Fourme de Montbrison

Type: Blue
Milk: Raw cows milk
Rennet: Animal
Location: Loire, France

One of the oldest blue cheeses in France, Fourme de Montbrison can be dated to the 9^th century in the village of Sauvin. The Fromagerie des Hautes Chaumes, our supplier, make cheese on an artisanal level and entirely with raw milk collecting milk fresh from 4 suppliers all of whose animals are pasture fed during the summer and hay fed in winter.

Their cheese recipe is distinctively old fashioned. In particular, once the curd is formed and cut it drains to a table where it re-knits to form a block. This is then cut into slabs and put through a curd mill in order to break the mass up and salt is added. This predates the more modern brine salting. Another key feature is maturing the cheeses on ‘cheneux’, shelves cut with a curved edge allowing the cheese to benefit from contact with the wood & the bacteria that develop its distinctive orange rind.

Fourme de Montbrison, is known as ‘bleu doux’. This doesn’t mean sweetness but a very gentle, easy eating blue. Its texture is pleasingly toothsome. Its blue flavours more of a seasoning, reminiscent of nigella seeds and it has delicate, grassy, savoury notes.