Author Topic: Vacherin du Mont D'or  (Read 4679 times)

Offline fied

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Vacherin du Mont D'or
« on: August 16, 2011, 01:23:54 PM »
I've had trouble finding a recipe for this cheese, but have gathered the collection of notes below from the net from which I'll make up an experimental recipe. I've a friend who lives in the Vaud region who is looking for more information on its production and will add that here when it arrives.  Given the special alpine requirements for the cheese, I expect only to make a Vacherin type; I'll post results here. It looks like no starter culture is used, just rennet, and the rind is brine washed. Both production methods below are contradictory in parts, so I'll experiment with temperature:


Vacherin Mont D'or

1. From Jura/Vaud
French cheese uses unpasteurised milk, Swiss uses pasteurised. Alpine cheese, Camembert/Brie type(?), made in winter only from raw milk from cows fed on alpine hay. Greyish/pinkish/brownish rind. Soft to runny paste. Smelly and strong - ammoniac. Minimum 50% fat. Strip of spruce taken from the under-bark, cleaned and softened, to circle the cheese. Packed in wooden boxes, usually spruce. The milk comes from red and white pied cows and Montbeliarde cattle which graze at an altitude of over 700 metres in the AOC zone. A Vacherin Mont-d’Or weighs less than 3 kg and measures a maximum of 32 cm in diameter, height 4-5 cm.


2. As the days get shorter in late autumn, Mont d`Or with its typical wood box can be found at cheese counters. Home of the Mont d`Or, and Vacherin du Haut-Doubs, is in Franche-Comté at the border with Switzerland. It is only produced between the middle of August and end of March and is therefore exclusive to the autumn and winter months. This cheese is unusual as it uses unpasteurised winter milk to form the soft, wonderfully aromatic and velvety cheese. Most cheeses need meadowsweet summer milk to reach this level of flavour. It is meltingly rich verging on clotted cream taste. The billowy crust is washed pinky peach with an earthy sappy aroma. The bark around the cheese helps to achieve its texture and perfume.

http://www.norbitoncheese.co.uk/stock/Cheese.aspx?ItemID=37


3. Production
Vacherin Mont d'Or AOC is made ​​from milk heat treated (that is to say, heated to 57 ° C and 68 ° C for up to 15 seconds). This is made ​​with rennet and the curd is cut up with a curd-band to grains of the size of a cherry. Placed in moulds, the curd is pressed for a few hours and then removed from the mould and circled with a strap made of alder spruce. During the 17-25 days of ripening, the cheeses are placed on spruce boards; they are returned and washed [with salt water] daily until the appearance of powdery mildew, repeated then at least once every three days. Refining [affinage] takes place at a temperature of 9 ° to 16 ° C. Just before being marketed, the cheeses are placed in boxes with a diameter slightly smaller than their own, hence the slight undulation of the crust.

http://www.kulinarischeserbe.ch/product.aspx?id=126


4. Mont D'Or or "Vacherin du Haut Doubs" cheese is AOC (AOC). It is  pressed lightly and identified by its soft, though uncooked paste. Manufacture and refining are required to be made ​​in an upland area at least 700 meters, which includes all municipalities in the cantons of Mouthe, Pontarlier, Mortlake, Lever, Montbenoît, and the Maîche Russey. Like the county, the milk used to make Mont D'Or is only from Montbéliard cows. The manufacture starts around 4 hours after milking, with the evening milk lying in a copper vat with a capacity of 550 liters to about 170 Mont D'Or. The milk is heated to 35°C over forty minutes. The setting rennet (calf rennet) is added and the curd left to rest for 15 mins. The curd is tested to monitor its hardening and is then cut up manually. After pitching three times to help with the eventual draining, the curd is raked to one side. The whey is pumped out, the curd remains at the bottom of the tank and is poured into stainless steel cylinders. It is packed lightly into these and the curd left to drain. Then, each cylinder is removed from the curd and is cut with a knife into pieces , each of which will be surrounded by a belt of spruce. They drain more after gentle pressing with a polystyrene follower. In the afternoon the follower is removed. The Mont d'Or, which has been kept at an ambient temperature of 25°C-30°C,  is cooled to 10°C and placed in a salt bath for 25 minutes. Drained all night, they will be placed in the cellar the next day and will be brushed with brine every day. The ripening period is three weeks minimum from the date of manufacture.

After the release of the curd, Mont D'Or is circled by a strap of spruce bark, and after three weeks, it is inserted in a spruce box where it completes its maturing. There are three sizes of Mont D'Or: mini (11.5 cm to 13 cm in diameter, 2500 g), medium (13 to 20 cm in diameter), 600 to 1 kg and fat from 1.8 to 3 kg with a diameter of 20 to 33 cm. Large models are usually intended for cutting.

http://echel.pagesperso-orange.fr/essai_presentation/mont_dor.html


5. Vacherin Mont D'or Museum
http://www.lake-geneva-region.ch/en/cultureheritage/museums/GastronomyWineMuseums/VacherinMontdOrMuseum


6. Photos
http://www.vacherin-montdor.ch/en/photos.htm






 

matnewman

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Re: Vacherin du Mont D'or
« Reply #1 on: December 01, 2011, 10:26:30 AM »
Did you ever find a recipe for this cheese?  I was looking to make some for Christmas but haven't had much luck.

Offline fied

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Re: Vacherin du Mont D'or
« Reply #2 on: December 01, 2011, 11:37:03 AM »
There is no full recipe online or anywhere else. I've a friend in the Vaud region who is trying to get some more information for me, but I don't expect to get that until after Christmas. It's also not proving easy to source spruce bark or boards here. When I do, I'll shape up an experimental recipe.

coffee joe

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Re: Vacherin du Mont D'or
« Reply #3 on: December 05, 2011, 12:26:45 PM »
The "spruce bark"is actually  the Periderm under the bark itself. A thin living layer about the thickness of a matchbook cover. This is harvested in strips in the winter months with a sharp "putty knife"type tool.

Offline DeejayDebi

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