🧀 French Gruyère (PGI)

French Gruyère is a hard, cooked and pressed cheese made from raw cow's milk in east-central France. It is protected in the EU as a PGI under the name "Gruyère".

Milk. According to the specification, the milk comes only from herds of Abondance, Tarentaise, Montbéliarde, Vosgienne or French Simmental cows (crosses of these breeds are allowed). The herd grazes at least 150 days a year, and silage and other fermented fodder are forbidden. The milk is never heated above 40 °C.

Making. The cheese is made in an open copper vat. Besides milk, only salt, calf rennet and selected cultures are allowed. The curd and whey are heated to at least 52 °C and the cheese is pressed for at least 6 hours, then salted in brine or dry.

Ripening. The wheels ripen for at least 120 days from renneting, resting on spruce boards. They are turned and rubbed regularly with salt or salted water and the natural smear called morge.

Look and paste. A flat wheel 53–63 cm across and 13–16 cm high, with a firm, grainy rind from golden yellow to brown. The paste is firm, ivory to pale yellow, and must show holes from the size of a pea to that of a cherry. Fat is 47–52% of dry matter and dry matter is at least 62%.

Area and marking. The cheese is made within a defined area that includes all of Doubs, Jura, Haute-Saône, Savoie and Haute-Savoie and parts of neighbouring departments. A yellow oval casein plate on the heel of each wheel identifies it. The EU register gives 2007 as the protection date.