Cheese in Brittany

[Mallet]

Moderator's note: As this post was off topic in its orignal thread, we've started a new one on the subject of cheese in Brittany

This may or may not be the appropriate thread for this, but there seems to be an unusually large concentration of French cheese and cattle experts here so I'll ask anyways. I'm going to France this summer (first time to Europe!) and will be spending a fair bit of time in Belle-Ile-en-Mer, in Bretagne. Does anyone have some info on cattle breeds/cheeses specific to the region? I'd hate to miss out on a local treasure...

[Ptipois]

This may or may not be the appropriate thread for this,  but there seems to be an unusually large concentration of French cheese and cattle experts here so I'll ask anyways. I'm going to France this summer (first time to Europe!) and will be spending a fair bit of time in Belle-Ile-en-Mer, in Bretagne. Does anyone have some info on cattle breeds/cheeses specific to the region? I'd hate to miss out on a local treasure...

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Brittany is not a cheese place. It is a butter place. Butter is indeed great, but there is no cheese tradition worth mentioning. If there is a good cheese shop in Belle-Ile, cheeses from other regions will be available. You may also find some local goat cheeses and cottage cheese at markets.

The traditional bretonne pie-noire cow looks a bit like the Holstein (black and white) but it is shorter and sturdier, with a longer body and long horns.

The pie-rouge looks like the pie-noire with different colors. You're more likely to see pies-noires in Belle-Ile.

The froment du Léon you won't probably find in Belle-Ile, which is in Southern Brittany. It is an old breed from Northern Brittany, and the Guernesey cow was bred from it. There are few froment left, the breed is threatened with extinction. It produces excellent, rich milk, like the Guernesey and Jersey breeds. Butter churned from froment du Léon milk is as good as butter gets and yellow-colored (rich in carotene).

Also, two beautiful breeds fighting extinction:

la vache nantaise

la vache armoricaine

Your question is quite appropriate. The importance of the cow breed in the quality and taste of milk, therefore of butter and cheese, is often overlooked. There would never have been any camembert without the Norman cow or reblochon without the tarine cow. And cantal is directly correlated with the special quality of salers milk.

[bleudauvergne]

Hey now there Ptipois, I have had some excellent chevre from the local farms between Vannes and the coast and on up toward Brest, don't be so quick to write off the cheese of Brittany! What you want to do, Mallet, is pay attention to any and all roadside signs, most especially the hand painted or simple ones. "Fromage (with an arrow)" or "Chevre (with an arrow)" come to mind.

[Ptipois]

Hey now there Ptipois, I have had some excellent chevre from the local farms between Vannes and the coast and on up toward Brest, don't be so quick to write off the cheese of Brittany!  What you want to do, Mallet, is pay attention to any and all roadside signs, most especially the hand painted or simple ones.  "Fromage (with an arrow)" or "Chevre (with an arrow)" come to mind. 

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Well, that's why I wrote that Mallet would probably find local goat cheeses at markets, for they are the only cheeses artisanally made in Brittany, but not as typically Breton cheeses - since the 70's, goat cheese producers have been all over France. And they're good everywhere.

Milk production in Brittany revolves around butter, lait ribot and non-artisanal, non-traditional industrial cheeses. it is really not a place with renowned cheeses. It has other talents.

[Bux]

A few years back we bought some excellent local artisanal goat cheeses in Lorient. Even more surprisingly to me at the time, we bought them in a hypermarché. It was a Champion on the outskirts of Lorient and I was also surprised that's where a French chef working in NY, but on vacation visiting his parents, would take us for last minute shopping for dinner. I can say that the lowest tier of cheese resembled the cheese section of an ordinary supermarket in the states with it's packaged process cheese. The next tier up of industial, but honest cheese, much of it lait cru, was more like what one might expect in a "gourmet" specialty shop in the US. Yet another aisle over were the more delicate cheeses, the artisanal unwrapped cheeses that I would expect to find only in the better shops in France. Along that same wall were the examples of artisanal charcuterie that represent the glory of France.

Butter had been purchased at the open market in Hennebont earlier. It was incredible butter. It was the most distinguished butter I've ever had. Next to it, Plugra and the imported major French brands available here, taste like margarine. Anyone who has access to real artisanal farm butter in Brittany should make it a point to try some.

[John Talbott]

Hey now there Ptipois, I have had some excellent chevre from the local farms between Vannes and the coast and on up toward Brest, don't be so quick to write off the cheese of Brittany!   

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Well, that's why I wrote that Mallet would probably find local goat cheeses at markets, for they are the only cheeses artisanally made in Brittany, but not as typically Breton cheeses

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Not to be redundant but where I go off Brittany it's all goat cheese, and while goat is not my favorite, it suffices. To get cow, you gotta go Northeast.

[Mallet]

Fortunately, I like goat cheese and love butter (who doesn't?)... thanks to everyone who posted such helpful information, who needs a guide when you've got eGullet?

[Mallet]

I am in Paris now, having just returned from Belle-Île. As promised, the only local artisanal cheese I could find was some chèvre, which was truly excellent, I might add. By some twist of fate, the artisan in question knew my father from a choir exchange between france and Halifax, NS. Small world.

More later,

Martin