Caseophile

F for Faux Fonds (Fake Layer)

So what's that meant to mean?

A Faux Fonds consists of layers of spruce placed under (and sometimes also on top) of a Reblochon cheese to act as a humidity regulator.

Indeed the "sandwich" is a sort of "belt and braces" activity or more likely a sign that the cheese was a shade too wet and soft when it was packed. The thin layer of woody matter is there to draw off the excess humidity of the cheese and also to put some back whenever it becomes too dry.

It's in fact an obligatory process for an PDO Reblochon. An important feature in cheese conservation...

And the title is not a particularly good translation of the French. Any suggestions from all you out there – with an F of course ? (But keep it clean!)

Putting milk into wine?

I had to laugh a short while ago when I heard that wine producers were going to have to stop adding milk to their wine!

But that's a rather amusing journalistic supposition... which is wrong. In the same context, perhaps you knew that in "fining" a wine, albumin is used – egg white, would you believe – to clarify it before bottling? And a technique that was once prevalent was putting casein into wine.

All for different reasons:

First of all, casein causes tannins and other solid residues to quicken, the same process I have mentioned above with albumin. Yet many are unaware of other properties of casein :

• Casein is used as a specific treatment in the battle against the progressive oxidation and maderisation of grape musts and wines.
• It eliminates oxidizable and oxidized phenolic compounds
• It has an immediate positive effect, by lightening the colour and refining the taste by its effect on astringent polyphenols
• Casein can be used for its curative properties, by softening any "oxidised" and "maderised" tastes and the colours of oxidised wine.

Phew!! It's all much more complex than the simple process of "fining" wine. In this context, let's remember that only 1% of French people are allergic to casein and just 0.3% to albumin. And how about the use of fish matter in the process, a technique based on the presence of parvalmubin?

So as from the next wine making session this coming autumn, we should be seeing labels featuring not just "contains sulphites" but also "contains casein" or "contains albumin" . And when shall we see "parvalbumin" or pork gelatine, already favoured as a technique.

It's all so complicated, don't you think?

E for Ensilage (or Silage)

The damp storage process for cattle feed. It can be in silos (above ground or buried).

Some PDO cheese producers do not allow ensilage to be used as it is sometimes not well handled and can lead to butyric fermentation which is bad for long maturing cheeses. These days ensilage well managed in the hands of the cheese maker avoids most of these problems. Ensilage has incontestable nutritional properties and favours an energetic diet.

I say "Bravo" to my friend Michel for this definition! I grumble too often when I'm told that silage is bad for cheese. It's bad for hard cheeses when it's adversely handled and the cheese rounds split. But not for all cheeses ... what's more, cows just love this fermented fodder, more or less the same way that we love sauerkraut!

D for Décaillage (Dividing the curd)

This is the process of cutting the curd into small pieces. It is part of the draining process in the transformation of milk into cheese. It means providing a draining surface by cutting the curd. The drier the curds, the easier it is to cut and therefore drain. On the other hand, a rougher cutting leads to a moister cheese, a process which would be called "sabrage" (tenderising).

A key moment in the art of cheese making... the size of the grains of curd vary between that of a grain of wheat or rice (for hard cheeses) and that the size of a dice (for soft veined cheeses, such as Roquefort)

PGI Recognition for the Salt of Guérande

The many aficionados of the salt and unrefined salt's flower (fleur de sel) of Guérande must surely have been delighted by their recent recognition by the EU as PGI (Protected Geographical Indication) products. This was unexpected on account of its somewhat "primitive" nature. So it's only thanks to the combined efforts of the salt marsh workers (called paludiers) and the nature of the salt that these two products have been marketed for centuries and/or generations.

These are marine salts unwashed - after collection (manually) from the salt beds of the Guérande peninsula - and with no additives. They are basically crystals of sodium chloride and also natural mineral salts and oligo-elements. The production of both products is a natural process in sea water in a series of basins.

Some statistics: 15000 tonnes of standard salt produced in 2010

         1000 tonnes of fleur de sel

         300 paludiers

Guérande is a delightful historic town – a favourite with tourists - right on the Atlantic coast south of Brittany and close to the mouth of the Loire. Salt (there are 1000 hectares of salt beds) has been harvested here since time immemorial and – understandably – it is called Le Pays Blanc (The White Country).

C for Cheese cage

A small cage in metal cloth hung up in the shade under the lower branches of a tree or a veranda on a farm to dry goat cheeses in the Saône and Rhone valleys and in Provence.

Also used in France in cool cellars for cheese to mature.

A bit like a meat safe! ;-)

Where to buy your cheese and your wine in Poitiers

After such a long gap on this site without those useful addresses for those motoring through France, here's one if you are passing by Poitiers. It's run by the Pain family.

The parents have been cheese merchants for a good long time and they have done a lot of work on their store on the place de Provence (off avenue Schumann) attractively this Spring. The "wine cellar" has gone up a floor and is much more accessible for everybody.

Their son, Jerome has his own cellar at 204 avenue du 8 mai, on the corner of the main road out towards Angouleme. And a very impressive place it is! Lots of space, a wide selection... it is such a pleasure to be advised by such an enlightened professional!

And before I forget! Both cellars are in fact called "Bacchus, Bacchantes et Bacchanales", a bit of fun about Jean-Marie Pain's moustache.

Whenever I think back about it all, I swoon over those flavours of a Marcillac vieilles vignes wine I tried there, so sublimely accompanied by a farmhouse St Nectaire cheese, matured by Xavier Morin in Aurillac. Another combination which was so memorable: Roquefort with Macvin wine from the Jura, not forgetting also a Tête de Moine cheese with a white Graves... and these are simply the less well known matches.

So bravo to the Pain team!

Killing bacteria is not such a good idea

When I give talks, I often cover this subject ... not with scientific words but my own everyday vocabulary. If I am speaking to junior school children in France, whose parents insist that they must wash their hands and use "anti-bacterial" towels, what I say to them about it all cheers them up no end.

But seriously, I've recently found a basic article on the subject on the Comté cheese website entitled "Micro-organisms in milk: valuable allies in Comté cheese production", illustrated by a photo of cow teats being cleaned not with a disinfectant cloth but with a piece of paper or straw.

If you read French, click on Comté above and you'll find it really interesting! As for me, I've learned that the specifications of the Comté PDO forbids the use of disinfectant products – and it is better to opt for plain water at a good temperature and alternate doses of water and air in the circuitry to create turbulence and clean deeply. Such is the advice I always put across in my lessons, applicable I believe, to all unpasteurised milk cheeses.

 

B for Bacteria

Micro-organisms consisting of a single cell without a nucleus. Most are inoffensive, and some very useful. Certain bacteria biodegrade the dietary fibre in the paunch of ruminants and allow grass to be digested. Others are indispensible biological agents used to produce certain foodstuffs (e.g. lactic bacteria for yoghourt).

In milk products, the main microorganisms are the lactic bacteria whose main purpose is the acidification of milk. These play a role in straining it and building its texture. The fungous flora participate essentially in the maturing process (proteolysis and lipolysis).

LACTIC BACTERIA - The lactic bacteria used in the cheese industry can be:

• Mesophilic: optimal development temperature from 25-35°C
• Thermophilic: optimal development temperature from 40-45°C

Depending on the cheese producing technology applied, either one or other or sometimes both are used. The lactic bacteria put into milk heated at a temperature favourable to its development set off its acidification. The way this acidification is handled will affect the texture through the mineralisation of the cheese and establish the maturing process.