For the love of Reblochon..

reblochon


I'm sorry. It's another post where Michele (that would be me) extols the virtues of yet another cheese. And there is no hesitation with this one. This cheese could bring me up from the depths of despair. And should I ever reach those depths, I will know that all I need to do is eat some of this cheese and the world will suddenly seem a wonderful place again. If I could have a room made of cheese, I think it might just be made of Reblochon.

When we move from Heidelberg in August I am definitely going to miss the farmer's market here. I have come to really enjoy my saturday (and wednesday) morning ritual. And you know you're a regular when you start getting free stuff from not one, but three vendors. And when one of those vendors includes the cheese man, you've got it made.

Needless to say, this morning I came home with much more produce and cheese than we needed. But I'm not complaining, because it only means that we are in for some fine eating over the days ahead. One cheese that has recently become one of my favourites is, as you may have guessed by now, Reblochon. It is an unpasteurized cow's milk cheese from the Savoie region of France. Oh how I love this cheese! It's soft, creamy and buttery, and yes, high in fat, with a minimum of 45% fat content. It's similar to Brie but softer, with a nutty bite to it, and much more full flavoured than Brie. And again, I'm always suprised to find that every cheese seems to have a story that gives it its character.

It seems that farmers of the 14th century were taxed on the amount of milk their cows produced. On the days that the tax collectors would come, they would only partially milk their cows, in order to report less production and thus be charged less tax. After the collectors had gone, the farmers would return to finish milking the cows. The second milking produced a milk that was creamier and much higher in fat. It is the farmers sneaky ways that gave us Reblochon, which is still made from the second milking. The term Reblochon actually comes from the word "reblocher" which meant "to milk for a second time".

Reblochon was the first cheese from the Savoie Region to be granted AOC certification, in 1976. It is made from mixing the milk of three breeds of cows; Abondance, Montbeliard and Tarine. It is aged in cellars or caves in the mountains and is turned every 2 days and washed with whey to speed the aging process.

One of the things I have quickly learned about Reblochon is that when it is overripe, it exudes a strong smell of ammonia. This is not, in any way, a pleasant smell. And you do not want to eat it if it does, in fact, smell like that. If you are buying it from a reputable shop or vendor, it will not likely be overripe when you purchase it. But it has happened to me (my fault for not sticking with my cheese man at the market) where I bought it only to get it home and find that it was inedible. But now, of course, I know better. And it makes you feel like an old pro asking if you can sniff the Reblochon before you buy it.

There is an old French recipe using Reblochon known as a Tartiflette that I am going to try one of these days. Although it does seem more like a hearty winter dish. But perhaps a cold wind will blow in tomorrow and I'll feel inclined to give it a try. In the meantime, we'll just enjoy it on it's own with bread and wine. Not very creative I know, but so so good.

Here's the recipe. I like the fact that the cheese is laid as is on top of the potatoes.
(Note: none of the recipes I found specified a weight for the cheese or a quantity of wine used. I guess there is room for interpretation with this recipe.)

Tartiflette (from this site)

1 reblochon (cheese)
1 kg waxy potatoes
200 g lardons (diced smoked bacon)
1 onion
butter
1 large glass white wine (from Savoie region recommended)
4 tbs cream
salt
pepper

Cook the potatoes in boiling water until a little undercooked. Reserve.
Melt the butter in a sauté pan and gently cook sliced onion and lardons, without letting them brown. Slice the potatoes thickly, add them and continue to cook gently for 10 minutes.
Add the white wine and allow to reduce. Season with salt and pepper.
To prepare the reblochon, you should just cut it in half horizontally -- connoisseurs leave the rind on. You can scrape some if it off with a sharp knife if you want.
Preheat the oven to moderately hot, butter a gratin dish, and put the potato mixture in it.
Pour over the cream (actually this is a bit excessive -- you can leave it out if you want).
Place the halves of reblochon on top, rind-side upwards, and put in the oven for 15-20 minutes, until the cheese has melted into the potatoes. Mmmm ... Serve with a green salad dressed with a walnut oil dressing.