Un morceau de cantal douxThe only cantal I had been buying until yesterday was the in-between style. But yesterday afternoon at the Leclerc hypermarket (une grande surface) in Amboise I noticed that they were selling cantal doux. I bought some and it's good, even though I think I like the entre-deux cantal better.
All the cantal cheeses I am finding around Saint-Aignan are AOC (appellation d'origine contrôlée), meaning they are made in the official production areas centered on the Cantal département using milk and methods conforming to strict specifications. They are the real thing, not knock-off versions or counterfeits.
The Cantal département is about four hourssouth of Saint-Aignan by car.
According to the Larousse: Les Fromages book written by Robert J. Courtine (Paris: Larousse, 1973, 1987), the cheese now called cantal used to be called Fourme de Salers. Salers is a township in the Cantal département, which in turn is in the mountainous central French region called L'Auvergne, and the Salers area is known for raising and breeding a race of cattle that produces both good milk and fine beef.
Cantal is probably the oldest French cheese, according to Monsieur Courtine, having been produced for more than 2000 years. It is mentioned in the works of the Roman writer Pliny the Elder. According to Wikipedia's French site, about 18,000 tons of cantal cheese are produced annually, if the statistics for 2003 are indicative. That's almost 40 million pounds.
Cantal is an uncooked, semi-soft cheese with a dry crust. It is good for your digestion, according to French doctors specializing in such matters. "Cantal is what it is," a local poet is quoted as saying. "It's a peasant cheese. Trying to dress it up is a big mistake, because it is just the simplest of products."
A British friend who lives here in Saint-Aignan told me recently that she likes cantal because it melts smoothly in soups and doesn't get stringy the way gruyère or comté does. I haven't tried that, but I know the Auvergne specialty called aligot, which is mashed or pureed potatoes with cheese melted in them, is made with cantal.
Here's a picture of some French guys wearing berets and making aligot in a gigantic pot:
Making aligot on a grand scaleI found the picture on this site, where there is also a recipe (in French). It calls for potatoes, cheese, cream, and garlic.
Cantal : un des plus beaux fromages de France !
ReplyDeleteCantal is the best cheese ever made ! If you want to buy some on the net, you would be happy to know you can order some directly from the producers on the french website Testadaz.com
ReplyDeleteHave a nice day. Interesting blog, congratulations !
LOL @ W
ReplyDeleteCheryl, did you get the joke? I didn't get it. Walt had to explain to me that he was playing on the PBVF designation.
ReplyDeleteYum! aligot!
ReplyDeleteSorry, Ken, aligot is not made with Cantal - -or maybe it CAN be...but traditionally it is made with "tomme," kind of a vague, firm cheese. I don't have time to research into "tomme" and what that is, but maybe you do..
ReplyDeleteWe can easily get the three types of Cantal here in neighboring Aveyron and I love them all...
Until about four years ago, we used to see a woman in the twice-weekly market in Montignac who sold slices of vieux cantal from a whole wheel.It was so big that she was hard pressed to cut anything from it that weighed less than a half-kilo.
ReplyDeleteMadame B. my next door neighbor said that the woman, who looked the part of a farmer to be sure, drove all the way from Cantal with the whole wheels. I wish I had taken a picture of one. The outside crust was mottled and patchy and looked as though it had been buried in the farmyard for about a century. But the inside was this pristine and irresistable looking cheese, and I never resisted it.
Oh, how I wish I could have a wedge on my counter right now! And a cold glass of Kronenburg in my hand.
Dennis
Betty, Robert Courtine (de l'Académie Français, quand même) says in the Larousse book of cheeses that Cantal is used to make aligot, but you are surely right about the tomme.
ReplyDeleteCourtine also says that tomme is the name given to cantal or laguiole cheese during the first stage of the cheese-making process. So tomme in this case is extra-young cantal, maybe.