Skip to main content
Support

Browse by category

All categories
Home

Cheese from France

Faissellefaisselle

Milk is matured with lactic ferments at 20–30 °C, then set with a little rennet at 19–23 °C until the curd reaches pH 4.2–4.8. The soft curd is ladled by hand into perforated pots, the faisselles, and sold in them with its whey.

Fully documentedCheese4 h – 6.5 hnone (generic name); one Label Rouge (LA 04/18) covers a ladle-moulded faisselleFamily: Fresh lactic (acid-set) cheese family

Recipe

Amounts from a sourceAmounts are for the Label Rouge faisselle, per 100 litres of milk. No salt is added.
Fresh pasteurised milkAt least 36 g/L fat on arrival; cream skimmed on site raises it to at least 45 g/L[lr-faisselle]
Lactic ferments[lr-faisselle]
Rennet5–20 mL per 100 litres of milkRennet with 130–180 mg chymosin per litre[lr-faisselle]
Calcium chlorideAt most 0.04 %[lr-faisselle]
Starterlactic ferments added to the pasteurised milk the day it is pasteurised (Label Rouge)

Total time across the recorded steps: 4 h – 6.5 h

Start
Drag the bar or press Play

What changes: Milk standardised with cream skimmed on site is pasteurised

Step 1 of 6
Standardise and pasteurise the milk
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented

Milk arriving on day J is pasteurised by day J+1 at the latest. It is skimmed on site and standardised with its own cream.

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

Milk is matured with lactic ferments at 20–30 °C, then set with a little rennet at 19–23 °C until the curd reaches pH 4.2–4.8. The soft curd is ladled by hand into perforated pots, the faisselles, and sold in them with its whey. Made in 6 steps over 4 h – 6.5 h. The longest step, seed and pre-ripen, takes 4–6.5 h (PAQ 2018) and runs at 20–30 °C (PAQ 2018). Lactic ferments does most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step4–6.5 hSet[lr-faisselle]Seed and pre-ripen
Temperature20–30 °CSet[lr-faisselle]Seed and pre-ripen
AciditypH 5.9–6.7 → 4.2Set[lr-faisselle]Add rennet and let it set

What makes this one different

Faisselle is fromage blanc moulded and sold in the perforated pot, the faisselle, that gave it its name. The Label Rouge version is ladled by hand, one pot at a time, which keeps the curd smooth and unbroken; a distributor breaks the curd into small pieces.

Milk
Fresh pasteurised milk enriched with cream skimmed on site (Label Rouge)
Composition
Curd plus whey at least 4.5 % fat, and fat at least 20 % of dry matter (Label Rouge)
Dry matter
French law lets fromage blanc go down to 15 g or 10 g of dry matter per 100 g

Related ferments

Variants

  • Label Rouge faisselleUnit moulding by hand ladle, no draining outside the pack, at least 4.5 % fat.
  • Generic faisselleCow, goat or sheep milk, generally raw (French Wikipedia, outline only).

Safety

Made from pasteurised milk and kept at 0–6 °C with a use-by date of at most 31 days from renneting (Label Rouge rules).

Hazards the sources name: Enterobacteria and Escherichia coli (limits of 10 per g in the pasteurised milk and the finished product).

History and sources

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

The name is that of the perforated draining mould, the faisselle, in which the curd is both drained and sold.

  1. [lr-faisselle] PAQ 2018, Cahier des charges du Label Rouge n° LA 04/18 « Faisselle », homologated by arrêté of 20 November 2018, Bulletin officiel du Ministère de l'agriculture n° 2018-48spec
  2. [decret-2007-628] Décret n° 2007-628 du 27 avril 2007 relatif aux fromages et spécialités fromagères, article 2 (FAOLEX copy, consolidated 1 June 2007)spec
  3. [wp-fr] Wikipédia (fr), Faisselle (outline only)wiki