Saint-Nectaire with raw cow's milk
Saint-Nectaire with raw cow's milk - Uncooked pressed cheese - AOP
This farm-produced cheese has its origins in the Monts Dore, located in a fertile grassy volcanic area.
It is made with whole raw milk on the farm, twice a day, just after the morning and evening milkings. Farmhouse Saint-Nectaire can be recognized by the oval green casein plate affixed to one side.
The minimum ripening period is 28 days. During this period, the master affineur brings all the necessary care to the cheese to develop its pretty bloomy rind and its aromas. The cheeses are washed in salted water at least twice in the first 3 weeks of ripening. The cheeses are then regularly turned over and rubbed once a week.
These multiple attentions are necessary for Saint-Nectaire to develop its very specific rind with white to gray mold on an orange-brown background, and this inimitable taste of hazelnut, recognizable among all.
The particularity of Saint-Nectaire is that it has been matured for several years in the cellars under Clermont-Ferrand. Indeed before the arrival of phylloxera at the end of the 19th century, there were many wine cellars under Clermont-Ferrand. They were then transformed into a ripening cellar, because the farmers used to go down to the city to sell their white tommes to ripeners.
Today there are about twenty affineurs left who are unfortunately no longer in Clermont-Ferrand. It is the creaminess of its paste and its hazelnut taste that made it famous.
Indeed it was introduced to the court of Louis XIV by the Marshal of France Henri de La Ferté-Senneterre where this cheese was favored by the Sun King.
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