The Best French Blue Cheeses

Allez Les Bleus!

For 16 days, we sat mesmerized watching the 2024 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXXIII Olympiad), or just simply known as Paris 2024. From the opening ceremony to the competitions, to the closing ceremony, France brought together the world’s finest athletes in one of the most beautiful cities in the world.

Along with the nail-biting competitions between the athletes, we were treated to many beautiful scenes around France. Simply breathtaking… 

To witness the pure joy of the French citizens, as Franch brought home 64 medals for their country, as they gleefully shouted “Allez Les Bleus!!”…. I am sure this was to remind the world of the amazing bleu cheeses that they produce! If you are not familiar with them, let’s meet the “All Stars.”

 

Roquefort

Known simply as the “King of Cheeses”, this raw, sheep’s-milk, cave-aged Bleu cheese had French royalty bowing before its sultry green/blue eyes since the 1400’s. Even Pliny the Elder spoke of its wonders in his Naturalis Historia in the First Century.

On July 26, 1925, Roquefort finally received the official appellation d’origine contrôlée (AOP) protection that had been so long in coming. Oh, there had been previous protections put in place, such as the original law which was signed into French law on June 4, 1411 when King Charles VI of France declaring that only the villagers of Roquefort-sur-Soulzon could claim Roquefort Cheese as their own and that any others that tried to use this name for another cheese would be punished (fined and/or imprisoned). 

Creamy, spicy, bold, can best be used to describe this culinary wonder of the ancient world.

 

Bleu d’Auvergne

The birth of Bleu d’Auvergne, can be traced to an area about forty miles west of Clermont-Ferrand, France. The year was 1845, and life in this mountainous region was difficult at best. Isolated from many larger developed cities, communication was slow to reach this area.

It was here that Antoine Roussel spent many of his years. Needing to provide for his family, he thought of trying to produce cheeses and age them in the home’s cellar. The cheese that Roussel first created was hardly stirred and was lightly pressed with just a simple stone. These first attempts were uneven in quality and difficult to sell. Some of the wheels accidentally developed blue mold, to which Roussel called “Special, Pleasant, and Fragrant.” Eager to repeat this process and encourage the blue mold to develop uniformly, Roussel began to analyze his cheese making process, to discover some practices that are still in place today.

Roussel started by using clay forms, then wooden forms, and finally switched to tin forms. After several unsuccessful experiments, he noticed that the rye bread placed near several of the forms in his cellar developed the blue mold the same way that the wheels of cheese did. His idea of associating the two molds, was a major breakthrough. 

By 1854, Roussel was able to unlock the secret of bluing the cheese wheels perfectly, by artificially creating holes in the cheese with knitting needles. Of this discovery by Roussel, George Mathieu, Director of the National Dairy School in Aurillac, France said “Roussel had just completed microbial seeding and culture, which this practice is still accepted by all. This was all supported by the work of Louis Pasteur just three years later in 1857, when he presented his first paper on lactic fermentation, and then again in 1860, when Pasteur was able to show that germs exist in the air and can inoculate organic matter”.

Bleu d’Auvergne was formally recognized as an AOC (Appellation d’origine controlee) cheese by the INAO (Institut national de l’origine et de la qualité) on March 7, 1975. 

 

Fourme d’Ambert

Since the 8th Century, different legends all attest that Fourme d’Ambert cheese was in existence and was enjoyed. Fourme d’Ambert cheese has even served as a currency in the 18th Century, to pay for the rent of the cabins (known as “Jasseries” where the cheese was made.  During the time of mountain summer pasturing, from June to October, the women and the children lived in the cabins where the cheese was made while the men were out in the fields or pastures with the herd. The maturing process of the Fourme d’Ambert cheese lasts for around 2 months in a humid cheese cellar where it undergoes frequent brushings. Exterior appearance of the Fourme d’Ambert rind can be grey, speckled with yellow and orange marks, or can vary and become a more pale orange color. Both are natural variances in aging.

Fourme d’Ambert, was formally recognized as an AOC (Appellation d’origine controlee) cheese by the INAO (Institut national de l’origine et de la qualité) on May 9, 1972. 

 

Fourme de Montbrison

A cousin to Fourme d’Ambert, this one is sadly on the “Cheese Endangered Species” list, as only seven producers remain. Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes. Fourme de Montbrison, with its easily recognizable orange rind and cylinder shape, is a wonderful cow’s milk bleu that has a mild taste, straw colored interior, with a compact paste.  

Fourme de Montbrison gets its name from the following:  The word fourme originates from the Latin word forma (meaning “shape”, the same root word from which the French word fromage is derived); Montbrison is named from the town Montbrison which lies in the department of Loire.

Aged in wooden “gutter” which help holds its shape, while helping to give it a unique orange hue thanks to the close contact with the wood. 

Fourme de Montbrison and Fourme d’Ambert, were formally recognized as an AOC (Appellation d’origine controlee) cheeses by the INAO (Institut national de l’origine et de la qualité) on May 9, 1972. Fourme de Montbrison wanting to protect its specificities, urged the separation of the two names by the INAO, and was granted its own designation on February 22, 2002. 

 

Bleu des Causses

In the southern Massif Central, within the former historic French province of Rouergue, existed small artisanal cheese dairies scattered on the Causses. These dairies crafted a blue cheese, similar to Roquefort, but were made with cow’s milk or a mixture of cow’s milk and sheep’s milk. Numerous books and papers report that this blue cheese, which was not yet called “Bleu des Causses”, was produced locally and aged in natural caves dug into the limestone. These local dairies benefitted from the local notoriety of Roquefort in the area, and especially after the adoption of the law of July 26, 1925, which defined Roquefort cheese, reserving this term for cheese made exclusively from sheep’s milk and matured in the caves of Roquefort-sur-Soulzon. 

Any “blue” type cheese that was manufactured with cow’s milk, or outside the village of Roquefort, were looked down upon as Roquefort imitations, and needed to assert their own personality to differentiate them from Roquefort. In November 1932, the Trade Union Association of Manufacturers of Aveyron Cheese was created, and the cheese became officially known as “Bleu de l’Aveyron” under the collective brand name of VALMONT. The name Bleu de l’Aveyron gave way to Bleu des Causses successively defined by the Decree of 4 December 1941. 

Bleu de Causses was formally recognized as an AOC (Appellation d’origine controlee) cheese by the INAO (Institut national de l’origine et de la qualité) on June 8, 1979.

 

Bleu de Gex Haut-Jura

This creamy, semi-soft blue cheese made from unpasteurized milk from the milk of Montbéliard and Simmental cows. Made in the Jura region, this cheese dates back to the 1300’s when this region was part of the Pays de Gex (a historic region) in the Jura region of France and is said to have come from the cheese-making techniques of the monks of the Abbey of Saint-Claude.

Produced into wheels that weigh about 8 kg (17.63 lbs.), this cheese is very mild, which contains lactic aromas with notes of chanterelle mushrooms and is aged 21 days. However, it can be more powerful when it is matured further over 50 days, it is then nicknamed “Perrachu” or “Perassu”. Because of its young age, this raw milk cheese is not imported into the United States.

Today, five producers of Bleu de Gex remain.

Bleu de Gex Haut-Jura (or Bleu de Septmoncel as it is sometimes called), was formally recognized as an AOC (Appellation d’origine controlee) cheese by the INAO (Institut national de l’origine et de la qualité) on September 20, 1977. Today these rules are enforced by the Syndicat interprofessionnel de défense du Bleu de Gex. 

One can find many Bleu cheeses in France, but these celebrated six are the ones that stand upon the A.O.C.’s protected podium in France, and the world’s P.D.O. stage. Read more about geographical indication labels.

While many watching for Gold, Silver, or even Bronze, I am quite content with my Bleus.