Morbier (cheese)
Morbier is a French cheese made from cow's milk .
history
The semi-hard cheese with at least 45% fat in the dry matter is AOP - protected EU-wide and is only produced in the Franche-Comté region . The cheese has been known since the 18th century, but only received AOC protection in 2000 and AOP protection in 2002.
The cut cheese can be recognized immediately by a strip of plant ash that runs horizontally through the cheese. The formation of this strip is related to the way the cheese was originally made more than 200 years ago. Back then, lonely farms could not bring their cows' milk to the next village in the winter months. Since the milk of a smaller herd was not enough to make cheese on a large Comté wheel, the farmers made a smaller cheese at this time of the year. To do this, they mixed the milk from the morning milking session with that of the evening. Thus, on the fresh fracture was no crust and to protect it against dehydration and microbial contamination, the cheese was sprinkled with morning wood ash. In the evening, the milk from the second milking session was poured onto the existing cheese mass and the curd pressed. So the cheese grew layer by layer.
Today the Morbier is mostly produced industrially and tastes rather mild, the layer of plant ash in this case is pure decoration. Morbier is also still produced in small quantities by hand from raw milk , partly from milk from organic farming , these variants are usually spicier.
Manufacturing
The raw milk (from cows of the Montbéliarde or Simmental française breeds ) is thickened, the jelly is cut and the curd is pressed, a layer of ash is scattered between two layers. The cheese matures for nine to ten weeks (at least 45 days); The months from April to October are considered the optimal period of enjoyment, but earlier or later Morbiers can also be very good.
properties
The wheel-shaped cheeses weighing five to eight kilograms (30–40 cm in diameter and 5–8 cm high) have a smooth, firm, greasy dough of ivory to golden yellow with a typical bluish-black ash strand in the central plane of the cake. The bark is thin and elastic and goes from light gray to an orange beige. Depending on the degree of ripeness, the aroma and taste of the cheese range from mild and fine-spicy to slightly fruity to strongly creamy and aromatic.
Key figures
The production area extends over the Jura mountain range between 500 and 1500 meters above sea level in the departments of Doubs , Jura , Ain and Saône-et-Loire about 10,000 square kilometers. 1026 companies are involved in the production, 975 milk producers, 41 cheese dairies (2 farm dairies, 26 cheese cooperatives and 13 industrial companies) and 53 processing companies that produce a total of 7,000 tons of cheese (figures from 2005).
Individual evidence
- ↑ Morbier. In: Everything about cheese (with a link to the EU regulation). kaesewelten.info, accessed on February 1, 2020 .
- ↑ Morbier - guidelines for production. to INAO L'Institut national de l'origine et de la qualité. Retrieved July 5, 2015 (French).
- ^ Morbier production area. (PDF) on INAO L'Insitut national de l'origine et de la qualité. (No longer available online.) Formerly in the original ; Retrieved July 5, 2015 (French). ( Page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Morbier. to INAO L'Institut national de l'origine et de la qualité. Retrieved July 5, 2015 (French).
Web links
- Morbier cheese from franche-comte.org , French, accessed December 2, 2015