Vacherin is a cow's milk (French ''vache'', "cow")

cheese Cheese is a dairy product produced in wide ranges of flavors, textures, and forms by coagulation of the milk protein casein. It comprises proteins and fat from milk, usually the milk of cows, buffalo, goats, or sheep. During productio ...

. Two main types of French or Swiss Vacherin cheeses exist.

Mont d'Or

One type of Vacherin cheese is called mont d'Or, or Vacherin du Haut-Doubs, from France,'' 'French Cheeses' '', DK, '' 'Cheeses of the World' '', RolIand Barthelemy; Arnaud Sperat-Czar, (2001) or Vacherin Mont-d'Or from Switzerland (though it tends to just be called ''Vacherin'' in the local shops). It is a soft, rich, seasonal cheese made from cow's milk in Switzerland and France, usually in villages of the Jura region (an origin that has been officially controlled since 1981), and has a grayish-yellow

washed rind Washed-rind or smear-ripened cheeses are cheeses which are periodically treated with brine or mold-bearing agents. This encourages the growth of certain bacteria on their surface which give them distinctive flavors. There are hard and soft washed ...

. The cheese is wrapped in a "''sangle''" made from the

cambium A cambium (plural cambia or cambiums), in plants, is a tissue layer that provides partially undifferentiated cells for plant growth. It is found in the area between xylem and phloem. A cambium can also be defined as a cellular plant tissue from w ...

of a

Norway spruce ''Picea abies'', the Norway spruce or European spruce, is a species of spruce native to Northern, Central and Eastern Europe. It has branchlets that typically hang downwards, and the largest cones of any spruce, 9–17 cm long. It is very close ...

tree (French: ') for about two weeks at least, which gives the cheese a unique flavour. It typically contains 45 to 50 percent milk fat (in dry matter), and is produced between August 15 and March 15, and sold between September 10 and May 10. The Swiss ''Vacherin Mont d'Or'' is generally made with thermized milk (pasteurization is not allowed), while the French ''Vacherin du Haut-Doubs'' is unpasteurized. It is traditionally made in the winter months when the cows come down from Alpage (mountain pastures) and there is not enough milk to make

Comté cheese Comté (or Gruyère de Comté) () is a French cheese made from unpasteurized cow's milk in the Franche-Comté region of eastern France bordering Switzerland and sharing much of its cuisine. Comté has the highest production of all French App ...

. It is marketed in round boxes of various diameters made of

spruce A spruce is a tree of the genus ''Picea'' (), a genus of about 35 species of coniferous evergreen trees in the family Pinaceae, found in the northern temperate and boreal (taiga) regions of the Earth. ''Picea'' is the sole genus in the subfam ...

. The strips of spruce are harvested by specialists called "sanglier". It is often served warmed in its original packaging and eaten like fondue. Officially, the French AOC/PDO allows ''Artisanal'' and ''Coopérative'' production of Mont d'Or. There are 11 producers of Vacherin in France (2009).

Vacherin Fribourgeois

The other Vacherin, a firmer Swiss cheese, is called Vacherin Fribourgeois. It is produced under Swiss AOC in the

canton of Fribourg The canton of Fribourg, also canton of Freiburg (french: Canton de Fribourg ; german: Kanton Freiburg ; frp, Canton de Fribôrg rm, Chantun Friburg it, Canton Friburgo) is located in western Switzerland. The canton is bilingual, with French s ...

, where Gruyère also originates. It has a slightly

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ic,

resin In polymer chemistry and materials science, resin is a solid or highly viscous substance of plant or synthetic origin that is typically convertible into polymers. Resins are usually mixtures of organic compounds. This article focuses on nat ...

y flavor, akin to Italian

Fontina Fontina (French: ''Fontine'') is a cow's milk cheese, first produced in Italy. Over time, production of Fontina has spread worldwide, including the United States, Denmark, Sweden, Canada, France and Argentina. Description Fontina is a cheese th ...

,'' 'The Cheese Companion' '', Judy Ridgeway, (2003) with a varying strength depending on the age and type. It is also a basic component lending character to fondues (depending on the recipe). Vacherin Fribourgeois has Swiss AOC status with 6 varieties being available:Vacherin Fribourgeois - Website
(accessed 02/Jan/2007) * Classic (aged: 6–12 weeks) * Extra (aged: minimum 12 weeks) * Rustic (aged: minimum 12 weeks, but up to 25 weeks (6 months)) * Alpage (aged: 12–25 weeks) * Mountain (aged 9–25 weeks) * Bio (Organic) (aged: minimum 9 weeks) The older the vacherin gets, the stronger the smell of ammonia due to microorganism activity in the cheese.

Vacherin d'alpage

Vacherin d'alpage is made from the milk of cows pasturing in alpine meadows and hence has a much richer taste.

Notes and references

External links

* *
Making Vacherin Fribourgeois in a Swiss Alpine chalet over wood fire - photoreportage in English

Vacherin Fribourgeois product page from The Red Cow, Australia
{{DEFAULTSORT:Vacherin (Cheese) Culinary Heritage of Switzerland French cheeses Swiss cheeses Cow's-milk cheeses Washed-rind cheeses

Mont d'Or

Vacherin Fribourgeois

Vacherin d'alpage

See also

Notes and references

External links