Abondance is a cheese made from raw, whole cow's milk, with a semi-cooked pressed paste, made exclusively in the Haute-Savoie region. It has benefited from an Appellation d'Origine Contrôlée (AOC) since 1990 and an Appellation d'Origine Protégée (AOP) since 1996.

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Its rind, rubbed with morge (solution based on water and salt), is golden yellow to brown in color. Its paste, ivory to pale yellow in color, is supple, melting and inelastic. Abondance offers a fruity taste, with rich and balanced aromatic flavors of pineapple, apricot, citrus and hazelnut.

Bleu d'Auvergne was born in the middle of the 19th century. In the second half of the same century, the production of this cheese, originally from the farm, gradually extended to dairies thanks to the innovative techniques discovered and developed by Antoine Roussel, an Auvergne native from the village of Laqueuille where the cheese is produced. Blue cheese from Laqueuille. It was by making the link between the mold that appeared on both rye bread and cheese when both were placed and kept side by side, that Antoine Roussel began to analyze the development of this mold.

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From the end of the 19th century, the production of Bleu d'Auvergne gradually extended to all of its current geographical area.

Comté is a French AOC cheese since 1958 and AOP since 1996 mainly produced in Franche-Comté. Its production area covers the departments of Jura, Doubs and Ain. The County was born in times when the harshness of the long winters forced the men to think collectively about their subsistence. Through the principle of cooperatives, they then pooled the production of their farms and learned how to develop and raise this “aging” cheese.

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Comté is the first French cheese with a controlled designation of origin (AOC). This appellation guarantees traditional and rigorous aging, manufacturing and refining processes.

The oldest document describing Morbier is dated 1799. At the time, cheese was already known in Paris, which suggests that its origin is older! It was produced at a time when the quantity of milk was low and in particular insufficient for the production of a Comté wheel.

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Several hypotheses exist as to the origin of the manufacture of Morbier . One of them relates that Morbier was made on farms because of the need to use milk from two successive milkings to make a cheese weighing 8 to 10 kilograms. The first curd bread was coated with soot taken from a cauldron in order to protect it against external contaminations and to avoid surface deterioration before being assembled with the curd of the next production, the layer of charcoal then marking the junction between the two manufactures.

It is said that the Saint-Félicien and its cow's milk recipe were invented at the beginning of the 20th century by a creamer from Lyon who had the idea of ​​mixing his unsold liters of milk with cream. This merchant's dairy was located on Place… Saint-Félicien.

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Later, in 1980, the Etoile du Vercors cheese dairy in Isère, which produced Saint-Marcellin , would have developed the reputation of Saint Félicien .

 

It's a close cousin of Saint-Marcellin , in a bigger and creamier version!

Tomme de Savoie takes its name from the Savoyard dialect "toma" meaning "cheese made in mountain pastures". Tomme de Savoie is the oldest of the Savoyard cheeses and was only intended for daily and family consumption in the mountain pastures and in the chalets.

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Its peasant origins explain its rustic appearance. The tommes had multiple sizes and gaits depending on the production farm. Very attached to this cheese, the Savoyards pass the recipe down from generation to generation.

Beaufort is a cheese made from raw, whole cow's milk, it can be produced in certain municipalities in the Savoie department and only two municipalities in the Haute-Savoie department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region.

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It has benefited from an Appellation d'Origine Contrôlée (AOC) since 1968 and an Appellation d'Origine Protégée (AOP) since 1996.

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Its rind, clean and solid, is a uniform yellow to brown color. Its paste, ivory to pale yellow in color, is supple and smooth. On the palate, its texture is initially firm then melting and its taste is well-typed without being strong.

Its origin seems to date back to the 13th century and it would come from the cheese-making techniques of the monks of the Abbey of Saint-Claude. It was the Dauphinois migrants who, refusing to become French following the donations of land from Humbert II to the King of France in 1343, would have imported the principle of manufacturing blue marbling.

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It is produced in the mountainous part of the departments of Ain, in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes and Jura regions, in the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region, the geographical area constituting the Monts du Jura massif.

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Bleu de Gex develops milky, slightly vanilla or spicy aromas, with hints of mushroom. Its optimal tasting period lasts from May to July, but it is excellent from April to November, after maturing for 2 months.

Pliny the elder, prefect under the Roman Empire (50 AD), described Cantal , in book XI of his Natural History, as the most appreciated cheese “from the Country of Gabalès and Gévaudan” in Rome.

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In the 16th and 17th centuries, authors testify to its fame and in the 18th century, Diderot and d'Alembert's Dictionary of Raised Sciences, Arts and Crafts presents the making of this cheese and all the necessary instruments on an engraved board.

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Numerous archives mention Cantal as a product of exchange between Haute-Auvergne and the wine regions of southern France.

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Cantal, a cheese made from raw or pasteurized cow's milk, with an uncooked pressed paste and dry rind, produced mainly in the Cantal department and a few municipalities in the Puy-de-Dôme and Haute-Loire departments (2 municipalities only ) in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region, some municipalities in the Corrèze department in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region and some municipalities in the Aveyron department in the Occitanie region.

Raclette de Savoie has its origins in the Middle Ages, when shepherds mainly consumed “roast cheese” in summer: a half-wheel of cheese placed in front of a wood fire was then melted.

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It was only at the beginning of the 20th century that the name “ raclette ” appeared, in reference to the action of scraping the melted surface of the cheese to place it on the potatoes on the plate.

 

Raclette de Savoie also benefited from the development of winter tourism from the 1960s to 1970s and from Alpine industrial history, with the birth of the raclette machine, thanks to the wide availability of white coal.

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Since January 27, 2017, Raclette de Savoie has been protected by a Protected Geographical Indication (PGI) which not only recognizes the excellence of its origins and the quality of its manufacture but also the historical know-how of an entire region.

A peasant cheese and very often made by women, Saint-Nectaire for a long time bore the name of "gléo cheese" or "rye cheese" because it was matured on the straw of this cereal (Gléo meaning "rye straw" in patois Auvergnat). It was in the middle of the 17th century that the name of Saint-Nectaire cheese appeared.

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Towards the end of this century, Marshal Henri II of Saint-Nectaire, introduced Saint-Nectaire to the table of King Louis XIV. One more ray for the Sun King who, seduced by this cheese, made it come regularly to his court!