🧀 Tomme de Savoie

Tomme de Savoie is a French pressed uncooked cheese with a protected geographical indication (PGI, registered in the EU on 21 June 1996). It is made from cow's milk, raw or thermised, and every production step takes place in Haute-Savoie, Savoie and listed communes of Ain and Isère.

Milk. At least 75% of the dairy herd must be of the Abondance, Montbéliarde or Tarentaise type. Green forage is compulsory for at least 150 days a year, and all coarse forage for cows in milk comes from the production area.

How it is made. The milk may be thermised and skimmed to the desired fat content; pasteurisation is prohibited. It is coagulated with rennet at 30–35 °C, the curd is cut into grains between the size of a corn kernel and a hazelnut and stirred for 20 to 60 minutes (heating is optional, up to 40 °C), then moulded, pressed and acidified for at least 5 hours before dry or brine salting. Each cheese carries an identification mark with the workshop number and a sequential number.

Ripening. The wheels ripen on wooden boards in cellars at 8–14 °C and at least 90% humidity, turned 1 to 3 times a week, for at least 30 days from renneting until they leave the cellar.

Look and taste. It is a flat cylinder 18–21 cm across and 5–8 cm high, weighing 1.2–2 kg; a smaller format of 400–900 g also exists. The rind is smooth to slightly rough, grey to grey-white, and secondary moulds may develop on it. The paste is semi-firm, white to yellow, with small openings. The flavour is frank and slightly salted, sometimes with a touch of acidity and piquancy. The cheese contains at least 9% fat of total weight and at least 45% dry matter; salt is 1.2–2%.

History. According to the specification, it is the oldest of the Savoy cheeses. It was long made for home consumption from the milk left after the fat was taken for other uses, so its fat content and size varied from farm to farm.