Conte  (Comté) - This is one of the cheese "pearls" of France. This cheese belongs to hard cooked cheeses - it has a delicious yellow cheese mass and a hard crust of a similar color or brownish tint. Conte is made both in summer and in winter, because their tastes are different. Summer Conte smells of meadow herbs and fruits and is more yellow in appearance, while winter has a rich aroma of hazelnuts and is lighter. Mostly Conte cheese is made from July to September, however, as we see, the cheese factory does not rest in winter either. Winter cheese is stored for a very long time, even February in France is called the month of the Conte noble cheese. Giant circles have a mass of 55 kilograms, for one cheese circle requires five hundred liters of milk.

Cheese Conte (Gruyère de Comté or "Gruyeres from Conte") is made from raw milk from cows, which are grown only in the eastern province of Franche-Comté.

  Conte's taste is very rich, sweet, and the cheese flesh is elastic and resilient. This is a rather fatty cheese - there is about 45% of milk fat in it, so people who follow their body should use it carefully.

The process of making Conte cheese is not much different from the production of any other cooked cheese. Milk is transported from nearby farms to a cheese factory, it is poured into copper containers, heated, put on an abomasum, pepsin or something like that. The resulting clot is cut into small pieces (no larger than a grain of rice), the mass is again heated for about half an hour and laid out in a mold to make glass serum. This is done like this: a large linen cloth is launched into a copper pot and cheese cheese is pulled out by it. Next, the "net" with cheese mass is transferred to the compression mold for a day and the whey is inverted and decanted several times. All that remains is to transfer the cheese to the cellar and wait for the ripening.

The cheese ripens for 12-18 months, and depending on the aging, its taste becomes deeper. Young Conte is ready in 4 months, and mature cheese is aged in the cellars for at least a year.

Conte is made only in France, each cheese head is protected by the AOC certificate (Appellation d "origine contrôlée), which protects the origin of the cheese. It is issued by the department of the Ministry of Agriculture of France and guarantees strict observance of the rules for the manufacture of cheese. So, only unpasteurized should be used to make Conte cow milk, and only that milk that is fed from cows of the Montbeliard breed (la race monbéliarde). Milk is taken only fresh - evening and morning, and immediately after morning milking Chin cooking cheese.

Each cheese circle is evaluated by a group of professional experts who taste the cheese and rate it on a twenty-point scale.
Based on this, Conte is assigned one of two quality categories:

• "COMTE" (12-15 points)
• "COMTE EXTRA" (16-20 points).

This traditional cheese was born due to the severity of winters in the Jurassic Mountains. The problem of preservation of milk during the period of severe cold weather has led to the creation of a new method of conservation, which would guarantee the ability to receive milk throughout the winter. The resulting fine cheese went well for export, serving as additional income for a number of families. The fame of the Comté cheese, its economic importance for the region and its typicality made it possible to classify it in the AOC already in 1958.

Cheese production expanded from the Jura to part of the Doubs River and a bit to Ain. Only milk from Montbéliard cows is used. Milk should be collected within 24 hours after milking, without additives, without drying and preservation. After the cheese production process is completed, huge cheese heads, each weighing over 60 kg, are stored for at least 4 months for aging. With a rich flavor, Comté cheese is characterized by its fruity, floral, soft and salty colors. Try this cheese with a sip of wine from the Jura region and you will discover all the richness of taste!

Blue de gex

Blue de Gex, also known as Septmoncel, is a very old cheese, first mentioned in the 13th century. They say that one of the rulers of the Franche-Comté region, Charles Quint, was literally obsessed with this cheese. The Blue de Gex mark of origin was introduced in 1977. This includes only cheeses that are made in the mountains of the High Jura according to traditional methods.

This cheese with blue streaks is not persian and does not boil. It is made only from the milk of montbéliardes cows and is stored in cellars for 3 weeks, during which it acquires its characteristic color, ivory with pale blue, as well as a specific aroma. Ideal for red or pink wine from the Jura.

Mont d’or

For the first time, Mont d’Or cheese was mentioned in the Haut-Doubs region in the 13th century, and it is very likely that this cheese appeared even earlier, during the first settlement of the region, in some kind of abbey, such as Montbenoît.
  Seasonal cheese, it was an easy variant of Gruyere, whose huge heads require a lot of milk. Smaller and requiring less milk, Mont-d’Or cheese quickly conquered with its originality.

Mont d’Or is produced between August 15 and March 15, and is sold in stores from September 10 to May 10. Swiss cheese is usually made from pasteurized milk, and French from unpasteurized.

To produce one pound of cheese, 7 liters of milk are needed. Rennet is added to milk, whey is drained, after which the cheese mass is lightly pressed, shaped and wrapped with fir bark, which not only keeps the cheese in shape, but also gives it a delicate and pleasant aroma. The cheese ripens in the basement at a temperature of 15 ° C, where it is periodically turned and wiped with brine.

It is currently classified as AOC since 1981. Mont-d'Or is a soft, not boiled cheese, slightly pressed in, with a creamy consistency, slightly salty, with a color from white to ivory. Easily recognizable by its wooden packaging, Mont-d'Or cheese is also called “Vacherin of Haut-Doubs ". It is characterized by a slightly wooden creamy taste and a persistent aroma that goes well with many white and red wines from Jura and Arbois, as well as white wines from Savoy or dry from Juranson.

Cancoillotte

Cancuiot (in some dialects - Cancoyote), (fr. Cancoillotteor fr. Cancoyotte) - liquid French cheese produced mainly in Franche-Comté, but also in Lorraine and Luxembourg, where it is also called Kachkéis. Cheese is very common in traditional Franche-Comté dishes. It is eaten throughout the year, served cold or hot.
Cancuiot is made from metton, it is sold in packages of 200 grams. Cheese appeared no later than the 16th century. The name is attested from the 19th century, comes from coille, from the verb cailler (to thicken), which refers to the milk remaining after the extraction of cream (low-fat milk). Cheese is usually served melted over a small fire, before adding salt and butter, a small amount of water or milk is added. Sometimes garlic is also added. Cancuiot melts well with plenty of oil. Recently, commercial options have appeared with wine, caraway seeds and other additives.
  Cancuiot, made from a molten metton with added water, contains virtually no fat and low calories (with a high calcium content), and commercial options are more fat and high in calories, as they add oil to make the cheese softer and sweeter and preservatives to increase the shelf life of cheese.
  On the other hand, cancuillot made from molten metton and cancuillot are commercially different in texture. The molten metton is very sticky.
  Cancuillot is sold in supermarkets already molten, especially in eastern France. In Luxembourg, Kachkéis is spread on an open sandwich with mustard.

Morbier

Morbie is a semi-soft fatty cheese made from raw cow's milk. Belongs to the family of pressed undigested cheeses. It features a black layer of wood ash. It has a color from white light cream to yellow. The taste of morbier has a delicate fruity and nutty hue. In shape, the cheese is a massive circle with a diameter of 30-40 cm and a thickness of 6-8 cm, which weighs from 6 to 7 kg.
  Out of 100 liters of raw cow's milk, approximately 11 kg of morbier is obtained.

To describe the cheese from the province of Franche-Comté, the definitions used by tasters for noble wines are suitable: expressive bouquet, fruit notes, pleasant nuances ... After all, Conte is a grand cru among cheeses

Each producer of conte has its own little secrets, features, and, as subtle connoisseurs assure, all this can be "read" in the taste of the finished cheese. As well as the characteristic taste of meadow grass, which was fed by cows that gave milk for cheese. You can even say that cheese was made in the north or in the south, and even in what season it was cooked - it can be seen by eye: the body under the crust is yellowish in the summer, and almost white in the winter.

They take only fresh milk for cheese from cows of Montbeliard and Simmental breeds. All utensils for processing milk - only copper, ripening heads are laid only on trellised shelves of spruce rails. The quality of cheese with this approach is always impeccable, and the taste shades drive you crazy: there are notes of ghee, and hazelnut, and a delicate aftertaste of toasted onions ...

According to the rules of the appellation, cheese should be made from milk of the team, that is, at least two farms collected from cows. So conte is a communal product. Once upon a time, mountain village residents came up with the idea of \u200b\u200bletting excess milk into cheese. But how much surplus will be collected from one or two cows? But if you "chip in" with the neighbors, this is already something. Moreover, the cheese head, the larger the better it is stored: therefore, even now, the conte heads weigh from 40 kg.

Conte production technology is standard: a natural enzyme is added to unpasteurized milk, the curdled mass is cut into small pieces, heated to 56 ° C, laid out in shapes and placed under a press. This is where witchcraft begins. Each cheese factory has its own tricks, and the master-affinators who look after the cheeses in the cellars share them, are extremely reluctant. Someone wipes the forms with a weak brine, someone regularly turns them over, lifts them so that the heads are evenly weathered and the crust forms correctly. That is, in fact, cheese is treated in the same way as in wine cellars with expensive wine. And the reward for the labors of cheese-makers is a disturbing bouquet of the most aristocratic of cheeses.

Conte is the best friend of dry white wine. The classic combination is Sauvignon Blanc, but you can experiment with arbois, sherry and even ... with champagne!

On a note

• Conte is never grated - it is believed that his taste suffers from this. Now you can find a comté for sale in slices, but it is better to take a whole piece and cut it before serving.
• Conte can be served on an aperitif, cut into small cubes - its rich taste will be a great start to the evening.
• This cheese is an excellent choice for fondue, as well as for dishes where you need processed cheese.

According to the magazine

Calories, kcal:

Proteins, g:

Carbohydrates, g:

The homeland of Comte cheese is France and occupies a special place in the national cuisine of this country. It is this cheese that has long been used by cooks in the process of preparing the famous fondue. Real Comte cheese is made in the French region under the name Franche-Comte.

Cheese Comte - one of the varieties of hard cheese made from high quality unpasteurized cow. Cheese has a sweetish-salty taste (calorizer). This type of cheese is considered to be elite and noble, it is marked with the quality mark of AOS (that is, it passes quality control and origin).

Cheese Comte is made exclusively from cows of Montbeliard breed grazing in alpine meadows. To increase the milk yield of these cows, special conditions are created for them: the area of \u200b\u200bthe pasture of each animal is at least one hectare.

Cheese Comte is perhaps one of the most controlled and tested cheeses: it is constantly subjected to tasting and evaluation by leading cheese makers and a competent jury.

Calorie Cheese Comte

The calorie content of Comte cheese is 407 kcal per 100 grams of product.

The composition and useful properties of cheese Comte

In its composition, Comte cheese contains a large number of vitamins and useful substances: vitamins of group B, A, D, potassium, magnesium, zinc, calcium, manganese, sulfur, iron and sodium (calorizator). Also contains amino acids: methionine and lysine, necessary for the human body.

Due to such a rich content of nutrients, the use of Comte cheese acts to strengthen the human immune system, normalize the process of blood formation, strengthen nails, hair and bones, improve the functioning of blood vessels and the heart, as well as the digestive system.

What is better to use Comte cheese

Cheese Comte is most often consumed as an appetizer with elite varieties of white French wines.