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Cheese from France, Jura massif

Comté PDOComté

Raw cow milk from farms within a 25 km circle is warmed, seeded with a whey starter and set with calf rennet in open copper vats. The curd is cut to rice-sized grains, cooked to 53–57 °C, pressed into large wheels and salted. The wheels ripen on spruce boards, rubbed with salt and morge, for at least 120 days.

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedThe specification fixes the steps and limits, not the amounts. A vat may give at most 12 wheels per make and three makes a day.
Raw cow milkCooled straight after milking to 10–18 °C; never heated above 40 °C before renneting[comte-cdc-2026]
Whey starter and culturesStarters incubated at least 3 h on whey, recuite or milk (mesophilic lactococci may go in directly); a starter grown on raw whey is compulsory; all starters together at most 0.5 % of the milk[comte-cdc-2026]
RennetCommercial bovine rennet with at least 520 mg chymosin per litre and no added pepsin; dried calf stomach may also be macerated[comte-cdc-2026]
SaltDry salt or brine within 24 h of unmoulding, then brine and morge on the rind[comte-cdc-2026]
Starternatural whey starter (raw whey culture) plus natural or selected cultures

Total time across the recorded steps: 4.7 months

Start
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10–18 °C

What changes: Starting material: raw milk from farms close to the dairy

Step 1 of 8
Collect and cool the raw milk
Time
Not documented
Temperature
10–18 °C
Set
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Lactobacilli
S. thermophilus
Lactobacillus helveticus
L. delbrueckii
Propionibacteria

Output: raw milk.

Flavour
Not documented
Texture
Not documented
Colour
white

Microbes at work in this step

native raw-milk flora

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

Raw cow milk from farms within a 25 km circle is warmed, seeded with a whey starter and set with calf rennet in open copper vats. The curd is cut to rice-sized grains, cooked to 53–57 °C, pressed into large wheels and salted. The wheels ripen on spruce boards, rubbed with salt and morge, for at least 120 days. Made in 8 steps over 4.7 months. The longest step, ripen on spruce boards, takes at least 3.9 months (Ministère de l'agriculture 2025) and runs at 5–19 °C (Ministère de l'agriculture 2025). Streptococcus thermophilus and Lactobacillus helveticus and Lactobacillus delbrueckii do most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main stepat least 3.9 monthsSet[comte-cdc-2026]Ripen on spruce boards
Temperature5–19 °CSet[comte-cdc-2026]Ripen on spruce boards

What makes this one different

Comté must be made from raw milk in open copper vats, by hand, in fruitières that collect milk only from farms close by. It ripens on spruce boards with a smear rind for at least 120 days. The French IGP Gruyère is made in a similar way but must also spend time in a warm cellar to form eyes.

Milk
Raw milk from within a 25 km circle, cooled straight after milking to 10–18 °C and heated to no more than 40 °C before renneting
Starter
Starters incubated for at least 3 h; a starter grown on raw whey is compulsory
Rennet
Commercial bovine rennet with at least 520 mg chymosin per litre and no added pepsin
Cooking
In an open copper vat the curd is held at 53–57 °C for at least 30 min
Pressing
At least 100 g/cm² for at least 6 h
Salting
Dry salt or brine within 24 h of unmoulding (brine for up to 12 h); morge on one face and the heel within 36 h, on the other face within 60 h
Pre-ripening
At least until day 21, at 10–13 °C and RH above 90 %
Ripening
On spruce boards for at least 120 days from the making date, the fermentation cellar at 19 °C or below
Size
32–45 kg, 55–75 cm across, heel 8–13 cm; fat in dry matter 45–54%

Related ferments

Safety

Comté is a raw-milk cheese, made as a cooked pressed cheese with the curd held at 53–57 °C and a ripening of at least 120 days. ANSES advises pregnant women, people over 65, people with weak immunity and young children to avoid raw-milk cheeses, except pressed cooked cheeses such as gruyère or comté.

History and sources

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

The producers' leaflet calls Comté the first French cheese with a protected designation.

  1. [comte-cdc-2026] Ministère de l'agriculture, Cahier des charges modifié de l'AOP « Comté », approved by the national committee on 19 November 2025 and homologated by the arrêté of 18 December 2025 (JORF of 7 January 2026), Bulletin officiel n° 2026-02 of 8 January 2026 (BO-Agri)spec
  2. [comte-sd-2026] European Commission, Communication of an approved standard amendment and single document 'Comté', EU Ref PDO-FR-0116-AM01, Official Journal of the European Union C/2026/2773 of 13 May 2026 (French text)spec
  3. [cigc-school] Comité Interprofessionnel de Gestion du Comté (CIGC), The cheesemaker's school (producers' leaflet on the eight making steps)other
  4. [anses2022] ANSES 2022, Fromages au lait cru, quels risques pour la santé et comment mieux les prévenir (8 April 2022)gov
  5. [bouton1998] Bouton Y., Guyot P., Grappin R. 1998, Preliminary characterization of microflora of Comté cheese, Journal of Applied Microbiology 85:123–131, doi:10.1046/j.1365-2672.1998.00476.xpaper
  6. [lutin2024] Lutin J., Dufrene F., Guyot P., Palme R., Achilleos C., Bouton Y., Buchin S. 2024, Microbial composition and viability of natural whey starters used in PDO Comté cheese-making, Food Microbiology 121:104521, doi:10.1016/j.fm.2024.104521paper
  7. [cdc-gru2026] Ministère de l'agriculture, Cahier des charges de l'indication géographique protégée « Gruyère », homologated by arrêté of 23 July 2026, JORF of 31 July 2026 (BO-Agri n° 2026-32)spec