CANTAL Aoc,an oldest cheese dating back to the time of the Gauls.
Named after the Cantal mountains in the Auvergne region in central France, this Salers breed cow's milk cheese is the oldest or one of the oldest French cheeses already mentionned by Pline the Elder(1st Century AD).It is produced in 2 types:
- Cantal Fermier,a farmhouse cheese using raw milk
-Cantal Laitier,the mass-produced version (quite cheap) using pasteurised milk
It is a semi-hard to hard,pressed,pasteurised or unpasteurised cow's milk cheese with a 45% fat content,shaped like a cylinder, one foot in diameter.The Cantal cheesemaking process is similar to Cheddar cheese.Both processes involve a milling and dry salting step which provides a homogeneous salted curd.It is aged for one to two months(Cantal jeune) up to six months for Cantal vieux,a hard version(and aged 2-6 months for Cantal entre-deux).
The cheese has a soft interior and older the cheese is,stronger the taste will be:flavor of tangy butter taste with a smell of earth.I usually eat well ripened Cantal vieux(rarely exported) with a strong taste.
Wine pairing:Côtes du Rhône red
www.praticallyedible.com/.../cantalcheese
STILL UNDER SALIVATION!
