Behold the Power of Cheese Affinage

Article for The Farmer General published 28th February 2011

Sarah Kanabay, The Farmer General Co-Founder and Editor in Chief, contacted me several months ago about contributing to the online food literary magazine.  Evidently, I enthusiastically agreed and began brainstorming my first theme: Tradition.  What to write about...?  Ah, of course: Behold the Power of Cheese Affinage.  What else?

Hervé talks affinage

For you bilingual readers, here's another short segment staring my boss. Here he describes what is affinage pretty clearly... as long as you understand French!

Carbone 42 - L'affinage du fromage chez Mons

envoyé par carbone42. - Regardez plus de vidéos de science.

When he notes that we don't quite understand why a mould might appear in abundance one day and not at all the next, he's describing the challenge that is affinage.  As much as we'd like to break down the science of affinage into simple causes and effects, there are so many factors influencing one outcome that we are forced to treat the trade like an art.

"We're in a world of mushrooms, yeasts and moulds.  That's our job."  He continues, saying that we grumble when we see cheeses without any rinds or moulds because perhaps the cheeses are meant to be sold quickly or are packaged this way to avoid loosing any moisture (which keeps the weight and the price high), but this practice is detrimental to the flavor and the consistency of the cheeses.

Le toucher

I've now been studying cheese affinage for two months and I must tell you that work is going well. I would even venture to say that I have acquired hints of le toucher (the touch) necessary to assess the stage of life of a cheese!  Today, just a few of the St. Maures I was flipping in the goat cheese cave had too much moisture, or creaminess, under their skin and so I put those aside and moved them to the SAS 1 - one of the cold rooms in which we house our cheese hospital.  Moving the cheeses from the warm, humid cave to the SAS 1 haults the affinage because the microbes working in the cheeses slow down.  When bringing them back to a warmer temperature, however, those microbes just start right back up.

This kind of toucher is especially important during the daily check and flip of cheeses in the haloir (drying room).  Each cheese has its own perfect affinage and while that starts with exceptional cheesemaking, at MonS it starts in the haloir.  For those cheeses that spend two to 36 hours in the haloir (Hervé and the team experiment to decide what procedure and which cave is best with each new cheese), it is imperative that we check their statuses at least once a day.  The drier, harder cheeses are moved to their respective caves while those with moisture remaining stay a while longer in the haloir.  If a cheese remains in the haloir for too long, it could split open or become rock hard (which is only desirable for certain cheeses like Picodon and Bicaillou).  If a cheese is moved too early into its cave, it might "skin," or faire la peau, when we flip it a week later - the cheese slips out of our hand while its skin remains attached to our fingers!  In this case, just as I did with the St. Maures, one solution is to put the cheese in a cold place with a fan to dry its surface.  The excess moisture could also invite unwanted mould growth that causes an unfortunate appearance, such as some of our Pouligny (which taste delicious nonetheless!) or worse, unwanted bitterness.

This work remains challenging in a nerdy sort of a way that keeps me thrilled.  Then, at the end of a dry, sunny day like today, I put on my bathing suit and head up to the lake by Renaison for a swim.  I don't know how life can get much better.

View from the Col de Soubeyrand, Drôme Provençale

Raw Milk Revolution

"I feel like I'm in Auvergne, in my country.  But I'm actually in the U.S., in the heart of Vermont!"  ~ Hervé Mons

Here's a short TF1 news segment on Hervé Mons visiting a couple of Vermont raw milk cheese affineurs.  Yep, that's my boss.  At the end, there, he's serving MonS cheeses.  Perhaps I worked some of them!

Cheesy Groovy Fabulous

My great friend Kristen came to visit this weekend and, through her, I realize that I have already learned so much in these first five weeks at MonS.  I took her on a mini tour of La Maison upon her arrival Friday afternoon and started explaining the purposes of the different caves and rooms and the processes cheeses experience.

To start with the basics, there are currently seven categories of cheeses:

• Fresh cheeses (eaten very quickly after fabrication, no rind)
• Natural rind (what you probably think of when you hear "goat cheese")
• Bloomy rind/soft white cheeses (think Brie and Camembert)
• Washed rind cheeses (my Langres, Epoisses and Maroilles)
• Pâte pressée non cuite/semihard cheeses (tommes often with a dark, earthy rind)
• Pâte pressée cuite/hard cheeses (those giant Swiss wheels like Gruyère)
• Blue cheeses (I recently discovered the sweet glory of Persillé du Beaujolais) 

But more than this, I've started understanding why the different techniques in affinage produce their results and the biochemical processes involved in cheese.  For instance, the geotrichum on the outside of a delicate, floral Lingot de St. Nicholas breaks down the proteins under the thin skin of the cheese, which causes its body to turn creamy from the outside in.  The next time you slice through a St. André, a Délice or a good Brie, look at the cross section.  You should notice cream under the skin and a "heart" at the center with a consistency that's more solid, crumbly and spongy.  The cheese nerd in me is thoroughly satisfied.