French Cheeses

BREBIROUSSE D’ARGENTAL

Brebirousse d’Argental is a French cheese from the Lyon area. This cheese is unique because it is made of sheep’s milk. If you suffer from a lactose intolerance, sheep’s milk cheese and other products can be a great substitute. Brebirousse d’Argental cheese has a clean smooth buttery flavor inside a mottled reddish/orange rind. The orange color comes from being washed with annatto. It has a stronger flavor than some cow or goat cheeses with a salty, grassy and even meaty taste. It can get runny at room temperature. It has quite a mild mushroomy aroma. Brebirousse d’Argental may be purchased at a grocery store, specialty cheese store, or online through multiple different retailers.

HISTORY:

The name of this cheese in English means “Red Sheep.” Brebirousse d’Argental is one of the many sheep’s milk cheeses produced in France. Sheep’s milk cheese has had an interesting history, today, you can expect to pay a little more for this product, but in earlier times it was cheaper than cow’s milk cheese. Sheep’s milk traditions started in other European countries like Italy & Spain before they did in France. Brebirousse d’Argental was launched in 1985 by Fromi, a German cheese company specialising in French cheeses.

LE CLAOUSOU

HISTORY:

The Claousou was created by the Fédou family in 2012. The idea was to create a cheese with a smooth texture and a strong taste. However, the initial batches tended to collapse during the maturation process. As a result, it was decided to use the spruce bark binding. Development of this delicious cheese took almost two years. The name comes from the name of the small oblongue local gardens of the Causses territory which are protected from sheep by stone walls “The Claousou du Causse Mejean,” in the same manner as the cheese is protected by its strap of spruce bark. Le Claousou is a sheep’s cheese from the Cévennes region of France made by the Fromagerie du Fédou, a family run fromagerie. The sheep that provide the milk for Le Claousou graze in the pastures of La Causse Méjean eating grass, herbs and flowers. Their milk is collected from only about a dozen shepherds all within 30 kms of the fromagerie. The cheese itself is an oval shape. It is semi-soft with an earthy and nutty flavor, a little fruity and smoky from the French Jura spruce bark binding it is wrapped in. The rind is washed regularly in brine which results in a pretty ivory pink color. The cheese is aged for two to three weeks. It is made with raw ewe’s milk salt, and rennet. The paste is a pale milky color, smooth, creamy and silky.

HISTORY:

Catal is an old, classic goat cheese hailing from Southern France. The region it is from, as well as the cheese are religiously significant because the Cather region was the bedrock of an early European religion called “Catharism.” The people in this region had been taken over by the Moors previously, and this is how they had managed to make goat cheese, from the Moorish method. They then combined these methods with an element of their faith (the cross decal) to concoct Catal cheese.

CATAL

The Catal Cheese (also called Cathare or Croix Catal) can be spotted quickly in a cheese store by its two most distinct elements; the tiny amount of ash coats the top of the cheese, and the design “Cathar Cross” or “Occitan Cross” in the ash. Catal is a light, scrumptious goat cheese. Catal is deliciously gooey, when spread on a baguette, every bite will melt in your mouth. The taste of Catal is best explained as having a lighter weight with a very thin rind and a silky, buttery texture. Catal has an incredible amount of flavor while still falling into the category of a “fresh” (two week old) cheese.