Fresh chevre

[bleudauvergne]

I have sometimes been suprised at how the taste and depth of different new chevres varies so widely. I like a tangy new chevre for salads and rolling in herbs or dipping in marc and rolling in pepper, something with a strong taste. Half the time I get fresh chevre at the markets from the producers, it doesn't seem flavorful enough to me. Does it have to be a certain age before it takes on that nice tang, or is it the method of cheesemaking that defines the flavor of a chevre from the beginning?

[master cheesemonger/grocer]

First, make sure you're buying traditional, hand-ladled curd fresh chevre, as opposed to factory chevre which is made from powdered milk and frozen curd and is extruded from a machine like pasta. You ain't getting any nuance from dead, factory cheese. These enemies of the people are usually cry-o-vac-ed, though some are not. Use your common sense at market. Traditional fresh chevres vary in terms of sweetness/savoriness, tangy-ness, acidity, etc. according to the time of year (fresh chevres from spring and summer will be MUCH sweeter than late autumn and winter). The breed of goat has a lot to do with it, too; though let us not split hairs except to understand that the predominant race in France is Alpine, with some Swiss Saanen about, both known for quantity rather than nuance, whereas the rare Rove from the Garrigues is an utterly phenomenal breed whose resultant cheeses are so sweet, so rich, so tangy, so frothy and light that I could almost appreciate fresh chevre.

The age of a fresh chevre (three weeks to, say, nine weeks) is not going to have undergone a perceptible change in flavor. It will lose humidity over those weeks, so the texture will change. But not the flavor. Not to me, anyway.

[bleudauvergne]

Thank you Steve, it's funny you should mention Rove from the Garrigues, I recently discovered it and had it on my cheese plate one month ago. The one I bought was fresh, young and delicate, and oh so flavorful - one of the only very fresh chevres that I had ever had that had that special something.

Ever since that day I have been raving to my husband that we need to get a big bag of wild herb seeds from Provence and start growing a field of these herbs. Thank you for clarifying that the breed of goat is an important factor in the superlative qualities of this cheese.

One other question about summer vs winter chevre, why will it be more tangy in the fall / winter? Is it because they produce less milk at that time?

Thanks again for answering all of our cheese questions - you are really an inspiration and what you have pioneered and accomplished and continue to accomplish improves the lives of so many people.

[master cheesemonger/grocer]

No, it's because in late fall through winter and early spring the goats are not eating fresh vegetation; they're eating hay. It's the chlorophyll in fresh grass, herbs, etc. that provides the sweetness to milk. That's why the first growth of grass in the spring is so celebrated by cheese-loving Europeans. The cheese is as ebullient as the animals.

But lots of Italians vastly prefer Parmigiano that was made from winter milk; they adore the complexity they detect in latte d'inverno than latte d'estate.

All food preferences are subjective.

The second-greatest cheese in the world, Vacherin Mont d'Or, is made solely from winter milk. There you have it.