Morbier cheese

Morbier is a French cheese made from cow's milk.

History

The semi-solid sliced ​​cheese with at least 45 % fat in dry matter is AOC - protected and is only produced in the Franche -Comté.

The sliced ​​cheese is immediately recognizable by a strip of vegetable ash that runs horizontally through the cheese. The emergence of this strip is related to the type of original manufacture of the cheese together more than 200 years ago. At that time, could not get the milk of their cows to the next village secluded courtyards in the winter months. Since the milk of a smaller herd was not enough for a large cheese Comté wheel, put the farmers in this season ago a small cheese. To this end, they mixed the milk from the morning Melkgang with the evening. This was formed on the fresh break no crust and to protect it against drying out and contamination, the cheese was sprinkled with morning wood ash. In the evening, the milk of the second Melkgangs was added to the existing cheese mixture and pressed the break. So the cheese layer grew by layer.

Today, the Morbier is usually manufactured industrially and tastes rather mild, the layer of vegetable ash in this case is pure decoration. Morbier but is also produced in small quantities crafted from raw milk, partly from organic milk, these variants are usually spicy.

Production

The raw milk is curdled, the curd is cut and pressed the break between two layers, a layer of ashes interspersed. The cheese is aged nine to ten weeks; as ideal drinking period, the months of April to October are, but also earlier or later Morbiers can be very good.

Properties

The wheel-shaped cheeses weighing five to seven kilograms a smooth, cut-resistant, greasy dough from pale yellow to golden yellow color with a typical blue-black ash vein in the center plane of the pie. The bark is thin and elastic and also relatively bright aroma and flavor of the cheese are sorted by ripeness mild and delicately spicy over slightly fruity to strong creamy aromatic

Use

The cheese lends itself well to any board or cheese board. Even in the warm kitchen of Morbier with his good melting properties is very versatile. As an accompanying drink recommend a wine from the Franche -Comté as the Arbois, but other whites such as Muscadet or Sancerre fit well.