the production of Cantal and the recipe of the fraudulent

Auvergne is a land of cheeses, it’s no secret. This time we are interested in Cantal, from the name of the department where it is produced. This is also where we went to test the production of the cheese and, as a bonus, reveal the secrets of the scam.

He deserves it! Yes, you have to go there and to eat the cheese, you have to get up early, very early too. As a great cheese lover, I couldn’t miss the Cantal.

Direction Liarsnear Saint-Flour, in Loup Calma young farmer to be milked, why do the cheese, him Of course you need milk. There are about 30 cows to be cashed so… we have some work.

Perle, Juliette and the others are waiting patiently for us. After collecting the first eight, everyone needs to be prepared. “We will put foam on the teats of the cows so that they are very clean for milking. In this way there will be no impurities in the milk”. So, the nipples are cleaned and it remains only to connect the milking machine. It seems simple at first glance, but managing it also requires a little help. When all is trendy, no time to be bored, the first ones have already finished milking. On average, Loup harvests nearly 15 liters per cow. So, we will put a product so that there is no bacteria getting into the cow. Loup Calmels was recently installed, May 19, 2022 to be exact. “Since I was everything little jI’ve always loved dairy cows. My grandmother had dairy cows, Montbéliardes. I’ve always been passionate about these cows. They have character, they are beautiful cows, they are stubborn”.
The milk is collected and transported to the La Planèze dairy cooperative in Neuveglise.

I take off my boots, overalls and cows, put on a charlotte, a blouse and find Alain Bachellerie, the cooperative’s cheesemaker. ” The the collected milk arrives in the tanks, where it is heated to 32.5°C. Then, we put the rennet and after half an hour, we weight scale. The curd is then pressed for 20 minutes”Alain explains. Every day the cooperative collects between 17,000 and 18,000 liters of milk. Again, you have to get up early to make cheese, from 4am. With Alain we extract the curd that has been pressed, blocks that are a bit heavy and not easy to move.

I make a small parenthesis: do you know the difference between tomme and the volume? We speak of “tomme” for a circular cheese produced in Savoy, Provence or Dauphine. While the term “tome” is used for the Quail pressed like Cantal or Laguiole. Although there are some exceptions.

Let’s go back to ours volumes which, once out of the press, return to another to be pressed again: they are pressed for 20 minutes, cut and turned over. The operation must be repeated four times. The goal is to remove the serum from the volume. “After these 4 rounds, we let it mature the volume until 4 the next morning. It is crushed and then salted, continues Alain Bachellerie. Two hours later, the parts are assembled. We can produce pieces from 8 kg to 42 kg. These parts are pressed again with machines for 24 hours. The next day, the canvas is removed. We change canvas, go back and press ».

In the end it’s all about pressure, but also about patience. Direction Alibaba Cave: in the cellar the wheels wait and are rubbed every week. ” In after 120 days the wheels are ready to be sold for the cantal entre-deux. Between 30 and 60 days, it is the so-called young Cantal. And after 240 days, we are talking about the old Cantal. On average, 45 forms are produced for day “.

All that cheese made me hungry! I take off my blouse and charlotte, and this time I put on my apron, towards the violet farm, on the edge of Cantal and Aubrac. I find Jean-Pierre Raynal, the chef who will reveal the secrets of his scam. Let’s start by cutting fresh volume and cantal very young. “You have to cut the cheese with very fine blades. It will melt faster in the potatoes, which should be very hot. Within 5-10 minutes the scam must be ready”. Jean-Pierre has been cooking scam for 7 years, but fell for it as a child. ” The scam is a festive dish. I remember when we were little my mother was scammed on Sundays. It is a very famous dish in France and I would even say in the world. It is a dish that makes many people live in our territories. We remember our ancestors, ours buronnierswhen they set out with their cows between 25 May and 13 October to milk in the burons, they didn’t have much. With their milk they made their cheese and cooked their cheese with their own potatoes from the garden”.

During this time, the 5 kg of potatoes were cooked in duck fat: ” We let it melt for a minute and then add the 2 kg of toma cheese. When the scammer begins to sing and have children, she’s ready”.

After the effort, comfort. We can go to the table: a nice fire in the fireplace, scams, sausages, and a nice table of friends. Everything is there to enjoy the charms of Cantal, the cheese and the terroir.