Kendra's not the only Cheese Traveler!

Anne, my friend and authority on all things relating to Switzerland and cheese, sent in these photos from La Maison du Gruyere in Gruyere. She's promised to tell me all about it over a steaming fondue.

Props from the Houston Chronicle

Check it out. Alison Cook thinks we're blog-worthy. (Sorry for boasting.)

http://blogs.chron.com/cookstour/archives/2007/01/a_breakfast_soc_1.html

The Fabrication

Les Moussieres: Large scale production

The fromager wakes early in the morning to start making cheese from the milk that was delivered that morning and the night before. AOC cheeses from this region are made in co-ops (fruitieres) zhere the farmers bring and sell their morning and evening milk. Upon delivery, the milk is weighed and the farmer paid accordingly.

Our first stop that morning was at the fruitiere of Les Moussieres, one of the only cheesemaking facilities permitted to make three AOC cheeses--Comté, Morbier, and Bleu de Gex. Typically the rule is one AOC cheese per fruitiere. Why? I don't know and neither does anyone else. Though I would venture to guess that fruitieres typically don't have the space and equipment necessary to make three AOC cheeses.

I arrived late to my tour with an elementary schoold field trip group, as I never made it to any destination without turning around at least once. Hey, it's a great way to see the land! I did make it in time to see the placing of curds into their molds for Bleu de Gex. This AOC, cow's milk cheese is made in two fruitieres, this one in Les Moussieres and one in Gex.

After placing the curds in the molds, which further need draining, the fromger puts a plastic stamp "Gex"in the mold, along with the date of fabrication. When the cheese is ready for distribution, you'll see the "Gex" imprinted on the wheel. The placement of the stamp is key for indicating where the cheese was made. At Les Moussieres, the stamp is on the bottom with the date on the side. Cheese from Gex has the stamp on the side and the date on the bottom. Seemingly trivial, but indicative of the importance of tradition and quality assurance in France.

But where's the Raclette?

A dinner of tradition:

After my day of fromagerie visits, my hostess Marion had offered to serve me raclette for dinner. Raclette we did do, just minus the Raclette cheese--it does not come from the Jura region so Marion does not serve it. Raclette is the process of melting cheese and then scraping it over potatoes. In Switzerland, where the cheese originates, one would do raclette with Raclette, but here we do it with the region's specialties: Mont d'Or--a bloomy rind, soft-ripened cheese--, Bleu de Gex, and a thrid that two bottles of Jura chardonnay have since erased from my memory. (oops!)

Marion had a special contraption for this meal. It was a sort of two-story hot plate. The top, a flat non-stick surface for heating the potatoes, and the bottom, a heated surface with special mini non-stick pans for heating a 2" x 1" piece of cheese. We each grabbed our heated potatoes from the top, then heated our cheese to scrape over them. Ham, cornichons, and bread accompanied our raclette.

Over dinner, Marion, my travel companion, and I discussed the Jura region, cheese, architecture, and literature. The next day promised a visit to a large, well-known cheesemaking facility and a visit to a much smaller organic cheesemaking facility. This night we started the Jura cheese tradition and continued to work backwards, from the cheese's consumption, it's sale and storage in a fromagerie, and finally its fabrication.

Fromgeries in the Haut Jura

The Fromagerie Rietmann in Montbrillant, France

First Day in the Haut Jura:

The first day in the Jura included a very long and informative tangent from the cheese mission--a lesson in pipe-making. Aside from this, the day was spent getting lost in the mountains and discovering cheese shops along the way. The fromagerie is not something one sees in the U.S. In effect; the cheesemaker and cheese store worker are not well-known professions in our land either. In France, however, the profession of fromager (cheesemaker) is one about which dissertations and books are written, to be learned in school or by apprenticeship, and above all respected.

I came to this region, and especially the town of St. Claude, to visit the Crémerie Clément, a cheese shop (fromagerie). Marion, my hostess, had another receommendation, the Fromagerie Rietmann in Montbrillant. Through getting lost in the mountains, I found the Fromagerie Rietmann, which also provided windows for viewing the cheesemaking process (cheesemaking in a fromagerie is atypical here.) Unfortunately, I missed the hour of making cheese, so my visit afforded only a slice of Tomme montagne-- a cheese made from the same recipe as Comté but lacking in many of the specifics for it to earn the name--and a bottle of Jura chardonnay, on recommendation of the cheese shop worker (what we anglophones know as a fromager.)

After the Fromagerie Rietmann and the aforementioned lesson in pipes, I visited the Crémerie Clément. Jean-Claude, the manager of the store, was more than happy to show me his cave, used only for stocking, not for aging. But even a cave for stocking needs to meet certain measures to ensure cheese is at its prime for consumption. Above all, humidity is the most important, Jean-Claude tells me. His cave of wooden shelves, housed beyond a couryard next door to the shop, holds about twenty wheels of Bleu de Gex and four wheels of Comté, all of which will be sold in a weeks time. Jean-Claude keeps all cheeses in their original packaging--paper for the comté and cardboard boxes for the Bleu de Gex. This is necessary for maintaining the cheese's water weight. For once a portion is cut from the wheel, wrapped, and sent home with a customer, the cheese loses 10% of its water weight. Oh là là!

After the cave, Jean-Claude offered me a tasting of the 5 different Comtés. He took me from the mildest to strongest as any good maître fromager would. Although there are five different Comtés, they must all meet the same basic requirements to earn the AOC name. The milk must come from Montbeliarde cows grazing only in the Haut Jura or Doubs region. The flavor will then vary according to the process of salting the wheels (saumurage) and the amount of aging time. Less salt=lighter flavor. According to Jean-Claud, stronger flavor (longer aging, more salt)=a better cheese. Is there any variation to the brine solution to alter the cheese's flavor? No! Never! This is a constant, no secret recipes for brine solutions. Only time and terroir are the artistic agents in creating great cheese...so says Jean-Claude.