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Morbier
Not many Morbier producers
continue to make this cheese in the old traditional way that came about only by
the old adage, "waste not, want not," but this one, from the sellers of Jean
d'Alos, does. Way back when the Franche-Comte cheesemakers were
concentrating on producing Gruyere de Comte, they often had leftover curds at
the end of their day. However, they didn't have enough to make a full Gruyere de
Comte, so the cheesemakers would make a smaller cheese. After smooshing the
leftover curds into a mold, they would blacken their hands by rubbing them on
the exterior of the copper pot used for cooking cheese curd. The resulting ash
was smeared on top of the evening curd to keep it from drying out over night.
The next day, there would be more excess curd from the morning cheesemaking
session and that would be laid on top of the ash.
Morbier is smooth, silky, supple, and
happily smelly. Proudly sporting a sticky washed and brushed rind, the raw cow
milk cheese is aged for four months to result in a sweet cheese with a buttery
pungency.
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