18 January 2020

The cheese called Mont d'Or


I had never bought or even eaten the cheese called Le Mont d'Or (le mont d'Or in French) until a week or two ago. The time was ripe (and so was the cheese). Mont d'Or cheeses, which resemble fat, wide Camembert cheeses, come in a wooden box that is 14 cm in diameter and 6 cm deep —  that's 5½ x 2¼ inches. The natural rind of the Mont d'Or is white, and the soft cheese inside is even whiter. And mild-tasting.

French Mont d'Or cheeses are made in the eastern Jura region from unpasteurized cow's milk. The similar Swiss cheese called Vacherin du Mont-d'Or is made from cow's milk that has been thermisé by a process similar to pasteurization, but at lower temperatures. On the French-Swiss border, about 40 miles north of Geneva and 75 miles southeast of Dijon, stands the actual Mont d'Or, 1463 meters tall (4,800 feet).

The Mont d'Or cheese is ripened on planks made from spruce wood. That is supposed to give it a special flavor. The French cheeses are ripened for only 12 days, and they are very runny when you buy them. They are packed in round boxes (larger than but resembling Camembert boxes, as I said) also made of spruce wood. One way to eat Mont d'Or cheese is to leave it in its wooden box puncture the top crust, drizzle on some white wine, and bake it in the oven. Then it's really runny.



The cheese I bought, which was on special offer at nine euros (ten dollars), was too much for Walt and I to eat in one sitting, so I cut it in half (as you can see in my photos) and we baked one half and kept the other in the refrigerator for a few days. Yesterday we ate the rest of it, melting it in the trays of our raclette appliance. I've blogged about that device before.



Melted Mont d'Or cheese, whether you bake it dans sa boîte or cook it in raclette trays under a heating element, is something you eat with cured meats like ham, salami, or smoked sausages, and also grilled mushrooms, steamed potatoes, and green vegetables (we had Brussels sprouts). Don't forget the French bread and some red wine. Pickles (cornichons) as an accompaniment are good too.




I thought the mushrooms, which we grilled lightly on the hot top cooking surface of the raclette appliance, were especially good with the melted cheese — sweet and juicy. Actually, all of it was good, and it made for a nice wintertime lunch.

16 comments:

  1. Another amazing French cheese....Meanwhile, I am excited because my kids are giving me a raclette party for my birthday. That's always fun, and we can even buy real raclette cheese in these parts. Both of my daughters have the apparatus for raclette and it's always very special. (I am turning 75 and that fact keeps amazing me.)

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    1. Happy birthday, Thickethouse, from someone who is twenty one years your senior! Many, many happy returns.

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    2. Congraulations, chm! My oldest sister and brother in law were born in 1926 and 1927 but I think you have them beat. They both live in Budapest.

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  2. Here is an interesting point in grammar for those English-speaking people who discount the importance of the right use of hyphens or capital letters in French! As I understand it, there are two cheeses with the same name, one is French and the other one is Swiss. They're made on both sides of the Jura Mountains. The French one, as we see here, is called le mont d'Or -- note no capital m and no hyphen --, and the Swiss one, le Mont-d'Or, with a capital M and an hyphen! Even though they're similar, they show some differences other than grammatical!

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  3. Even though I have heard the name, I never came across this cheese which looks intriguing to me. Next time I'm in France, I'll look for it. Just like in Camembert and Brie, I guess the rind of mont d'Or is edible?

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    1. Yes. In English I capitalize the names of French cheeses, so I don't have to put them in italics. So it's Mont d'Or — two capitals, no hyphens. It's all just spelling conventions.

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  4. Dusting if snow here in NoVa today. Snow is not my thing!

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  5. So the less aged a cheese is, the runnier it will be? The baked with white wine sounds delicious.

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    1. I think that's more or less true, because as the cheese ages it dries out and firms up. I'm sure it's not completely that simple. Different cheeses age differently. I'm having luck drying pieces of cheese (cheddar, goat cheese, etc.) in the fridge to harden them to parmesan consistency for grating.

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  6. Mont d'Or was a seasonal favourite of Gustav's and mine. I think we've still got some of the ceramic dishes that they were occasionally sold with that you could use to heat them in the oven.

    I remember going to the Borough markets in London and seeing an enormous stack of them being sold. We're told they show up sometimes in Australia, but haven't caught them yet.

    Unrelated, but you may enjoy this item which came through my RSS feed at the same time as your post: https://bigthink.com/strange-maps/the-joy-of-french-in-a-dozen-maps

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    1. Thanks, Mike. Those maps are interesting. As for Mont d'Or cheese, as you say, it's seasonally available, from Sept. or Oct. through April. It's almost like oysters — enjoy Mont d'Or cheese in months with names containing an R.

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  7. Coincidence! I was just looking at the little drawing made for me at a lunch in Normandy a couple of years ago to illustrate which cheese of the several being served was which. Mont (or mont) d'Or is at the top. And very delicious it was, too.
    Your lunch sounds excellent.

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    1. I have a small portion of our Mont d'Or cheese left. I'll try it today as it is, unmelted.

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  8. Vacherin Mont d'Or used to be the same on the French and Swiss sides, then in the 1980's, there was a huge issue with some of the Swiss cheese makers with listeria. So our government (they know better than us what is good for us) decided to thermise the milk for vacherin. Although everyone on this side of the border (the Swiss side) claims there is no difference, I, as a Swiss confirm there is. Note that in Wisconsin, they make cheeses that are just as good, although overpriced, likely due to the low sales: Jasper Hill Creamery, Winnimere and Harbison or Uplands Cheese, Rush Creek Reserve. Thanks for your blog which I follow since many years and keep up the good work. Love you guys.

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    1. Thanks for that information, Anonymous. And for the comment. Come back more often.

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