The Comté
Is the appellation of origin of a French cheese mainly transformed in Franche-Comté and benefiting from an AOC since 1958 and a PDO since 1996. Its production area extends in the departments of Jura, Doubs and east of the Ain.
It is a cheese made from raw cow's milk, cooked in pressed dough. It is presented in wheels of 55 to 75 cm in diameter and with a mass of 32 to 45 kg.
You need to produce about 450 liters of raw milk to make a Comté.
How many liters of milk produce a cow a day?
This varies according to the breed (Prim'holstein, Normande, Montbéliarde, Salers, Tarentaise, there are 30 different breeds in France) but it can be said that a cow produces an average of 25 liters of milk per day.
There are two drafts a day, one in the early morning, around 6 am and one at the end of the day around 6 pm. The cow produces milk only nine to ten months in the year, the next two months it is paused before returning on a cycle of 9/10 months with the design of a new calf. On average, a dairy cow lives between five and six years.
With 60,000 tons, the Comté is the first AOC cheese produced in France.
The size of the cheese justifies, since the Middle Ages, the regrouping of the milks of several breeders thus putting their property to fructify, giving fruiters.
This old cooperative system continues and makes the county a cheese with strong roots; this specificity also makes that.
History
The Comté was born at a time when the roughness of long winters obliged men to think of their subsistence collectively; it was necessary to store the abundant milk in summer in order to benefit during the winter.
The manufacture of large dry and hard cheeses also made it easier to travel and sell them.
For this cheese, 500 liters of milk was needed. This was the reason why the milk producers federated. It took the milk of several herds to make a single cheese. Putting together their produce to make it grow, these cooperatives took the name of fruiter. The values of solidarity conveyed by these fruit trees have survived eight centuries of production.
The terroir of appellation
The appellation d'origine contrôlée (AOC) Comté is governed by a decree of which the last version dates from May 11, 2007.
This regulation is a common rule that have imposed the producers of County. These rules revert to old practices that have created the notoriety of this cheese. Compliance with this decree is one of the prerequisites for the manufacture and sale of cheese bearing the name "Comté".