatoes.
The Swiss version was banned from import into the United States in 1983 owing to a batch that was contaminated with listeria, but at some point later its import was allowed again.
Literature & Lore
“Vacherin” in French means “from a cow”.