🧀 Picodon

Picodon is a French soft, unpressed goat's cheese with a protected designation of origin (PDO), made from raw, whole, non-standardised and non-homogenised goat's milk by lactic coagulation with a small amount of rennet. It is shaped like a small puck with rounded edges. According to the specification, milk production, cheesemaking and ripening all take place on the hills on both banks of the middle Rhône valley: in all communes of the Ardèche and Drôme, the canton of Barjac in the Gard and the canton of Valréas in Vaucluse. The name has been protected in the EU since 1996.

Goats and feed. The milk comes only from Alpine, Saanen, Massif Central, Provençale and Rove goats or their crosses. Permanent housing indoors is forbidden. Forage comes 100% from the area, silage and other fermented feed are banned all year, and the annual ration includes at least 12 plant species. Supplementary feed is limited to 390 kg per goat per year.

Making. The milk is renneted at 20–25 °C, and the lactic curd takes 16 to 36 hours to form. It is moulded by hand without pre-draining, turned at least once and salted on both faces with dry salt. After at least 24 hours of drying, the cheese ripens in a humid room for at least 8 days at 12 °C or more. It may be sold as Picodon from 12 days after renneting.

Look and taste. 5–7 cm across, 1.8–2.5 cm high, at least 60 g. The rind is thin, lightly covered with white, ivory, blue, grey or brown moulds depending on the stage. The paste is white or yellow, smooth and fine, and can be crumbly after long ripening; at least 45 g of fat per 100 g of cheese after total desiccation. The taste is clean and goaty, with notes of hazelnut and a little mushroom, sometimes piquant.

Matured and washed. A Picodon labelled "affiné lavé" or "affiné méthode Dieulefit" is kept at least 15 days in a humid room until it turns blue, then washed and confined again (at least two washes for the Dieulefit method). It is sold at least 30 days after renneting, measures 4.5–6 cm across, weighs at least 45 g and has a marbled paste.