Yes, it's from that same book I got my information. I own it. He describes many makers and affineurs (Pierre Jaquin, the aforementioned Pierre Androuet, a dozen or so others) with knowledge of traditional makes decrying the modern deigning to industrial convenience. Rolling in salted ash being one of them, the others I mentioned. That, as well as modern husbandry practice. My read of it is one way is a natural blueing assisted by a natural ash skin; the other is a modern half-measure of salted ash, sold as a separate substance, merely rolled on for effect.
I should add, he's got no actual recipe in the book for the St. Maure. Lots of lore, but unfortunately not a lot of discussion on actual make for the cheese (unlike my métier, the alpines, where he does a good job of describing in decent detail make procedures, with an actual tomme recipe concluding his Savoie chapter).
More generally, with even less help on the making of St. Maure, but a book so full of lore, tradition, and enough description of makes and processes, that one could divine recipes from his writing if one had some familiarity with French cooking generally, is Waverly Root's
The Food of France. This book has probably been my closest companion in my personal and professional life cooking fairly classic French cuisine, for the last 40 or so years. A wonderful section on the Touraine:
The heartland of France. It was here, as much as in any other single locality, that the subtle, clear, precise language of Modern France developed, and here also, fittingly, that the subtle, fine, expert cooking of modern France developed.
The great gypsy swing, jazz, world music artist
Stephane Wrembel once told me, when I was talking about my family moving to France, that without hesitation, move to the Loire and more specifically, Touraine. Echoing a similar sensibility to Root's comment, above.
However, on St. Maure, I'm afraid Mr. Root doesn't say much. He feels the Touraine is just too rich a land to devote to pastoralism, over its centuries of climactic and commercial adaptation. So, "it produces little cheese...[with] one exception worth mentioning. This is Sainte-Maure, produced in the Touraine village of the same name. It is a goat cheese, made in the form of a baton. Avoid it from December through April, when it is not at its best."
-and that's it, unfortunately. But if you love French culinary tradition, highly recommend the man's book. He writes as well as any travel writer of the Grand Tour tradition of the 19th century, in my opinion. I absolutely love his work.
