Fourme d'Ambert

infobox Cheese
name = Fourme d'Ambert


country = France
region = Ambert
town = (Puy-de-Dôme), Auvergne
source = Cow
pasteurised = Depends on variety
texture = Semi-hard
aging = 1-4 Months
certification = AOC 2002
With Fourme de Montbrison
since 1972

Fourme d'Ambert is one of France's oldest cheeses, and dates from as far back as Roman timescite web|url=http://cheese.com/Description.asp?Name=Fourme%20d%27%20Ambert|title=Cheese.com profile] . It is a pasteurized cow's milk blue cheese from the Auvergne region of France, with a distinct, narrow cylindrical shape. [cite book | last =Iburg | first =Anne | title =Dumont's Lexicon of Cheese | publisher =REBO publishers | date =2004 | id = ISBN 90 366 1689 1 ]

The semi-hard cheese is inoculated with Penicillium roqueforti spores and aged for at least 28 days. During this aging time, at weekly intervals, the cheese is injected with Vouvray moelleux, a sweet white wine.

Almost identical to Fourme de Montbrison, the two were protected by the same AOC from 1972 until 2002 when each was recognized as its own cheese with slight differences in manufacture. [cite web|url=http://www.fourme-ambert.com/htm/aoc.htm|title=AOC Fourme d’Ambert et de Montbrison] A likeness of the cheese can be found sculpted above the entrance to a medieval chapel in Chaulme. [cite web|title=Fourme d'Ambert - (formaggio.it)|url=http://www.formaggio.it/francia/fourmedambertE.htm]

Although most often produced with pasteurized milk by "Coopérative", more recently "artisanal" production has begun using raw milk, and some sources claim "farm" or "fermier" production has now started cite book |last= Barthélemy |first= R. |coauthors= Sperat-Czar, A. |title= Cheeses of the World |publisher= Hachette |year= 2004 |isbn= 1-84430-115-X ] , but others claim to the contrarycite book |last= Masui |first= T. |coauthors= Tomoko, Y., Hodgson, R., Robuchon, J. |title= French Cheeses |publisher= DK |year= 2004 |isbn= 1-4053-0666-1 ] .

References