As the saying goes, “age doesn’t matter, unless you’re cheese”. Besides its funny connotation, there is also a slight truth in it. . Actually, aging in cheese (or ripening) is the most important part of making cheese.

Cheese is placed in particularly controlled conditions, letting them develop the look, the texture, the flavor, and even the aroma properties that make them different from other cheeses. With proper ripening, the bloom blossoms on Camembert, the holes magically become into Swiss, and the veins transform into Gorgonzola.

During ripening, microbes and enzymes develop inside that breaks down the proteins and milk fat into different complex amino acids. Thus creating a cheese with a rich texture and an intense flavor.

In order to have their own unique characteristics, most cheeses are aged between the periods of two weeks to two or more years. In principle, the longer the cheese is aged, the firmer, sharper and more distinctive its taste and texture becomes.

Cheeses like the Stravecchio Parmigiano Reggiano for instance, are allowed to ripen for 24 to 36 months and thus its interesting nutty-fruity taste and its hard, gritty texture. The mildest cheeses such as ricotta, and cream and cottage, are eaten fresh right away and are not ripened at all.

However, there are some cheeses that are ripened halfway through these cheeses are called semi-aged cheese for only about 5 to 10 weeks only. And one of the best tasting semi-aged cheeses available in the market today is the Bucheron cheese.

Bucheron is made from pure goat’s milk and is a native delicacy of Loire Valley in France. is a very favorite ingredient for salads and sandwiches because of its rich taste and is widely available as well. It has a soft, creamy center almost the same in texture to a typical chevre (goat’s cheese), but typical this cheese is not.

What makes Bucheron unique aside from its gooey and creamy taste is that it is made in short logs and aged before it is cut into much smaller rounds. Around its creamy center is a ring of a harder and tangier cheese that will tickle you taste buds with a unique sharpness and complexity, absent in typical chevre.

The Bucheron cheese has a very interesting characteristic it has a layer of gooey cheese around the large chalky core, plus a thin bloomy layer of mold like that of brie cheese thanks to its youth. Softly ripened cheeses age from the outside in, that is why they have an interesting center.

With Bucheron cheese, you can enjoy two cheeses in one block: a creamy, mushroomy center plus a dry and clay-like tangy fresh goat milk cheese around it. It tastes perfectly with Bordeaux’s or any other dry. Try the Bucheron cheese toady and sink slowly into heaven!

Learn more about Bucheron Cheese.

Share This