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Cheese from Franche-Comté and neighbouring parts of eastern France

Cancoillotte

Skimmed cow milk is set into a white curd called metton, which is crumbled and ripened by yeasts for at least 12 hours at 20 °C or warmer. The ripened metton is then melted with water and butter into a semi-liquid to stringy, slightly sticky cheese and packed hot, above 65 °C.

Recipe

Cancoillotte, a photo from Wikimedia Commons
Photo: Popo le Chien, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons
Amounts from a sourceThe rules set limits, not a recipe; the amounts are the maximum shares of the finished product.
Skimmed cow milk[canco-cdc-2022]
Lactic cultures, with or without a coagulating enzymeFor "lactic" or "rennet" metton[canco-cdc-2022]
WaterAs liquid or steam; the finished cheese has at least 20 % dry matter[canco-cdc-2022]
ButterFinished cheese below 15 % fat by total weight[canco-cdc-2022]
Melting salts (citrates and phosphates)Up to 2 % of the finished productOptional[canco-cdc-2022]
SaltOptional[canco-cdc-2022]
FlavouringsUp to 20 % in totalSpices, seasonings and condiments up to 5 %; mushrooms, aromatic herbs and nuts up to 10 %; white wine (Chardonnay, Savagnin, Aligoté or Jura PDO wines), liqueur wine, absinthe or kirsch up to 20 %[canco-cdc-2022]
Starterlactic cultures for the metton; yeasts ripen it

Total time across the recorded steps: 12 h

Start
Drag the bar or press Play

What changes: The cream is taken off the milk

Step 1 of 6
Skim the milk
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Yeasts

Output: skimmed cow milk.

Flavour
Not documented
Texture
Not documented
Colour
Not documented

Microbes at work in this step

Not documented for this step.

Method

Measured measured in a studySet fixed by a specification or tested recipeReported one source reports itTypical a general value, not sourced for this fermentUnconfirmed not yet checked against a source

At a glance

Skimmed cow milk is set into a white curd called metton, which is crumbled and ripened by yeasts for at least 12 hours at 20 °C or warmer. The ripened metton is then melted with water and butter into a semi-liquid to stringy, slightly sticky cheese and packed hot, above 65 °C. Made in 6 steps over 12 h. The longest step, ripen the grains with yeasts, takes at least 12 h (Ministère de l'agriculture 2022) and runs at at least 20 °C (Ministère de l'agriculture 2022). Lactic cultures and Yeasts that ripen the crumbled metton do most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main stepat least 12 hSet[canco-cdc-2022]Ripen the grains with yeasts
Temperatureat least 20 °CSet[canco-cdc-2022]Ripen the grains with yeasts
AciditypH up to 5.4Set[canco-cdc-2022]Make white metton

What makes this one different

A low-fat skim-milk curd (metton) ripens with yeasts and is then melted with butter and water into a semi-liquid cheese, so the finished cheese holds less than 15 % fat.

Milk
Skimmed cow milk, made into metton
Ripening
Metton ripened at least 12 hours at 20 °C or more, then melted
Composition
At least 20 % dry matter; fat below 15 % of total weight

Related ferments

Variants

  • Flavoured cancoillotteWith garlic, herbs, spices, mushrooms, nuts, Jura wine, absinthe or kirsch, within set limits.
  • Smoked mettonThe ripened metton may be smoked before melting; liquid smoke is banned.

Safety

Packed hot, above 65 °C; kept cold, or at room temperature when the heat treatment allows it.

History and sources

Every number is labelled with how it is known. How this atlas is made

Farms of the lowlands, from the Ain to the former Lorraine, kept the cream for butter and made the skim milk into metton, a cheese not fit to eat as it is, which was ripened and melted into cancoillotte; it was the everyday household cheese until dairies became collective. The specification cites Dondaine's 1978 linguistic atlas of Franche-Comté as showing the word in regular use since at least the 19th century, says industrial making began after the First World War and grew in the mid-20th century, and notes a special ration card for it in 1939–1945. A 1928 USDA bulletin lists "Canquillote, Cancoillotte, or Fromagère" of eastern France as a cooked cheese of the fromage fort kind. The EU registered the name as a PGI in 2022.

  1. [canco-cdc-2022] Ministère de l'agriculture, Avis relatif à l'enregistrement en IGP de la dénomination « Cancoillotte », with the consolidated Cahier des charges on which the Commission based Implementing Regulation (EU) 2022/787, Bulletin officiel n° 2022-23 of 2 June 2022 (BO-Agri)spec
  2. [canco-sd-2022] European Commission, Application for registration and single document 'Cancoillotte', EU No PGI-FR-02765, Official Journal of the European Union C 49 of 31 January 2022, p. 7 (French text)spec
  3. [usda1928] Doane C.F., Lawson H.W., revised by Matheson K.J. 1928, Varieties of cheese, descriptions and analyses, USDA Bulletin 608 (entry "Fromage fort")archive