(47) The first visit

Welcome back to my blog. For people not familiar with this, it is all about cheese, but quality cheese, not the brick style, the one that requires care to be made and represent a territory through history and custom. Now, depending on the geography, the place where the cheese originates, the history of the cheese can be very long or it can be rather short but is an evolution from displaced people like in the east of Europe.

Anyway, if you go to the website, www.cheesefromage.com, you will find some information about the technology of cheese in general, of taste with some specifics and explanations, and a few descriptions of cheese. You are most welcome to have a look and hopefully enjoy it.

My recent travel to France to the parent company near Nantes made me remember my first visit to a cheesemaker. At the time I was working in a very nice restaurant in Mayfair, a 2-stars Michelin establishment, which closed like all the other restaurants where I worked in London. I did not stay to the end, just before the pandemic, but decided to change of trade and enter the cheese world with my two feet firmly planted in the middle.

The only other option for me at the time would have been a senior management position in a restaurant, and I was not looking forward to it, I much preferred to build the restaurant team and teach about cheese. This was my role at the time, I was taking care of the cheese trolley, selecting the best possible assortment well ripen with luxurious flavours and taste. The other part of my job, except as to make sure that this endeavour was profitable, was to teach the restaurant team about cheese in general, and of our selection cheeses in particular.

I gained confidence talking to my colleagues and in the presentations that I was doing. I developed a teaching system that I transformed into a little book, of about 200 pages, with a copy given to each employee. The goal was to have a good display at all times, me present or not, and for every guest to be served correctly by a colleague having full knowledge of the products. I was happy doing it and it worked very well, at least we had good reviews about it.

New Fourme de Montbrison in the drying room

So, in 2007, I contacted an artisan cheesemaker in France located not too far away from my hometown. We arranged for a visit day while I was staying at my mother’s during an holiday, and she let me borrow her car at the time, I was most grateful.

I went to Sauvain, in the Forez between Montbrison and Ambert, the two main places of Fourme. Starting from Roanne, my hometown, in a small car that I did not know really, I was not too fast. Furthermore, I was working in catering still at the time and was more accustomed to rise late and finish the day past midnight. So, I arrived mid-morning at the fromagerie and introduced myself to the artisan cheesemaker Mr Tarit.

I prepared myself and my photographic gear, with his gracious permission, and I followed him while he was explaining everything he was doing, making a batch of Fourme de Montbrison. He started by showing me his milk trailer being emptied through a filtration machine with the milk going straight to the vat afterwards. He worked with farms nearby and was assured of the quality of the milk, and of the cow making it with the correct requirements and good quality of life. Because, as everybody knows, to get good milk you need good and happy cows in a nice environment.

The milk had a little time to mature during transport but ferments and then with penicillium Roqueforti are added to the milk in the vat. It is left there to act with rennet added for the coagulation to happen while the milk is kept at near body temperature. Within the hour the milk has been transformed into curd and whey in the vat, stirring being used at first to help a good assimilation of all ingredients.

It is now midday, and as traditional in France it is time for lunch break, during which I went to see the nearby countryside where I can see the local cows in their fields. They might not be used to visitors, but they are peaceful enough for nice pictures to be taken. After about one hour I join again my host in his atelier.

After a quick check the curd is ready, a harp is fixed in the vat and do cut the curd down to size transforming the mass of the curd into little grains. Mr. Tarit show me the previous day’s work drying on wood “gutter-style” planks in the drying room next door while the harp is working in the vat, it is a good use of the time available. Of course, this was not by accident, all the production needs to be checked and all the time need to be used intelligently as to waste it or be idle for nothing gained. For me, it provides a good opportunity to take some nice graphic pictures of lines of Fourmes resting on these planks, one above the other one.

Back to the vat now, and the fromager is testing the curd grains, and he decides to keep on kneading the grains in the whey for perfection. He gives the finishing touches to the drying table preparations and adjust the pipe that will pour the mix of the vat into the drying table just next to it. The grains are checked again, and the time has arrived when they are ready. The cutting harp is removed and replaced by a mixing scoop before the trap is opened and the mix of whey and grains of curd pours into the drying table.

I could see straight away the mix pouring into the draining table which looked to be filling slowly at first, but this was just an illusion, not imagination (you got it?...). Anyway, after a few minutes I moved to the vat to have a look, and it was getting empty pretty well. At that stage, our fromager first made sure that the curd was well spread into the drying table before moving to the vat and drain it of the last bit of the mix. He started the drainage process by unblocking the drain at the bottom of the table where the whey is separated from the curd, and then poured into a vat in a trailer underneath, a floor below. This will be given to a pig farmer nearby as these animals love this rich liquid. Nothing is wasted, bioengineering is used to its fullest to avoid the problem of having to deal with whey disposal, clever all the way.

Very soon the table seemed solid with the grains of curd forming a large block, this was helped by our fromager who pushed the grains together at the other end of the table. Drainage was quick, mainly due to the concept of the draining table, and the next step is salting. But before this can be done the curd was made a bit more solid by creating a big block within the drying table. This was then broken up slightly before our fromager used a curd box, made of perforated metal with the equivalent quantity of one Fourme, that he filled to move the curd to next stage.

Salting was made simple, and quite cleverly I should add, by the use of the curd box: the curd was compact and dry enough before being broken up through the use of a machine which deposited the curd into a container. Salt was then hand-spread, and the broken-up curd mixed by shaking in the box, this made sure of the salt content and a good distribution of the salt. Now, as to the machine to break the curd, this is quite simple really, this is a grinder with a slow to medium rotation to ensure that this do not damage the curd.

Moulding is then done by filling progressively rows of moulds, container after container until each mould is filled correctly. Moving progressively down the rows of moulds, this is a long, time consuming, and repetitive process. This requires strength and patience as well as a good eye for quality control, and when all moulds have been filled it is then time to turn them over. The last bit ensures that the curd is well shaped within the mould and that the humidity level will be checked correctly and each mould filled correctly.

At the end of this process, the moulds are moved to the drying room, the one from above, where each cheese will be unmoulded the following day and put on his cheneau, or “gutter style” plank, where the rind will be made for a few days before being moved to the maturing cellar proper. However, one of the most important steps of the cheesemaking was then done: cleaning of the equipment used. In view of the fromager’s clothes I let him do it, this involved a lot a water with brushes and detergent, and I was not at all dressed for this.

When he had finished the cleaning, we talked a bit. I thanked him for his hospitality and asked me about my interest in cheese and where it came from. He seemed satisfied by the answers as he asked me to join him for an extra part of the visit, I was thrilled and intrigued. I cannot remember if we went in two cars or if I jumped into his car’s passenger seat, but we drove for about 10 minutes towards the high part of the village, and slightly beyond.

We arrived at two old joined buildings on the side of the mountain by the road. These could have been garages or old storage places. Anyway, they did not look like much but old, unimposing, with not much interest. He opened the door of the larger building and we were in the main maturing cellar, cheeses everywhere, a treasure trove. The place was well maintained inside with temperature control for the warm season whereas the humidity control was ingenious, a river runs through it! By this I mean that a source was coming out of the back wall and ran through most of the floor of the cellar.

There is a special place in the maturing cellar, with a bit more light due to its usage, it is where the young Fourme is spiked to let oxygen in and boost the production of the blue veins. Everywhere else you have shelves with cheese and label affixed nearby them to tell when they were made.

There are a few other Tomes as well as some declassified cheese and some reserved production. The place is magical, and the care needed is not enormous but constant, checking the evolution of each batch, knowing where in the cellar cheese would progress fastest and the rotation needed.

Overall, it was a joy to visit a place where cheese was made. On top of that, this happened in my department with a high-quality product that needed all the support that could be provided. Fourme de Montbrison well deserves praise for its history as well and the quality of the people that make it. I believe that there is more quality to it than to its cousin form the other side of the mountain, a smaller production with less compromise.

At least visit your local fromagerie, I only hope that there is one nearby where you live, this is always such a pleasure (and by that, I mean cheese shop).

And remember, give life to your taste buds, and above all, enjoy real cheese.