Skip to main content
Support

Browse by category

All categories
Home

Cheese from France, Bas-Dauphiné

Saint-Marcellin

Whole cow milk, raw or thermised but never pasteurised, is soured with lactic bacteria and renneted, then left to curdle for 12–24 hours in small basins. The soft curd is moulded without pre-draining or pressing, drains at least 14 hours, is dry-salted, and then dries and ripens until a thin white to grey-blue rind forms, at least 10 days after renneting.

Fully documentedCheese44 h – 3.3 daysPGI (IGP)Family: Lactic soft-ripened cheese family (goat/sheep/cow lactic curd)

Recipe

Saint-Marcellin, a photo from Wikimedia Commons
Photo: Thesupermat, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
No fixed amounts recordedThe specification gives no amounts.
Whole cow milkNot standardised in fat or protein; raw or thermised, never pasteurised; from the area[stmarc-cdc]
Lactic bacteriaAdded to sour the milk[stmarc-cdc]
Ripening flora, optionalYeasts, moulds and Geotrichum[stmarc-cdc]
Rennet[stmarc-cdc]
Dry saltOn both faces; no spices or herbs[stmarc-cdc][stmarc-du]
Starterlactic bacteria, which may be supplemented with ripening flora (yeasts, moulds and Geotrichum)

Total time across the recorded steps: 44 h – 3.3 days

Start
Drag the bar or press Play
8–12 °C

What changes: Starting material: whole cow milk, raw or thermised, never pasteurised

Step 1 of 6
Collect whole milk and optionally pre-ripen it cold
Time
0 min – 24 h
Set
Temperature
8–12 °C
Set
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Lactic acid bacteria
Geotrichum
Yeasts
Moulds

Output: whole cow milk.

Flavour
Not documented
Texture
Not documented
Colour
white

Microbes at work in this step

milk is used raw or thermised

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

Whole cow milk, raw or thermised but never pasteurised, is soured with lactic bacteria and renneted, then left to curdle for 12–24 hours in small basins. The soft curd is moulded without pre-draining or pressing, drains at least 14 hours, is dry-salted, and then dries and ripens until a thin white to grey-blue rind forms, at least 10 days after renneting. Made in 6 steps over 44 h – 3.3 days. The longest step, collect whole milk and optionally pre-ripen it cold, takes 0 min – 24 h (Ministère de l'agriculture 2014) and runs at 8–12 °C (Ministère de l'agriculture 2014). Lactic bacteria added to sour the milk and Geotrichum, with yeasts and moulds, allowed as optional ripening flora do most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step0 min – 24 hSet[stmarc-cdc]Collect whole milk and optionally pre-ripen it cold
Temperature8–12 °CSet[stmarc-cdc]Collect whole milk and optionally pre-ripen it cold
AciditypH up to 4.6Set[stmarc-cdc]Mould and drain

What makes this one different

Saint-Marcellin is a cow-milk cheese made the way small lactic goat cheeses are made, with a 12–24 hour acid set and no pressing. Pasteurisation is banned, and the curd must not be pre-drained. Its thin rind is covered with white, beige to grey-blue moulds.

Rind
Thin, sometimes wrinkled; white, beige to grey-blue moulds
Size
65–80 mm diameter, 20–25 mm high, ≥80 g
Earliest sale
At least 10 days after renneting
Styles
Sec has more than 44 % dry matter; moelleux more than 40 %

Related ferments

Variants

  • SecDrier (over 44 % dry matter), firm, keeps longer; the local tradition.
  • MoelleuxSofter (over 40 % dry matter), creamy, stronger aroma; often ripened longer.

Safety

The milk is raw or thermised, never pasteurised, and the specification lets the cheese be sold no sooner than 10 days after renneting. The CDC says raw-milk products can expose people to germs such as Listeria, E. coli, Brucella and Salmonella. ANSES advises pregnant women, young children, people over 65 and people with weak immunity to avoid raw-milk cheeses other than cooked pressed ones such as Gruyère or Comté. A soft cheese like this one is not in that exception.

History and sources

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

The specification says the cheese was dried in hanging baskets called tommiers, sometimes in walnut-drying sheds. It says small farm tommes took the name Saint-Marcellin as early as the 15th century, from the main market of the time, but that the name only became systematic in the 19th century.

  1. [stmarc-cdc] Ministère de l'agriculture, Cahier des charges de l'indication géographique protégée « Saint-Marcellin », homologated by arrêté of 10 January 2014, JORF of 24 January 2014 (BO-Agri n° 5 of 30 January 2014)spec
  2. [stmarc-du] Publication of an application for the PGI « Saint-Marcellin » with its single document, Journal officiel de l'Union européenne C 384, 13 December 2012, p. 21 (2012/C 384/16; FR, Publications Office copy)spec
  3. [marcellino2001] Marcellino N., Beuvier E., Grappin R., Guéguen M., Benson D.R. 2001, Diversity of Geotrichum candidum strains isolated from traditional cheesemaking fabrications in France, Applied and Environmental Microbiology 67(10):4752–4759 (one sentence of the introduction names St. Marcellin)paper
  4. [cdc-raw-milk] US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Raw Milk (food safety page)gov
  5. [anses2022] ANSES 2022, Fromages au lait cru, quels risques pour la santé et comment mieux les prévenir (8 April 2022)gov