Cheese: Reblochon

As January slowly moves past, and February threatens snow and cold in France, one thing is on many people’s minds: spending the winter vacation skiing.  France is full of ski lodges from high in the Alps to south in the Pyrenees Mountains, and after a long day of hitting the slopes one hungers for a filling dish as satisfying as a day on the mountain.  That is when one’s mind starts to drift to a tartiflette.  A ski lodge favorite, tartiflette is a winter time dish that consists of sliced sautéed potatoes, caramelized onions, smoky bacon, and a little white wine drenched in a melted rich cheese that harmonizes all the ingredients together, and that cheese is none other than reblochon.

            Reblochon is another cheese from the Haute-Savoie region that is Appellation d’Origine Contrôlée.  This region is north of Italy and just west of Switzerland with pastoral lands that are at least 500 meters in altitude.  Reblochon is a pressed, uncooked cheese made from unpasteurized cow’s milk; it is soft, flat, and round and weighs roughly just over a pound.  Reblochon is unique, not only for its creamy, mild flavor, but also because it is produced twice a day directly after milking and is made using milk from a single herd.

             This cheese was first produced in the 13^th Century and during that time, any farmer who rented land in the region paid the landowner according to the amount of milk produced.  When the landowner would come to measure the milk, the farmer would only partially milk the cows.  Then, once the landowner was gone, the farmer would re-milk or reblocher the herd.  The milk from this second milking was creamier and richer in fat, and was then used to create the cheese known today as reblochon.



Tartiflette



Time to Break Those New Year's Resolutions: Crème Fraîche

It’s winter, so it only seems appropriate to discuss those heavy, fat laden comfort foods that were sworn off on New Year’s Day.  Among those: crème fraîche.  This slightly sweet and nutty cousin of sour cream is what broken resolutions are made of.  While we found that these two relatives can mostly be swapped out for one another depending on what continent we are on, we also discovered there are differences.  First, crème fraîche has a much higher fat content, 30-40% versus sour cream’s 18-20%, and it is this higher fat content that prevents crème fraîche from curdling when cooked.  Sour cream cannot withstand high cooking temperatures as crème fraîche can.  Second, there is a slight difference in taste.  Crème fraîche is less acidic than sour cream and slightly thicker.

            Given how the French take crème fraiche seriously, it is no surprise that one has risen to the ranks of quality of AOC or Appellation d’Origine Controle in 1986: Isigny AOC crème fraîche.  “Isigny” is not a brand, but a location.  It’s in Normandy, the Northwest corner of France and is sandwiched between the English Channel and the Bessin and Contentin marshes.  The Isigny territory is damp and mild and therefore has a lush vegetation which is why the buttermilk used to make the crème fraîche has high butterfat levels.  Translation: the cows are very well feed and the milk created is rich.

            Does this mean I’m willing to switch out my sour cream for crème fraîche while in the US?  No, given that crème fraîche is pretty hard to find and I can’t think of any recipe where the extra fat content is truly needed.  Would I recommend trying it?  Without hesitation, resolutions be damned.