Sainte-Maure de Touraine

Sainte-Maure de Touraine is a goat cheese named for the town of Sainte-Maure-de-Touraine in the Touraine region of the Loire Valley. Wikipedia documents its原产地命名 status as granted in 1990, with the European PDO following. The defining feature is the rye straw run lengthwise through the center of the log: traditionally this aided drainage and handling during the cheese's early life, and under原产地命名 rules the straw also carries the producer's name or number for traceability. The surface is dusted with wood ash, which historically neutralized surface acidity and discouraged undesirable molds while the desired white bloomy rind developed. A commonly cited folk tradition links the introduction of goats to the Loire to the Saracens of the eighth or ninth century, though this is legend rather than documented record.

A slice of Sainte-Maure de Touraine shows the cross-section of the rye straw at the center of a soft white paste, the surface of the log mottled ash-grey and white from the ashed rind and its bloomy mold. The texture is creamy and dense when young, becoming firmer and drier with age; the flavor is lactic and goaty with a slight mineral edge. The straw itself, bitten by accident, is fibrous and tasteless — its purpose is structural and traditional.

Sainte-Maure de Touraine is a soft lactic-set goat cheese with two distinguishing features. The first is the rye straw through the center, which historically served as a drainage channel and a handling aid while the fragile curd set, and now doubles as an原产地命名 traceability marker. The second is the ashed rind: the surface is dusted with wood ash, which neutralizes the surface acidity that would otherwise favor undesirable microorganisms, allowing the desired white bloomy mold — Penicillium camemberti — to develop. The ash also gives the characteristic mottled grey-and-white appearance. Beneath the rind, lactic-set goat curd ripens from the outside in through enzymatic proteolysis, softening from firm to creamy; the goat milk's medium-chain fatty acids provide the characteristic tangy flavor that intensifies with age.