Morbier Cheese, Traditional semi soft french cheese with a layer of ash

Morbier cheese is a semi soft french cheese with a layer of ash in. Brine washed it is a medium strength cheese. Morbier was traditionally made with the left over milk used to make Comte (as it takes about 50l to make one of those!) This milk was put into a mould and sprinkled with wood ash to deter pests and moulds. The cheese would be topped up with the mornings milk, giving the distinctive line of ash that runs through the cheese. Washed in brine as it matures, the sticky fragrant rind is formed with sometimes a slightly crunchy texture - its all perfectly edible! The farmers discovered that as the Morbier takes a much shorter time to mature than the Comte`, it was actually a good source of income and so the Morbier industry was born. Made in the Moez region of the Jura Mountains, Morbier is a lovely fruity semi hard cheese with a fairly delicate but distinctive flavour and a lovely fragrant rind. The last couple of years we’ve been restricted from importing any unpasteurised cheeses in from France, to get around this problem, but without going full hog and pasteurising the milk, the morbier makers have started thermizing it, so this takes it to 57 to 68 degress, for 15 to 20 seconds which kills the offending bacteria, while keeping the microflora alive which is excellent news for us as we get Morbier back! Milk Type : Cow's milk Pasteurisation : Thermised Rennet type : Animal Rennet Flavour : Medium Country of Origin : France Brand : French AOC