Savoie Cheeses

The French are famous for their cheeses, the variety and passion with which they are produced and eaten. The Savoie region produces some fine cheeses, including Abondance, Beaufort, Chevrotin, Emmental de Savoie, Racelette, Reblochon de Savoie and Tomme de Savoie.

Typically in France, cheese is served before the dessert course.

Abondance is a semi-hard, fragrant, raw-cows milk cheese, produced exclusively from milk produced by the Abondance breed of cows, from the Abondance Commune in the Haute-Savioe.

Beaufort has enjoyed and AOC designation since 1968 and is a hard, rather sharp cheese made from cow’s milk and is produced in the area around Beaufort located high in the alps, in the Haute Savoie area. It is this high altitude that endows Beaufort with its unique flavour.

There are three varieties of Beaufort; Beaufort de Savoie ete (or summer Beaufort); Beaufort d’alpage and Beaufort d ‘hiver (winter Beaufort)

For every 1 kg of Beaufort cheese 11 liters of milk from the Tarentaise of Abondance cows that graze in the Alps. First, the milk is heated and then the cheese, is cast into its moulds, pressed, and slated, which gives their concave rind a visually distinctive characteristic to Beaufort cheese. The cheese is smear ripened to produce a stronger flavour and its rind color and must then age for 6–12 months, or even longer and during this period, the cheese takes on its yellow colour and acquires much of its flavour.

Chevrotin is a soft goat’s cheese produced in the Haute-Savoie and has since 2002 enjoyed an AOC designation.

Chevrotin is made from filtered but unpasteurized goat’s milk and has been produced since the 17th century in the Haute Savoie. Production tends to be a small-scale artisanal process and features a “fine croûte blanche rosée” coating of soft reddish-brown. The cheese has a full flavour with an aromatic sourness reminiscent of the wild herbs from the sparse mountain terroir which makes up the diets of the mountain goats.

With only a brief maturation period, it needs a minimum of three weeks to ripen, with the cheese moulds placed on pine timber shelves, with the cheeses turned and washed with brine three times per week.

Emmental de Savoie is made from cow’s milk and is a yellow, medium-hard cheese, which has a piquant, but not very sharp, taste. Failure to remove CO₂ bubbles during production, due to inconsistent pressing, results in the large holes characteristic of this cheese.

Racelette is a semi-firm, cow’s milk cheese – most commonly used for melting and is used in the traditional Savoyard dish, of charcuterie, cornichons, pickled onions and potatoes and the melted cheese is scraped over the cold platter of food, which is a particularly nutritious meal formerly consumed by artisans in the Haute-Savoie and now featuring on all good restaurant menus.

Reblochon is a from the Haute-Savoie and has been granted an AOC designation title and is a soft washed and smear ripened cheese, with its soft centre, which traditionally is made from raw cow’s milk, from the Abondance, Montbeliarde and Tarentaise breeds.

Reblochon with its characteristic nutty taste is an essential ingredient of tartiflette, a Savoyard specialty gratin made from potatoes, cream, and onions. The cheese’s name derives from the word ‘reblocher’ which when literally translated, means ‘to pinch a cow’s udder again’, which stems from a local tax avoidance trick, where farmers would not fully milk their cows when monitored to reduce their tax liability on output and afterwards, would resume milking and obtain a much richer and creamier milk, which was traditionally used to make their own cheese.

Tomme de Savoie is a mild, semi-firm cheese, made from the skim milk left over after the cream is used to make butter or richer cheeses.  This cow’s milk cheese is made year-round, and as with Beaufort, typically has a slightly different character depending on whether the cows are fed on winter hay or summer grass.

The cheese with its beige interior and a thick brownish-grey rind is first pressed, and then matured for several months in a traditional cellar, which produces the characteristically thick rind and adds flavour.