Cutting Loose in Thiers

Have you ever heard of Thiers? I hadn’t either. What about Laguiole? Maybe? Well, they’re both famous for knives. The rustic French goats herder (Yves, see Blog 3) had told us Thiers knives are Laguiole knives for normal people (in fact he said non-snobs).

Well, Thiers is close by so: “On y va”. Lots of knife shops, some good, some brilliant. It’s a lovely location, with the centre of the town on the hillside. The shop we were recommended (Chambriard) was a veritable knife heaven (although the classic Frenchman serving us refused to believe that stainless steel was invented in Sheffield, England). I quickly realised Thiers does make a lot of knives, you can tell, and the town has an industrial feel. The chefs’ knife brand Sabatier is also made there.

Laguiole by contrast is more touristy and more quaint, and it shows in the knives: Laguiole – elegant, Thiers – practical and functional (the difference in price is minimal, if anything). Although I gather the vast majority of Laguiole knives are nowadays made in Thiers (the style of knife originated in Laguiole but not a lot is currently made there).

And before you ask if I bought a knife in Thiers, of course I didn’t: my Dad’s from Sheffield - if I want a knife, I’ll get one from where stainless steel was invented!

But what about cheese? I hear you say. Well, on the way to Thiers I had to stop at a local laitière (dairy) who works very closely with Mons. In fact he only produces cheese and Mons affinés all of his products for him in the tunnel, before giving them back to him to sell when they’re ready. It was nice to understand the production of certain cheeses before they arrive at Mons. In particular the local cheese – Lavort – is made there then shipped to Mons where it is aged until the flavour, texture and appearance develop to their best. Lavort is a sheep's milk pressed cheese that is made in an interesting shape (reflecting the extinct volcanoes in the area). When they arrive at Mons they are barely out of the brine bath (which gives them their salt), over time their rind goes through several micro-bacterial changes to form the characteristic brown, tough dusty rind.

St Maure and St Maure

After tasting all 17 varieties of Paccard’s Reblochon, as well many other affineurs’ and producers’ too, I was ready for a wee break from the big flavoured cheeses of the Savoie. And what better than a nice, fresh, lactic St Maure goats cheese.

St Maure is the original goats log. Thin and long, made in the Loire (where many of France’s famous goat cheeses hail from); it is characteristic by the straw through the middle, used to hold the fragile curd together; by the time it reaches you it’s probably not necessary but when we are handling it, at the early stages of affinage it is indispensable. If you want to impress your friends, pull out the straw and show them inscribed on it in tiny laser writing “St Maure de Touraine” and the producer’s details.

We were having a bit of an experiment at Mons. We needed a bit more St Maure and we already took all of our farmers supply! So we got in several other producers, and aged their cheeses. Then we tasted - comparing against our current supplier as well as comparing our ageing with each producers ageing. And what a difference - there really is St Maure and St Maure! I find the same again and again - although two cheese can share the same name, AOC, region of origin, production techniques, the range in quality is amazing.

After a blind tasting, it was determined: our method of affinage and current supplier was best (of course!). Our cheese had a homogenous, smooth delicate paste and good developed flavour. The others could be a little bit dry, floury, clarty/sticky in the mouth. You can see our cheese in the picture - it's the one with a nice cream line under the skin, the other is a bit dry and floury.

Yet there was another current contender, close to ours but not quite. So what does Hervé do - sends that supplier off to work with our current farmer, to pick up his tricks and tips. Then Hervé visits, watches the production, make suggestions, tweaks. A month down the line and our second producer’s product has increased quality by leaps and bounds; good enough to put our name on it - a George Foreman special!

Lyon's Les Halles

My good friend Will Harper (Restaurant Manager at Liverpool’s Malmaison, that's him on the left) came to visit for the weekend. Being a man who likes and appreciates good food and wine, as well as the occasional Greggs (I know you do, too!), we decided to visit the gastronomic capital of the world, Lyon (and I thought it was Sheffield Indoor Market).

Well for two northerners who don’t like to show their emotions much… we were mildly impressed.

I’ve spent my time in many a market in France and England: indoor, outdoor, farmers’, foodie, from the cheap and cheerful to the gastronomic and fine – I could probably list it as one of my hobbies. Yet Lyon’s Les Halles indoor market is truly a food paradise. I was like a child in a sweetshop: marvelling at the ultra-fresh produce from the glistening fresh fish to the newly baked sparkling pastries. There were lots of permanent market stalls serving the best produce that France can offer – no wonder Lyon’s Les Halles has become somewhat of an institution to the locals.

And it has five cheesemongers. Five! I didn’t know where to start. So we had a glass of wine to calm down in one of the many side stalls serving produce straight from the market. We then attacked oysters, charcuterie, pastries and fine wine. A house re-mortgage, sore head and happy tummy later, we decided it was time to explore the rest of Lyon.

That was impressive too – as well as being beautiful and historic, this really is a town that revolves around food at every corner. We revolved around the beer. Then the wine. A lovely meal later, and we decided Lyon was definitely a place where we could eat (and drink) well.

But the gastronomic capital of the world? We weren’t too sure… now if they’d had Yorkshire pudding there...

Sheep!

Sheep! I hadn’t seen that many in these parts, and being a Cumbrian was starting to feel a little lost. But a short distance away from our caves is Richard, a humble farmer who gave up his job as an accountant to buy 30 hectares of land. Of that, his sheep (60) take up 20 hectares, 10 hectares is vineyard, and a little restaurant adjoins the farm, which he runs at only the weekend. A jack of all trades, and after tasting his cheese, his wine and his restaurant food - he’s a master of them all too!

I was here to help him make cheese for the day; as per usual I hoped to pick up the little tricks and trips that will help me on my cheesy quest. Only a tiny amount of cheese is made at Richard’s each day, and Mons pretty much takes it all – which is great for Richard as he can concentrate on the farm. One of the reasons external affineurs are important is that they allows the farmer to concentrate on the farm and increasing quality of production. Affineurs concentrate on ageing the product properly and take responsibility for the tricky task of selling the cheese. Selling the cheese takes a lot of time for a farmer – visiting farmers’ markets, searching for clients, delivering – all these take time that can be better spent on the farm!

The day starts early as the sheep are milked in his small parlour; they are of the Lacaune breed (identical to that used for Roquefort) – their milk is of very high quality and a great flavour, which comes through in the cheese. Richard doesn’t have to add very much salt at all to bring out the flavour. After milking we put the sheep back in the fields and set about adding the ferment and rennet. Then yesterday’s cheeses were removed from their moulds, salted and set to dry. The newly set curd was moulded and I was finished for the day (Richard was off to tend the vines and sheep). Easy peasy!

But that’s only because he has this technique honed down, and I was working with a man who definitely knows his land and his animals. We made one of the last batches of the year: the sheep will soon stop producing milk (breeding up until lambing) for 5-6 months. All sheep’s milk cheeses are seasonal like this. Many producers, however, freeze the milk (or keep the cheeses at really low temperatures) to have cheeses out of season – be wary of these cheeses: their flavour and texture is much poorer. Hervé sent a load back to one producer this week as we could tell it was frozen milk when it arrived: it simply doesn’t age, taste and feel the same.

In Search of Reblochon

Reblochon is a very ancient cheese (13th century), but not well-known for many years, and is still not that famous within the UK. Its availability and popularity comes and goes with the occasional celebrity chef’s recipes, but it is rarely, if ever, found on a cheeseboard, even in France. One of the reasons could perhaps be because the majority (80%) is made in creameries rather than on a farm (fermier) – although this has the same velvety texture, the flavour is often plain, un-complex and rather like milk (it has a short coagulation time and affinage, so relies heavily on the rich milk flavours). Even with the fermier cheeses (discernible by the green casein plaque and green label on the packaging) it is still hard to find a magnificent one outside Savoie - the Savoyards like to keep them for themselves!

For many years Reblochon was in fact kept a secret. Sorry to all those who know the story, but for those that don’t, the farmers used only to partly milk their cows on the day when stewards came to measure their yield and determine the tax to be paid. The resulting withheld milk (which also happens to be richer) would then be milked from the cow and transformed into a cheese – ‘lait de reblocher’ means ‘withheld milk’. This cheese-making had to be fast - hence the fabrication immediately after milking, heavy use of rennet, short coagulation time and quick ripening by washing and ageing at a high temperature.

Those that know Reblochon often know it because of the French dish - Tartiflette. And it isn’t often that Reblochon is mentioned without Tartiflette cropping up in the same sentence. In fact Tartiflette was invented only recently (in the eighties) by the Syndicat Interprofessionnel du Reblochon in order to sell and popularise Reblochon. Yet this was a double-edged sword – the reputation of Reblochon runs now alongside the dish and the cheese is rarely recognised on its own for the quality, smooth, unctuous beast it can be. I wanted to find that cheese!

Setting off from Thones, I headed up into the mountains of Aravis. At 1300m, I thought I had got high enough and I saw a sign for a farm that made Reblochon, so popped in. No one was around. I asked a neighbour if they made cheese there. He looked at me gone out. In the summer? Of course not - go higher! So half an hour of winding roads later I reached the Col de la Croix Fry. From there it was on foot up winding mountain trails till I reached the Plateau de Beauregard. At last, here they were: farms a plenty, cows in the pasture with their bells dinging and donging, playing the tune of the mountains. Let the tasting begin! Several farms and Reblochons later I was just about to give up (they were great, but not that great). Then - bang! I found it! That flavour, texture and smell I was looking for. Now to quiz the makers: production techniques, sales and, most importantly, affinage.

But when it came to how they aged their cheese the same name cropped up - Paccard of Manigod. Well it just so happened their 20th anniversary of being affineurs of Reblochon was that night, so I squeezed my way in to the celebrations.

And what a night. We started by tasting each of the products from each of the farms Paccard work with (17 Reblochons anyone?) – an amazing array of different distinct flavours. The quality was fantastic in every one, although of course I naturally had my favourites. And yes, they know how to affine the others too: their Beaufort, Chevrotin, Abondance, Bleu de Termingnon and Tommes were equally fantastic.

Then the celebration meal: if you could write a list of who’s who in affinage and top quality cheese, they were there – Bernard Anthony, Van Tricht, Androuet; as well as the twenty-odd farms that Paccard work with. Jean-Francois, one of the family, very kindly invited me up into the mountains early the next day to watch the milking and production of Reblochon and Abondance, before giving me a tour and explaining their process of affinage for all of their products – very complex - various rooms, moving, washing, temperatures, wrapping and of course – the touch (see my later blog - Tools of the Affineur).

As Joseph Paccard said in his speech at the end of the night: Reblochon is a cheese that should not only be famous for Tartiflette - it should be on the best cheeseboards in France. And after tasting his - I have to agree: his Reblochon is ‘Top!’

The Great Affineurs of the Savoie

Affinage. That buzzword, which I seem to keep going on about (it is why I’m in France after all). Hervé Mons is considered one of the best affineurs in the World, and that is why I’m here with him to improve upon my affinage craft. However, there are other affineurs out there too, although many of them specialise in the products of their own region. As affinage is such a subjective subject, with everyone using their own tools, tricks, techniques, caves and other idiosyncrasies, I thought it would make sense to visit a few of the other affineurs to pick up what I can from them!

First stop - Savoie! The Savoie is an amazingly beautiful region in France, with 93% of its terrain classified ‘mountainous’. But, more importantly it is home to some of my favourite, and the world’s best, cheese: Beaufort, Abondance, Reblochon, Bleu de Termignon, Chevrotin, Tarentais, as well as numerous Tommes (de Savoie, de Roche, de Crayeuse, de Bauges - every farm here makes their own style).

And although there are numerous dairies here too, the beauty of the cheese in the Savoie is that much is made in high alpine farms with maybe just 30 animals and tiny production (look out for Beaufort Alpage, Reblochon with a green sticker, as well as any Chevrotin, Tarentais and Bleu de Termignon). The high mountain pastures give fantastic floral diversity; consequently the milk of the cows and goats here is rich, floral and – by gum – delicious! This passes straight through to the cheese and that’s why it has such flavour.

All these small farms, at dizzy altitudes (1500m+), need someone to fetch the cheeses, age them and take them to market. That’s where the affineurs step in: Savoie is home to some big names in the affinage world.

My first stop was Denis Provent, Chambery, retailer of all Savoie cheese delicacies, he has recently come to fame for his Tarentais cheese. Only 2 producers of this relatively rare cheese exist, and its become a buzzword among cheese connoisseurs at the moment; it’s very interesting because it’s characteristics change completely with age (affinage), and eating three different ages is like eating three completely different cheeses. Yet unlike many other cheeses, all the different ages are fantastic and it’s hard to choose a peak in its life! So I visited his caves, and had a chat about his methods of affinage, picking his brain where I could! He has six caves, all located underground – old tunnels, ice sheds, natural caves – with many cheeses sitting there quite contentedly.

Next stop: Schmidhauser. A much bigger, commercial affair. Large, purpose-built caves (again with Hervé’s help – he pops up everywhere!), to age masses upon masses of cheese. That being said, the quality is good, and their specialities are particularly interesting - Tomme de Crayeuse and Chartreuex. Their master of ceremonies gave me a tour and a taste, before taking me off to visit one of his dairies making Tomme de Savoie.

My trip next takes me to Farto de Thones, a bit further up the mountain, (again one of Hervé’s friends - who isn’t?). They are actually a co-operative and started by working with fermier (farm) Reblochon producers up in the mountains, ageing their products, and taking care of all the selling and marketing. This is still the lions’ share of their business, yet now they also make and affiné other Savoie delicacies. Their tunnels are massive and almost as impressive as Schmidhauser’s. Yet again, a few more tips: different ways of working, different ideas. With these Savoie cheeses, although all these affineurs carry the same cheeses by name, the slight differences in techniques of production and affinage result in a remarkable diversity: no two Abondances, Beauforts, and Reblochons are really the same. Each affineur has his own expertise.

Yet, after all my time in France I was still to find a Reblochon that would blow me away. They were great here, but not especially better than other Reblochon I had tasted before: a velvety texture, a strong assertive smell and creamy, buttery, floral, complex flavour, or some that were a bit like eating a rare tender rib-eye steak. I was looking for that special Reblochon – a cheese that would make me think, “Yes! I’m in the right trade.”

So I asked around and all the locals said just one word – “Paccard”. Go up into the mountains, they said. So off I went, in my search of that Reblochon.

To be continued…

Comté and Affinage

A wee bit more science for you, on the famous French cheese of Comté (Gruyère style). Appellation controlled, the production and first four months of affinage happen in the Franche-Comte region of France. It then arrives with us at Mons.

To show you how different affinage can affect the final flavour can be seen very clearly with two examples we have in the cave at the moment. One has been kept at about 7°-8°C, the other 12°-14°C. The cheese at the lower temperature is actually older, but the other cheese has far more flavour. The reason for this is the temperature; the lower temperature is perfect for protein breakdown but is too low for propionic fermentation, which is essential to fully develop the flavour of Comté. The warmer cheese was kept at the lower temperature for the first month of its life then put at a higher temperature to allow the propionic bacteria to develop the flavour, leading to a more rounded, complex final taste.

The reason why Hervé Mons takes the cheeses as young as he can (four months) rather than leave it with the affineurs in the area, is so he can control this process. And he cannot just take any cheese. Each day’s production from each farm is tasted so we can determine which will age the best to develop the finest flavours – we then take that whole batch. As Mons age at higher temperatures than most, several farms’ production of Comté age too fast because of the types of ferment they use and their individual production process, so we also have to know that before we choose.

Then the cheese arrives. It’s weighed and put in the cave. At Mons each cheese is turned and dealt with individually by hand, rather than by machine. Although more expensive (and back breaking!), it means that instead of treating every cheese the same, we can react to each cheese as it develops differently and at different speeds. This week for the same batch of Comté, some were just turned, others brushed, some washed with a special solution, some floured and a few dry-salted and wiped, according to how they were developing – leading to a more consistent higher quality.

Now, imagine this is one example of over 150 cheeses we affine here, that’s some knowledge you have to got to have – no wonder being an affineur is a trade for life! Although some techniques are similar; every cheese is in reality treated differently to bring out its best flavour; a knowledge and skill that I’m slowly picking up