How to make a proper French cheese platter, with ease…

Bon Jour!! I am actually back in France continuing my language studies at L’institute. It is very challenging. We are in class for 8 hours a day. For lunch we sit for a 3-course meal and a french conversation. Since I don’t have much time to write, I thought I’d share some previous posts from the south of france that you may find interesting. Yesterday, for the cultural seance we learned again about the history and creation of french cheese. Here are all of the details from my last visit… so why not whip up a lovely little french cheese platter this weekend?

Did you know that there are seven families of French cheeses and that a proper French cheese platter includes at least one cheese from at least 4 of these famous families?

Learning about French culture was another aspect of my studies at L’institut, and one day, in our afternoon “seance” {cultural session} in the Grande Salon, we learned all about French cheeses, a VERY important aspect of the French lifestyle. I was happy to garner the guidelines for composing a proper French cheese platter, and now I am happy to be able to share what I learned with you!

Here are the seven families of fromage:

1. Les fromage frais: a fresh cheese such as Le Fromage Blanc, which is a creamy cheese made with milk and cream. It is sold near the yogurts in the markets and is served for breakfast {like yogurt} or for dessert with fruits or toppings and cookies. It isn’t commonly included on a cheese platter.

But, these next cheeses are. On a complete platter one would include a cheese from at least 4 of the following families on the platter, including one each from these first two families:

2. Les pâtes fleuries: these are very soft cheeses that have been treated with penicillium to create a tender fluffy or “flowery” rind such as Le Camembert or le Brie. In the image below the Camembert is top and center on the tray in the round wooden box with the black “Moulin de Carel” label; another example is the small round labeled Saint Marcellin on the left side of the tray.

3. Les fromage de chévre: are cheeses made from goats milk like Le Sainte Maure de Touraine or le Rove. In the image below the example is the ashy cylinder in the left corner of the tray.

Offer at least one selection from one of these next two families:

4. Les pâtes lavées: a soft cheese which has had it’s rind washed in salt to create a supple, flavorful rind which is quite edible when it is young but gets harder with age. For example: Le Époisses, le Munster, le Langres. An example is the yellowish round with the textured rind in the center of the tray in the image below, which is a munster cheese {one of my personal favorites}.

~or~

5. Les pâtes persillées: blue cheeses such as Le Bleu de Bresse, le Bleu d’Auvergne or le Roquefort, as seen in the lower left corner on the tray below.

also select at least one choice from these final two families:

6. Les pâtes pressées cuites: the whey is heated to make these cheeses and they are pressed into large wheel shaped molds. They tend to last longer than the other cheeses and have thick, hard rinds. Commonly you would buy pieces of the large wheel from the grocery or your cheese monger. Examples of these cheeses are Le Comté, le Beaufort and le Cantal. See the darker yellow cut in the lower right corner as an example.

7. Les pâtes pressées non cuites: these are large pressed rounds of firm cheese with a hard rind also, but, they have not been heated or cooked.  Some examples of this style are Le Gruyere, La Tomme de Savoie, l’Ossau-Iraty. They are generally lighter in color than the previous family, see the slice in the upper right hand corner of the tray below.

There are five stages to making Les Fromages:

1. La fermentation (I’m guessing I don’t need to translate that one ;).

2. L’egouttage: seperating the liquid from the solids

3. Le moulage: molding or shaping the solids

4. Le salage: salting the cheese for taste, preservation and to extract more of the liquids

5. L’affinage: final refining of the cheese, often times different cheese makers will have signature methods for their particular cheeses.

Here is an “inside” look at the variety of tasty morsels we enjoyed that day:

Cheers!

So, what do you think, are you ready to create a beautiful French cheese platter this weekend?

I feel inspired, now that I am a little more educated on the traditions.

J’espère que tu passeras un bon weekend!