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Cheese from France, Vosges massif

Munster

Cow milk, raw or pasteurised, is set with calf rennet in 7–20 minutes, cut to hazelnut–walnut size and drained in moulds for at least 15 hours with no pressing. After salting, the rind goes through a warm yeast phase and then repeated washing and rubbing at 10–16 °C, which turns it orange-red; ripening lasts at least 21 days (14 for the smallest format).

Recipe

Amounts from a sourceThe specification fixes ingredients and steps but gives no amounts except for caraway.
Cow milkRaw, or pasteurised at 73 °C or less for 40 s or less; may be standardised in fat[cdc-mun2021]
Calf rennet[cdc-mun2021]
Harmless cultures of bacteria, yeasts and mouldsSurface ferments include Brevibacterium linens[cdc-mun2021]
Salt[cdc-mun2021]
Caraway seed (Carum carvi), optional0.5–1.5 % of the cheese, dryFor the caraway (cumin) version; added before or during moulding[cdc-mun2021]
Starterharmless cultures of bacteria, yeasts and moulds may be added; the surface ferments include Brevibacterium linens

Total time across the recorded steps: 23 days

Start
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up to 73 °C

What changes: Starting material: cow milk, raw or pasteurised

Step 1 of 8
Hold the milk and warm it if it waited
Time
up to 26 h
Set
Temperature
up to 73 °C
Set
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Brevibacterium linens
Yeasts
Geotrichum candidum

Output: cheese milk.

Flavour
Not documented
Texture
Not documented
Colour
white

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

Cow milk, raw or pasteurised, is set with calf rennet in 7–20 minutes, cut to hazelnut–walnut size and drained in moulds for at least 15 hours with no pressing. After salting, the rind goes through a warm yeast phase and then repeated washing and rubbing at 10–16 °C, which turns it orange-red; ripening lasts at least 21 days (14 for the smallest format). Made in 8 steps over 23 days. The longest step, finish ripening and wrap, takes at least 21 days (Ministère de l'agriculture 2021). Red-smear ferments, among them Brevibacterium linens, which colour the rind and Rind yeasts Debaryomyces hansenii and Geotrichum candidum, likely added as cultures do most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main stepat least 21 daysSet[cdc-mun2021]Finish ripening and wrap
Temperatureup to 73 °CSet[cdc-mun2021]Hold the milk and warm it if it waited
AciditypH 4.5–4.9Set[cdc-mun2021]Mould and drain without pressing

What makes this one different

Munster keeps a lactic core because its curd is soured and drained for at least 15 hours without pressing. The rind goes through a yeast phase first, then at least two or three washes and rubs that bring up the orange smear. Rind colourants are banned, and one version carries caraway seed in the paste.

Milk
Raw milk, or milk pasteurised at 73 °C or less for up to 40 s; farm Munster is raw only
Setting
Rennet at 38 °C or less, set in 7–20 min; curd cut to hazelnut–walnut size
Draining
No pressing; drains at least 15 h before salting
Washing
A yeast phase at 16 °C or more, then washing at 10–16 °C, RH 90% or more; at least 2 or 3 washes by size
Ripening
At least 21 days; the 120–340 g format at least 14 days
Size
Three formats, 120–340 g (moulds 7.5–12 cm, at most 4 cm high), 450–1000 g (moulds 14–19 cm, at most 4 cm high) and 1000–1750 g (moulds 16.5–19 cm, at most 7 cm high); caraway variant 0.5–1.5% dry Carum carvi

Related ferments

Variants

  • Munster au cuminContains 0.5–1.5 % dry caraway (Carum carvi), added before or during moulding.
  • Small format (120–340 g)Made in moulds 7.5–12 cm across, washed at least twice and ripened at least 14 days.

Safety

Farm Munster is made from raw milk. For dairy cheeses the specification checks the lactic core: pH 4.5–4.9 at the core 5 days after renneting. That is a check on the cheese's character, not a stated safety limit. ANSES names soft bloomy-rind cheeses and short-ripened pressed uncooked cheeses as the main sources of the hazards found in raw-milk cheese, followed by soft washed-rind cheeses such as Munster. ANSES advises pregnant women, young children, people over 65 and people with weak immunity not to eat raw-milk cheeses other than cooked pressed ones such as Comté.

History and sources

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

The specification links the birth of Munster to the abbeys founded on the edge of the Vosges in the 7th and 8th centuries; the town's name comes from the Latin Monasterium confluentis. From the 9th century dairy herds were driven up to the high pastures in summer, and some herders wintered on the western slope, so the cheese came to be made around Munster in Alsace and around Gérardmer in Lorraine, which explains the two names Munster and Géromé. By the 16th century farmers traded the cheese beyond their villages, to the Alsace vineyard towns, the plain and the big cities [cdc-mun2021].

  1. [cdc-mun2021] Ministère de l'agriculture, Avis relatif à l'approbation par la Commission européenne de la modification du cahier des charges de l'AOP « Munster » / « Munster-Géromé », with the specification approved by Implementing Regulation (EU) 2021/140 (BO-Agri n° 2021-07)spec
  2. [martin2024] Martin A.J., Revol-Junelles A.M., Petit J., Gaiani C., Leyva Salas M. et al. 2024, Deciphering rind color heterogeneity of smear-ripened Munster cheese and its association with microbiota, Foods 13(14):2233, doi:10.3390/foods13142233paper
  3. [mounier2010] Mounier J., Le Blay G., Vasseur V., Le Floch G., Jany J.-L., Barbier G. 2010, Application of denaturing high-performance liquid chromatography (DHPLC) for yeasts identification in red smear cheese surfaces, Letters in Applied Microbiology 51(1):18-23 (abstract; pasteurised Munster, Maroilles and Livarot)paper
  4. [anses2022] ANSES 2022, Fromages au lait cru, quels risques pour la santé et comment mieux les prévenir (8 April 2022)gov