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Cheese from Berry, France

Crottin de Chavignol PDOCrottin de Chavignol

Raw whole goat milk is soured with whey from earlier makes and a little rennet, and left at least 24 hours to set into a lactic curd. The curd is pre-drained in cloth, spooned into small conical moulds, turned at least once and dry-salted, then ripened at least 10 days.

Fully documentedCheese12 daysPDO (AOP, France); appellation d'origine since 1976Family: Lactic soft-ripened cheese family (goat/sheep/cow lactic curd)

Recipe

Amounts from a sourceThe specification fixes rennet dose, times and mould sizes but no batch size. Each finished cheese weighs 60–90 g and holds 37–48 g of dry matter.
Raw whole goat milkFrom at most the last two days' milkings, used within 21 hours of the last milking[crottin-cdc-2022]
Rennet1–4 ml per 100 litresDose for a reference rennet of 520 mg chymosin per litre[crottin-cdc-2022]
Whey from earlier makes, or commercial starter first grown on local goat milkSingle-strain starters and direct-vat commercial starters are banned[crottin-cdc-2022]
Dry salt[crottin-cdc-2022]
Starterwhey back-slopping (or local-grown commercial starter); optional yeast and mould flora on the rind

Total time across the recorded steps: 12 days

Start
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at least 10 °C

What changes: Whey from an earlier make goes into raw goat milk to start the souring

Step 1 of 6
Seed the raw milk
Time
up to 21 h
Set
Temperature
at least 10 °C
Set
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Lactic acid bacteria
Yeasts
Moulds

Output: seeded raw milk.

Flavour
Not documented
Texture
Not documented
Colour
Not documented

Microbes at work in this step

lactic bacteria from whey or local-grown starter begin to grow

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 whole goat milk is soured with whey from earlier makes and a little rennet, and left at least 24 hours to set into a lactic curd. The curd is pre-drained in cloth, spooned into small conical moulds, turned at least once and dry-salted, then ripened at least 10 days. Made in 6 steps over 12 days. The longest step, ripen, takes at least 10 days (INAO 2022) and runs at at least 10 °C (INAO 2022). Lactic acid bacteria carried over in whey from earlier makes does most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main stepat least 10 daysSet[crottin-cdc-2022]Ripen
Temperatureat least 10 °CSet[crottin-cdc-2022]Ripen

What makes this one different

Crottin is a lactic goat cheese like Selles-sur-Cher or Valençay. Its specification requires raw milk, pre-draining the curd on cloth, and very small conical moulds with at least one turn, which gives the bulge at its waist.

Milk
Raw whole goat milk
Ripening
At least 10 days from moulding
Composition
37–48 g dry matter per cheese; at least 45 % fat in dry matter
Size
60–90 g per cheese when it leaves the dairy

Related ferments

Variants

  • RepasséAfter a normal blue-coated ripening, aged further in a closed space until soft and brown.

Safety

Made only from raw goat milk; the specification says the milk must have had no heat treatment or equivalent. Frozen curd may be mixed back in at no more than 50 %, within 15 months of freezing. ANSES, the French food safety agency, names soft raw-milk cheeses with a flowery rind, such as Camembert, Brie and crottin, among the main sources of Salmonella, Listeria and E. coli outbreaks from raw-milk cheese in France. It advises pregnant women, people with weak immunity, people over 65 and young children not to eat 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 specification says goat keeping and cheesemaking have been a source of extra income for farms in the area since at least the 16th century. Women ran the goats and the cheesemaking, and the small cheeses often fed workers in the fields and vines. The name may come from the Berry word "crot", a hole on a riverbank whose clay was used for cheese moulds.

  1. [crottin-cdc-2022] INAO 2022, Cahier des charges de l'appellation d'origine « Crottin de Chavignol » ou « Chavignol », homologated by arrêté of 21 March 2022, Bulletin officiel du Ministère de l'agriculture n° 2022-14spec
  2. [crot-sum1996] INAO, Application for registration PDO (Art. 17), summary sheet 'Crottin de Chavignol or Chavignol', VI/5048/95 (English summary in the eAmbrosia register; designation recognised in 1976)spec
  3. [crot-register] European Commission, eAmbrosia register record for 'Crottin de Chavignol' or 'Chavignol', PDO-FR-0117 (EU protection date 21 June 1996, Regulation (EC) No 1107/96, Official Journal L 148)gov
  4. [anses2022] ANSES 2022, Fromages au lait cru, quels risques pour la santé et comment mieux les prévenir (8 April 2022)gov