Focus on winter cheeses

Cheese is rooted in French gastronomy. Synonymous with pleasure, it is good for health with nutritional benefits, such as calcium. Round or in triangles, white or orange, hard or soft, cheese can be identified by its appearance and texture, but did you know that, like fruit and vegetables, cheese has seasons.

The taste and texture of cheese are closely related to what the animals eat which varies from one season to another. The aromas of summer milk are rich and impregnated with the floral diversity (fresh herbs, wild flowers) of pastures. In winter, the animals are brought into sheds to follow their lactation period and to give birth. During this period, the animals are fed on hay made from their pasture. This ensures that the aromatic palette of the milk is similar over the winter.

On the other hand, you should know that a cheese’s production season does not necessarily coincide with the season in which it is eaten. Effectively, the best time to eat a cheese mainly depends on the ripening time required for the cheese to develop, which varies according to the family and choices of the master cheese-maker.

With the winter season approaching, cheeses to eat hot abound on supermarket shelves. Raclette and tartiflette cheese are coming in: tartiflette mixes, slices of raclette-flavoured processed cheese for burgers, individual fondue cheese pots, mountain cheese-flavour grated cheese, etc.