🧀 Pélardon

Pélardon is a French soft goat's cheese with a protected designation of origin (PDO), made from whole raw goat's milk that is not standardised for protein or fat. The milk comes from herds of Alpine, Saanen or Rove goats and their crossbreeds.

How it is made. The milk is coagulated slowly, mainly by lactic acidification, and the curd drains naturally. Starter cultures are made from the whey of the previous production, and the curd is not sliced before manual moulding. Besides milk, only rennet, harmless bacterial cultures, yeasts, moulds, calcium chloride and salt are allowed; freezing curd or cheese is banned.

Look and texture. Pélardon is a cylinder with rounded edges. Eleven days after renneting it weighs over 60 g and measures 60–70 mm across and 22–27 mm high, with at least 40 g of dry matter per 100 g and 45 g of fat per 100 g of dry matter. The thin rind is partly or fully covered with a pale yellow, white or blue mould down. The paste is ivory-white, even and smooth when cut, and can become crumbly after long maturing.

Goats and area. The goats are free-range, with access to pasture for at least 210 days a year below 800 m (180 days higher up) and at least 2,000 m² of pasture per goat; hay and some cereals are allowed. Rearing, cheesemaking, maturing and packing all take place in the zone: parts of the Aude, Gard, Hérault and Lozère departments and one commune in Tarn. According to the specification, the name probably derives from 'Péraldou', a cheese mentioned by Pliny, and an 18th-century Languedoc dictionary (1756) lists it under that name. Labels carry the words Appellation d'Origine Protégée and the PDO logo.