🧀 Cantal

Cantal, also registered as Fourme de Cantal, is a French hard cheese with a protected designation of origin since 1996 (eAmbrosia PDO-FR-0113). It is made entirely from cow's milk with rennet, and its uncooked paste is pressed twice, with the curd ground between the first and second pressing; the cheese is then salted. ³

Fat is at least 45% of dry matter. According to the specification, the basic ration of the dairy herd consists exclusively of coarse fodder from the defined area, with grass or hay at least 70% of dry matter; cows graze at least 120 days a year, and supplementary feed is limited to 1,800 kg per cow a year. The cheese is a slightly bulging wheel: 35 to 45 kg (large) or 8 to 10 kg (small). The rind is dry and thickens with age, from greyish white to golden and brown. The paste is ivory to dark yellow, malleable when young and slightly crumbly when mature. The taste is milky and may be slightly acidic at first, gradually becoming fruity, intense and lasting. ³

The label must say jeune, entre-deux or vieux. Jeune ripens 30 to 60 days (dry extract at least 57%), entre-deux 90 to 210 days (at least 58%), and vieux at least 240 days (at least 60%), counted from renneting. Small cheeses carry the word small. The label also bears the EU PDO symbol and the words produced by and ripened by. The cheese may be sold in portions or grated; except for portions under 70 g, cubes and grated cheese, part of the rind must be kept. ³

The milk is produced, and the cheese made and ripened, in the defined area: most of the department of Cantal and some municipalities in Aveyron, Corrèze, Haute-Loire and Puy-de-Dôme. According to the specification, this is cool, humid mid-mountain country of at least 500 m altitude centred on the volcanic Monts du Cantal, which makes it prime grassland. ³

A cheese made to travel. It began in burons, low stone huts on the Monts du Cantal, where large herds grazed from May to October. Cheeses came down in autumn and were sold on, and archives describe them as trade goods with wine-growing southern France, so they had to keep. Diderot's Encyclopédie showed how it was made, and it became an appellation by a court ruling in 1956. ³

Why press it twice. The first pressing drains the curd and a long rest acidifies it. Grinding it then gives the texture, salt spreads evenly through the mass, and the second pressing shapes the cheese. Ripeners, not dairies, developed the three ages. In 2020, 10,538 tonnes were sold, from 933 milk producers. ³⁴

Why it matters to you. The word on the label is your guide: jeune is milky and supple, entre-deux stands between, and vieux is fruity, intense and slightly crumbly. A wheel of 35–45 kg is rarely seen whole, so ask to try a piece. ³⁴