🧀 Munster

Munster, or Munster-Géromé, is a French soft washed-rind cheese made from cow's milk. It has been an EU PDO since 1996 (eAmbrosia file PDO-FR-0125); the specification was amended by Implementing Regulation (EU) 2021/140. The production area covers parts of the departments of Meurthe-et-Moselle, Moselle, Bas-Rhin, Haut-Rhin, Haute-Saône, Vosges and Territoire de Belfort.

According to the single document, the origins go back to the abbeys founded in the Vosges massif in the 7th and 8th centuries; the Monasterium confluentis gave its name to the town of Munster. Cheese-making developed around Munster (for Alsace) and around Gérardmer (for Lorraine), which explains the two names, Munster and Géromé. From the 16th century farmers sold the cheese to wine-growing towns of Alsace.

The cheese is a thick or flat cylinder in three format categories: 120–340 g, 450–1,000 g and 1,000–1,750 g. Depending on the format, it ripens for at least 14 or 21 days counted from renneting. The rind is thin and slightly smeared, ivory orange to reddish orange, mainly due to red cultures (Brevibacterium linens). The paste is ivory to pale beige and may have a few holes; by the end of the minimum ripening a core forms. The aroma is pungent and slightly ammoniac. In the mouth the paste is slightly salty, fine, soft and melting, with a sweet taste with lactic, plant (hay, ripe fruit, nuts), woody and slightly yeasty notes. Fat is at least 20 g and dry matter at least 44 g per 100 g of cheese. Caraway seeds may be added to the paste.

At least 95 % of the dry matter of the cows' basic ration must come from the production area, the cows graze at least 150 days a year, and concentrates are limited to 1.8 tonnes of dry matter per cow per year. The cheeses are packaged individually, in the production area, as they leave the ripening cellar. The label shows the name in characters at least two thirds the size of the largest ones, together with the EU PDO symbol; the Vosges breed may be mentioned only if more than 70 % of the cows belong to it.