'Cheese On Wheels' .. Tour de France... Day 9
....The mountain Cheese of Haute Savoie....
 Go to Day 6 - 8
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France '02
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'you folks look lost !'
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Now with this for your daily view how could you make a bad cheese
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here is our group of cheese makers arriving for our...
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....visit to see the Abondance cheese being made |
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the traditional copper kettle and the curd being cut
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the unique form
has been made ready
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the curd is removed
from the vat ...
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...in a very unique manner |
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as the curd is retrieved..
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..it is set into the mold
and pressed into place
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the cloths are smoothed out and tucked in..
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..and then the forms are stacked for initial pressing |
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they are pressed overnight..
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and then forms are removed
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..the the cheese is brined
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..and taken to the cave |
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The Abondance visit has shown the cheese being made by a single person on the farm
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However, much of the cheese in France is today made in small Dairy Cooperatives where the milk from many farms is made into cheese
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...where the final aging
takes place
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and this makes it all
so very worth while
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We next visit one making
Tomme de Savoie
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molds are prepared while
the curd is being readied |
the curd is then pumped
into the molds... |
...then stacked for pressing.. |
.. and quickly turned |
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| creating this nicely formed 'Tomme' |
ready for the cave |
.. natural mold is allowed to develop... |
to create the final cheese |
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| We next visit a traditional Fromager at his cave |
he is responsible for collecting the best cheeses |
and aging them to perfection |
before taking them off to market |
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| these were some of the best cheeses we tasted |
in the cave a large wedge of Beauforte Alpage* (made on the mountain) |
also, some very fine Comte |
and the very hard to find Cantal Alpage |
Go to Day 6 - 8
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France '02
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