Comté

Comté

Comté is a hard cheese made in the Franche-Comté region of Eastern France. The Comté we sell is matured by Marcel Petite at Fort Saint Antoine for 12-18 months. It has a creamy texture with occasional crystals, sweet and nutty to savoury and vegetal flavours.

Only available via Wholesale.

  • Spend over £39.50 to receive free delivery (England, Wales & Central Scotland)

milk type
Cow

ingredients
Raw Cow's MILK, Salt, Farm Produced Cheese Cultures (MILK), Animal Rennet

coagulant
Animal Rennet

milk treatment
Raw

location
Franche-Comté, France

milk source
Farmers cooperative

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milk type
Cow

ingredients
Raw Cow's MILK, Salt, Farm Produced Cheese Cultures (MILK), Animal Rennet

coagulant
Animal Rennet

milk treatment
Raw

location
Franche-Comté, France

milk source
Farmers cooperative

breed
Montbéliard

season
All year

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At the heart of all Comté production is the cooperative: a co-owned creamery, known as a ‘fruitière’, in which local dairy farmers pool their milk to make cheeses. Historically, this was born of the fact that none of these small-scale farmers would have had enough surplus milk to make such large cheeses alone.

Background

The fruitières that produce the cheeses look after them for two to three weeks; they are then collected by the affineurs and kept in a cool, damp place for anything between 12 and 48 months. In 196...

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The fruitières that produce the cheeses look after them for two to three weeks; they are then collected by the affineurs and kept in a cool, damp place for anything between 12 and 48 months. In 1966, high in the Jura mountains, the eponymous founder of the Marcel Petite affineurs happened upon Fort Lucotte de Saint Antoine: an imposing 19th century garrison. In the cool, still, damp environment of the fort, Petite saw the possibility of ‘affinage lent’, or slow maturation: allowing nature, the seasons and his senses to guide his affinage, rather than the pressure of time or market forces. Today, the fort is home to over 100,000 wheels of Comté, and the routine turning, salting, brushing and washing is carried out by a team of robots – but the philosophy of selling the cheeses only when they’re at their absolute best remains. Being situated high in the Jura mountains means Marcel Petite has access to the milk from higher, smaller cooperatives, where pastures are rich with a diversity of flowers and herbs on which the cows graze – particularly in the summer, when most of the cheese is made.

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Our Work

At Neal’s Yard Dairy, working in collaboration with Borough Cheese Company, we like to import a range of profiles to suit different customers. In order to ensure the consistency and quality of the ...

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At Neal’s Yard Dairy, working in collaboration with Borough Cheese Company, we like to import a range of profiles to suit different customers. In order to ensure the consistency and quality of the cheeses we buy, Borough Cheese Company visit Marcel Petite around nine times a year to taste and select cheeses, and to cycle around some of the cooperatives.

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