Fact sheet
Made from whole goat’s milk, the Sainte-Maure de Touraine cheese comes in the form of a long, truncated log (17 cm) weighing 250 g, with a soft white or ivory-coloured centre and a grey mould coating. It is obtained by lactic coagulation of fresh milk with a small amount of rennet added. The curdling takes about 24 hours, after which the curds are poured into truncated funnel-shaped moulds, taking care to avoid breaking up the curds. The cheese is then un-moulded, lightly salted and dusted with charcoal to give it the dark grey to blue coat.
Pre-draining and the use of frozen curds are banned. The maturing lasts for ten days minimum from when the rennet was added. A rye strip is threaded through the centre of the cheese lengthwise bearing the producer’s name and code to certify its provenance. It was originally used to keep cheese in one piece while it matured. The Sainte-Maure de Touraine (45% fat) contains calcium and healthy proteins. This soft cheese has a slight, nutty flavour. It is served fresh, creamy, semi-dry or dry, accompanied by regional wines, at the end of the meal or as an aperitif.
Production and consumption
The Sainte-Maure de Touraine cheese is produced in a limited area of the old Touraine province, which means the Indre-et-Loire region, the neighbouring cantons of the Loir-et-Cher and Indre regions and some cantons and villages in the Vienne region.
Sainte-Maure is produced in the Touraine region, but only the “Sainte-Maure de Touraine” cheese has AOC certification. French production in 2009 totalled 1,225 tons, between 74 farmers, 5 producers (private companies and cooperatives) and 135 milk producers.
(Source: Comité Interprofessionnel du Sainte-Maure de Touraine, www.sainte-maure-de-touraine.fr)
At Rungis Market
“We sell between 30 and 40 packets of 12 cheeses per week” reports Mr William Desailly, salesman for Buisson SAS. “We have an upmarket positioning and we only work with small producers, with whom we also do Selles-sur-cher cheese, which is better known than the Sainte-Maure de Touraine. We sell it all year round, although May and June are the best two months for goat’s cheese, because there is naturally slightly less in winter.”
