Home > Gourmet Foods > Cheese of the Month Club > French Cheese > Beaufort AOC

Beaufort AOC Origin: Savoie Cheese group: Pressed, cooked cheeses Milk type: Cow's milk Strength: Medium Taste: Aromatic, fruity, vegetable-like Fat content: minimum 48% Season: Winter, spring, summer

Beaufort AOC
Beaufort AOC
Item# beaufortaoc

Product Description

In France, all of the big, hard cheeses belong to the family of Gruyères, not to be confused with the Swiss Gruyère or the Greyezer cheese. "Prince of the Gruyeres" is what the French gastronome and writer Jean-Anthelme Brillat-Savarin called Beaufort in the 19th century. The birthplace of this large, round, hard cheese is the Alps, where it is produced exclusively from raw milk. Typical of Beaufort is its flat dough and its damp, sticky rind with a slightly concave surface. It has a rich, creamy taste with subtle flavours of fruit.

A Beaufourt can weigh anywhere from 20 to 70 kilos. To produce a 45 kilo cheese requires a single day's milk of 45 cows (around 540 litres). Beaufort is made from the milk of a mahogany brown cow breed, called the Tarine or Tarentais.

A similar cheese from pastures of Beaufortin, Tarentaise and Maurienne valleys was already known and very appreciated by the Romans (Emperor Trajan).

The most aromatic milk is produced by these cows from June to September when they have been grazing on the meadows. After five to six months of ripening, the cheese from the summer milk comes to market. The best time for Beaufort is therefore usually from November to March. Cheese made from summer milk can be recognised by its bright yellow dough, compared to the white dough of the cheese made from winter milk.

Suggestions: This cheese is fantastic in a salad with pieces of bread, in a cheese fondue or a quiche.