Reblochon

Reblochon is a soft washed-rind cow's milk cheese of the Aravis range in Haute-Savoie, in the French Alps. The name derives from the Savoyard verb reblocher, to milk a cow's udder again, and refers to a historical practice: in the fourteenth century, farmers paid their land rent in milk, and after the landowner's agent had measured the day's yield and left, the farmer would do a second, secret milking of the same cows; this late milk, richer in fat, was kept back and used to make reblochon. Wikipedia documents the cheese's AOC status as granted in 1958; the designation requires raw cow's milk from the defined Haute-Savoie zone. Reblochon is the indispensable cheese of tartiflette, the Savoyard potato gratin.

A wedge of Reblochon shows a sticky orange rind and a smooth, pale yellow paste that softens to a near-liquid cream when fully ripe. The flavor is nutty and beefy, with the characteristic pungency of a washed-rind cheese; the rind is edible and adds an earthy, mushroomy note. At room temperature the paste runs; melted into tartiflette, it becomes the rich, glossy binder of the dish.

Reblochon is a soft washed-rind cheese. Rennet coagulates raw cow's milk; the curd is cut, lightly pressed, and brined. During affinage the rind is repeatedly washed with brine, which selects for surface bacteria — particularly Brevibacterium linens — that thrive in the salty, moist environment. These bacteria secrete proteases that ripen the paste from the outside in, softening it progressively to the smooth, runny texture characteristic of a ripe reblochon; the same bacteria produce the orange rind and the characteristic pungent, beefy aroma through the sulfur compounds they generate. The roughly six to eight weeks of affinage is short, keeping the flavor in the young, creamy range.