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April 04, 2005
FEATURED CHEESE: Morbier
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It’s late at night somewhere in the mountains of France's Franche-Comté region. Two French cheese executives are sitting at a table in a windowless conference room. They are bleary-eyed, disheveled, unshaven. Neither man has showered in days (although it’s France so nobody really noticed). They are surrounded by wadded-up paper and empty wine bottles.
French Cheese Executive #1: Time is running out. We must choose a label design.
French Cheese Executive #2: I've got it! What about a painting of a 16th century juggler?
French Cheese Executive #1: What does that have to do with cheese?
French Cheese Executive #2: Can you think of something better?
French Cheese Executive #1: Okay, fine. Now I will go smoke an unfiltered cigarette and contemplate the futility of existence.
French Cheese Executive #2: Hold up -- I’m coming, too.
And so the label for Morbier cheese was born.
Morbier is a semi-soft cheese notable for its bisecting line of dark vegetable ash. The greenish-black ash is tasteless and has no purpose. So, you ask reasonably, why is it there?
That’s not really clear. One Web site says adding ash is a tradition that began when a wheel of cheese was dropped on the floor. Another says that the ash was used to preserve the cheese after the morning milking, i.e., the cheese-maker would make a batch of cheese in the morning, cover it in ash, then return in the evening to make another batch. Yet another Web site says the ash is added "between steps to prevent a rind from forming during the molding process." That doesn't seem right: People make semi-soft cheese all the time without vegetable ash -- if it were critical to the manufacturing process, wouldn't it be used in all semi-soft cheeses? Yes. I think it would.
The cheese is stinky but it tastes good. It has a pleasant, strong flavor. One description I read said Morbier has a bitter aftertaste but I didn’t find that to be true.
Posted by teb at April 4, 2005 02:05 PM