S.A.F.R Port Salut ( Pays de la Loire/Mayenne)

S.A.F.R Port Salut decends from the one of France oldest Trappist cheeses . It used to be produced as Port-du -Salut by the Trappist Abbey of Notre-Dame de Port -du -Salut (Harbor of Healing) and in 1938 the monks were granted the exclusive rights to produces the cheese. The cheese was presented in Paris in 1873 and soon gained popularity. Today,  Port Salut is produced by the dairy cooperative of Mayenne, which bought the license from the monks, who were unable to keep up with demand for the cheese.

As you see in the photos above  Port Salut has natural orange rind. The interior  is smooth, ivory colored and has mild and acidic flavor. I like eating  Port Salut warmed and softened on a slice of rye bread. I used to consider the cheese as bland and not aromatic, but now I appreciate it much more.

Normandy Camembert (Basse-Normandie/Département Calavados)

Normandy Camembert is extremely tasty. I’ve eaten it only three times so far but I do remember how delicious it is . I love the lightly waved rind, so delicate and thin -almost transparent. The mass is white or yellow, soft and just a little  runny. The more ripened the softer, smoother and more elastic it is.




According to the General meeting Constitutive of the Trade union of the Manufacturers of Genuine Camembert cheese of Normandy the Camembert de Normandie is :  a soft cheese, with spontaneous draining, neither cooked, neither pressed, nor mixed, with curd not divided, slightly salted, with surface molds, of round form, a weight of 350g, a maximum diameter from 10 to 11 cm, containing at least 40g of fat content for 100g, made with pure milk of Normandy.
Even the cheese is 200 years old it didn't obtained the AOC (controlled designation of origin) until 1983. Due to its popularity it was the most copied soft cheese in the history.

Castello Soft Blue (Denmark/Arla Foods)

 Castello Soft Blue is perfect combination for cheese lovers. It is a triple-cream, blue-veined gourmet cheese with a washed-rind. It has buttery flavor and distinctive aroma. One of the best blue cheeses I have ever tasted. It's rich and fulfilling. Its blue veins have memorable taste of fresh mushrooms.

Délice de Bourgogne (Burgundy)

Délice de Bourgogne has silky, whipped butter- like interior. The flavor is little salty and sour. The cheese is so rich (75% butterfat in dry matter) and delightful due to addition of French famous specialty-creme fraiche. Molded in the thin pungent rind is perfect combination of delicacy and maturity.
It is said that this sumptuous and elegant cheese pairs well with champagne. For me hard cider is good enough and what is more important I can afford it.

Blacksticks Blue Cheese (Lancashire)

One of my latest discoveries. It reminds  me one of the Polish cheeses which I do like eating (Lazur Golden). Blacksticks Blue Cheese is a new creation of Butlers Farmhouse Cheeses in  Lancashire.  They have been making cheeses for three generations. The cheese is made from their own cows' milk and is matured for 8 weeks. It has an amber color and tangy, salty flavor. Interior is soft and creamy. Its dark rind and blue veins running through the cheese give it "Gothic" look.

 Take a look at Butlers Blacksticks Blue commercial.

Croquettes with Blacksticks Blue Cheese recipe.

Bleu d'Auvergne (Fromageries Occitanes, Auvergne/Cantal)

 Bleu d'Auvergne is (really) moist, buttery and salty ; has ivory color and is  generously veined with bluish-green molds; I wish I could buy it again. I really miss the cheese and I find it much tastier than Roquefort.

Bleu d'Auvergne was invented in the mid-1850s by a French cheesemaker named Antoine Roussel.  He noticed  blue spots (similar to those growing on breads) on his cheeses maturing in the cellars. He was attracted by the flavor of the blueness and found it "special, pleasant and scented".  He decided to apply a rye bread mold to the curd to create the veining. He also noticed that  pricking the curd with a needle  increased aeration and let the mold to enter the curd and supported its growth. Soon, many other cheese-makers adapted pricing to produce their own blue cheeses.



 In 1975 the cheese obteined  Appellation d’origine contrôlée (meaning"controlled designation of origin") certifications from the French government.

Cashel Blue (County Tipperary, Irish Farmhouse )

Cashel Blue is an exceptional blue cheese not only because of its interesting, voluptuous flavor ( for me: perfect!) and “whippy” texture. It's softer, creamier and milder than Blue Stilton but still  has a lot of character.
 It was created in 1984 by Jane Grubb who runs the dairy farm with her husband Louis. It was the first soft blue cheese in UK. Its name comes from The Rock of Cashel -group of Medieval buildings set on an outcrop of limestone in the Golden Vale in South-East Ireland.
 It is made entirely by hand from whole cow's milk from the pedigree Friesian dairy herd on their farm. It is ripened for two up to six months. The best Cashel Blue is made from April to October when the cows are out to pasture.

Cashel Blue page

German Brie with Mushrooms

I expected a lot from this cheese. It looks very tempting.  A creamy triple cream brie with porcini and chanterelle mushrooms - it sounds terrific. But  there is nothing special in the brie and I couldn't notice an aroma of my favorite mushrooms.

Traditional French Brie

My favorite all the time. It looks very ordinary , but it has very strong smelling ( mushroom-like) and rich creamy flavor. I don't know anything about that brie but that it is made in France and  it is a double cream brie cheese.
I enjoy this brie much more when it’s mature.The rind – flavorful and fragile –  adds the character to soft, almost molten core. I'm sure that people passing me can sense its scents coming from my bag, when I carry it home from the store.


Recipe: Burgers Stuffed with Traditional French Brie

Suprême (Burgundy)

Suprême is perfectly creamy, mallow and matured. Enriched with crème fraîche it has an impressive 62% fat content. Nevertheless I have never felt gluted after eating a half pound for breakfast .
Suprême comes from the Burgundy region of France. We owe the cheese to  François Paul-Renard - the son of the man who invented the production process that allows for a perfect maturing of packaged cheese.
The cheese was first launched in 1930 as  “Les Ducs” in Camembert size.

Cambozola Classic ( Kasseri Champignon- Bavaria)

When you are on the horns of dilemma choosing cheese…blue or creamy? There is a solution: Cambozola which combines the flavors of French soft-ripened triple cream (70%butterfat) cheese and Italian Gorgonzola.

Cambozola was created and patented in 1980 by Champignon but it has its roots in the history of Allgäu region when the cheese has been made from the third century A.D.

More creamy then blue, its flavor is far milder than Gorgonzola’s. I haven't added it to my favorites. Tried two times and don't feel like buying it in the future.

Gruyère de Comté (Franche-Comté/Jura)

 Gruyère de Comté - king of the mountain cheeses and one of the most famous French dairy products . It also the largest French cheese.




  Gruyère de Comté is true artisan, hand-made cheese. The production of Comté remains based on traditional methods created eight centuries ago. It means that it can be made only from raw milk which comes from Montbéliarde and Pie-Rouge and transported no more than 25 km to "fruitières" (dairies).
 The cheese is cylindrical  with a diameter of 50-75 cm. Comté can weight 55 kg.To produce the one wheel about  500 ml of milk is needed (an average daily milking of 30 cows). The size of the wheels enabled storing the cheese during the hard and long winters in Jura.

It has a tight-knit texture and satiny body which is the result of the (at least) 4-month maturation. But the best Comté cheeses are left to mature for over a year.
And it has natural grainy  golden -brown rind which I like the most in the cheese. The interior is smooth, dense; has creamy color and nutty flavor in winter but  and fruity taste and dark-yellow color in summer.

Morbier (Franche-Comté/Doobs)

If you don’t mind  having some ash* in your cheese you should try Morbier ( meaning "small market-town")

Traditionally, Morbier was made from the remaining of the curds from making  Gruyère de Comté in the morning. The leftovers was pressed into a mold and covered with some ash to prevent a rind from forming and protect from insects. In the evening they filled the molds with fresh portion of curds. This way smart farmers could enjoy  (after ripening for 3-4 months) their own cheese.
Today Morbier is almost as famous as  Comté.

I fell in love with Morbier many years ago and it is still  one of my favorites. It has mild and delicate flavor, which can only be discovered after heating and melting the cheese. The rind is orange with some gray spots and covers a quite large round cheese which has a diameter of 25-40 cm.


*today the gray layer, horizontal stripe halfway up Morbier is made from vegetable ash.

White Stilton (Leicestershire, Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire)

White Stilton is my favorite when I'm craving for something sweet. Rarely I eat chocolate or cakes, but cheese is my staple food (next to my own sourdough bread). There is so many cheeses  that one human life is not enough to try them all. 

White Stilton is young  cousin of Blue Stilton, which hasn't been enhanced with blue-mold starter cultures. It has mild taste which is flavored with dried fruits: blueberries, lemon peel, apple and pear (haven't tasted them yet), mango & ginger (very sweet), apricots (bland) and cranberries (delicious!)

• with mango and ginger : interesting but too sweet for my taste buds.

• with dried apricots: the fruit are for me too though and don't increase the flavor of the cheese

• with cranberries: my favorite cheese for fall; cheese and cranberries are like a harmonious marriage

Blue Stilton ( Leicestershire, Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire)

When I tasted  Blue Silton for the first time, I was positively surprised by the mellow flavor and creamy and slightly crumbly texture with fine blue veining . Eating Blue Stilton is like enjoying an exquisite dark chocolate.They yellowish  rind around the cheese is marked with white patches  and becomes brown, coarse and crusty with age. Young Stilton has mild flavor but mature has strong aftertaste (and makes me thirsty).

Stilton is known as the King of English Cheese and it rightfully wears the dairy crown. It is the only British cheese graced with its own certification trademark.
Stilton is named after a village in Cambridgeshire where the cheese used to be made and sold to travelers at an in inn there. It was invented by a woman:  Mrs Frances Pawlett of Wymondham, near Melton Mowbray in Leicestershire. She was  a supreme cheese-maker and Stilton ( Britain's first blue cheese) constitutes a proof of her skills. I'm very happy to find out about  that woman. I had always connected the art of cheese making with men.

Spinach and Blue Stilton Tart recipe