Cosne de Port Aubry

Cosne, a cone shaped lactic goats cheese from the Sancerre region in the Loire, takes its name from its geographical location at the Ferme de Port Aubry near Cosne, Cours sur Loire (with a small pun on the place name and the shape of the cheese).

The Ferme de Port Aubry has been in the Melet family since 1940.  The grandfather of Emmanuel Melet the current owner who, with his wife Margeurite, used to rear their herd of 300 Alpine goats there and make cheese, fell in love with the area when on manoeuvres during the Second World War.  He moved to the area and took on the farm as a worker with it eventually coming in to the family.  The region around here has a long history of goats milk cheesemaking as originally farms would have been small with a mixture of cereals, dairy and vegetables.  More or less every farm had a few goats and made a cheese known as ‘le crottet’ which was intended simply to feed the family.  Over time this has become known as Crottin de Chavignol which now is the cheese best known from that area.  In fact when the Melets still ran the farm, they produced both Crottin de Chavignol and a couple of original cheeses of their own design, one of which was Cosne.  Last year however they looked to retire and pass on the business to someone else.  Luckily Stephane Rachet a nearby organic goat farmer already making a range of fresher Crottins, Buche, Faiselle, Fromage Blanc and Ashed Pyramid goats cheeses was interested in expanding and took on their farm.

Stephane himself was originally a farmer of Charolais cows when he set out in 1995 but increasingly became more interested in farming goats, going from a mere 20 Alpines in 2003 to more like 400 today.  His farm, the Ferme de Monriveau, not far away in La Nievre, Arquian, is organic and like the Melets his herd are not pastured.  Instead in the interests of deseasoning they are kept in airy barns and through herd management there is some milk available even when the goats season is over.

As he makes Crottins at his other farm, under his hand this year, production at the Ferme de Port Aubry has concentrated on its Cosne.

Cosne is unusual for a lactic cheese in that its size is much bigger than you would normally be able to achieve.  Lactic curd tends to be fragile and this style of cheesemaking often lends itself to a smaller size.

Cosne is made from fresh raw milk, still in the dairy the Melets used and with the milk from their goats.  Whey starter taken from a vat of 24 hour old curd is used to ripen the milk for about 3 hours at 22C before it is rennetted at a temperature a couple of degrees lower and left to coagulate over 48 hours.  During coagulation, the whey naturally drains out of the curd and it is hand ladled into the cone shaped moulds for an initial drainage.  To help support the weight of the cheese due to its size, some curd is pre-drained (usually through a mesh to remove some whey) so that when the moulds need to be topped up, there is a robust and strong curd at the base of the cheese.  After 2 and a half days the cheeses are taken from their mould to be salted with dry salt, the Cosne resting on its side and rotating through 360 degrees to ensure even salting.  The time spent in the make room at 20C allows the wrinkled yeast geotrichum to form while maturation in a couple of drying rooms of diminishing temperatures allows for a powdery white mould to take hold and ultimately some spots of light blue Penicillium album.

In previous years, Cosne de Port Aubry was in short supply and treasured on arrival.  This year we are thoroughly enjoying the fact we have more cheese to eat and sell.  It has a firm, smooth, restrained texture with a host of nuanced but subtle flavours that run from lactic brightness, mellow fattiness, notes of walnuts and a floral quality.  It can be gentle or bold but either way it is a joy to eat and we’re very happy to have more of it this year.