Cornes du Diable

Type: Soft
Milk: Raw goat's milk
Animal breed: Rove, Provencale
Size of cheese: 6cm
Weight: 80g
Location: Bouches du Rhone, Provence
Altitude: 180m
Season: March-November
Scale: Farmhouse

Cornes du Diable is a small triangular goats' cheese topped with pink and black peppercorns made in the Bouches du Rhône department of Provence. Like most of our Provençal cheeses, Cornes du Diable is seasonal, made from the milk of a single herd between February and November. Producers Sandrine and François Borel began farming Rove goats, an ancient Provençal breed, in the hills surrounding their village in 1996, and have been hugely instrumental in reintroducing the magnificently horned breed to the region, acting as mentors to other local cheese producers keen to exploit this outstanding milk. The goats graze on a large swathe of hilly pasture, munching on rosemary, lavender and thyme alongside prickly thistles and gorse.

Cornes du Diable's fearsome name ('devil's horns') is deceptive. This is a gentle cheese, only very lightly salted, with a fluffy paste and a sweet lightly spiced finish: a recipe which beautifully demonstrates the rich and aromatic quality of Rove milk.

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