French+Chevre

Chèvre is a cheese made from goat's milk that can come in a variety of flavors and textures. In fact, the word chèvre means "goat" in French. Making cheeses from goats' milk has been known as chèvre for hundreds of years. The country of origin for these excellently crafted goat cheeses is, of course, France. The different regions in which these cheeses are made vary in climate, geography, and geology. This impacts the type of chèvre, or goat cheese, that is produced. In total, there are more than 45 individual chèvre cheeses just from France! The artisans that craft these fabulous cheeses are still the farmers who own the goats. It is made fresh from their goats' milk. French chèvre is similar to goat cheeses from other countries. No other animals' milk tastes the same as goat cheese, and it is almost always affiliated with salt or salty foods.

The making of French chevre is traditional and the main process has not been changed since ancient times. The milk from the goats can either be used pasteurized or raw. After one or two days of coagulation, the curd can be drained through a cloth depending on how moist you'd like the cheese to be. Then, the curd can be put into molds to be shaped. Salting, the process of adding salt, can either take place after the cheese has been put into a mold or can be mixed with the curd. Some French chevre can be eaten fresh, but others need to be aged. A few types of cheese form mold around the outside, while others may be charcoal-dusted.

This cheese can be found all over France. In Rouen, lots of restaurants serve warm goat cheese salad, like La Taormina, La Terrasse, and La Galerie. Chèvres are also excellent dessert cheeses and can often be served as snacks or before dinner drinks. We will most likely find French chevre almost everywhere we go in France and, with its variety of flavors, there's sure to be a chevre for everybody!