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Cheese from France, Centre-Val de Loire

Selles-sur-Cher PDOSelles-sur-Cher

Whole raw goat milk gets a little rennet and curdles mainly by lactic souring for 18–48 hours below 25 °C. The curd is ladled by hand into tapered moulds, turned out, then salted and dusted with vegetable charcoal. The discs ripen at least 10 days at 10 °C or warmer, under a grey rind of Geotrichum and yeasts.

Fully documentedCheese36 h – 4 daysPDO (AOC 1975, France)Family: Lactic soft-ripened cheese family (goat/sheep/cow lactic curd)

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedThe rules fix times, temperatures and the mould size but no amounts. One cheese is a disc about 9 cm across and 3 cm thick, with at least 55 g of dry matter.
Raw whole goat milkFrom Alpine or Saanen goats or their crosses; stored on the farm at most 2 days[selles-cdc-2014]
RennetA small amount; the only coagulant allowed[selles-cdc-2014]
Cultures of bacteria, yeasts and mouldsAllowed, not required. Commercial cultures or cultures grown from the milk's own flora (whey); pure single-strain starters are banned[selles-cdc-2014]
Salt and vegetable charcoalOn the surface only, usually as one salt-and-charcoal mix; the ministry says makers once used ash and now use vegetable charcoal[selles-cdc-2014][agri-cvl-2022]
Calcium chlorideAllowed additive[selles-cdc-2014]
Startercommercial cultures or cultures grown from the milk's own flora (whey); pure single strains are banned

Total time across the recorded steps: 36 h – 4 days

Start
Drag the bar or press Play
shapes, not to countGeotrichumYeasts

What changes: A small dose of rennet goes into whole raw goat milk

Step 1 of 5
Add a little rennet to the raw milk
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Geotrichum
Yeasts
Penicillium

Output: lightly renneted milk.

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

Whole raw goat milk gets a little rennet and curdles mainly by lactic souring for 18–48 hours below 25 °C. The curd is ladled by hand into tapered moulds, turned out, then salted and dusted with vegetable charcoal. The discs ripen at least 10 days at 10 °C or warmer, under a grey rind of Geotrichum and yeasts. Made in 5 steps over 36 h – 4 days. The longest step, let the milk curdle by souring, takes 18 h – 2 days (Ministère de l'agriculture 2014) and runs at up to 25 °C (Ministère de l'agriculture 2014). Geotrichum and yeasts does most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step18 h – 2 daysSet[selles-cdc-2014]Let the milk curdle by souring
Temperatureup to 25 °CSet[selles-cdc-2014]Let the milk curdle by souring

What makes this one different

Selles-sur-Cher is a lactic goat cheese like Valençay and Sainte-Maure, but shaped as a flat bevelled disc. It is salted on the surface, most often with a salt-and-charcoal mix, and part of the curd may be frozen and added back outside the April–July season (up to 50 %).

Milk
Raw whole goat milk from Alpine or Saanen goats; at least 75 % of the feed from the area
Minimum ripening, counted from renneting
At least 10 days from renneting, at 10 °C or warmer
Composition
At least 45 g fat per 100 g dry matter; at least 55 g dry matter per cheese
Size
Disc with bevelled edges, about 9 cm across and 3 cm thick

Related ferments

Variants

  • Selles-sur-Cher fermierMade on the farm from raw milk used within 24 hours of the first milking, with no frozen curd.

Safety

Made only from raw milk. Milk is kept on the farm no more than 2 days, and the rules require at least 10 days of ripening. ANSES advises pregnant women, young children, people over 65 and people with weak immunity not to eat raw-milk cheeses other than pressed cooked ones such as Gruyère or Comté, because of Listeria, Salmonella and Shiga-toxin E. coli.

History and sources

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

The specification says Selles-sur-Cher began as a household product made mostly by women, and that ash, later charcoal powder mixed with salt, protected its quality during ripening. At the end of the 19th century poultry collectors (coquetiers) began to gather the cheeses, and some specialised in ashing and ripening them. The town of Selles-sur-Cher was the main collection and resale centre, and the cheeses were named after the place where they were ripened. The appellation d'origine was recognised by decree of 21 April 1975.

  1. [anses2022] ANSES 2022, Fromages au lait cru, quels risques pour la santé et comment mieux les prévenir (8 April 2022)gov
  2. [selles-cdc-2014] Ministère de l'agriculture 2014, Cahier des charges de l'appellation d'origine « Selles-sur-Cher », avis AGRT1413735V, Bulletin officiel n° 27-2014 (version in force with Implementing Regulation (EU) No 130/2014)spec
  3. [selles-eu-1996] INAO, Selles-sur-Cher registration file (summary and 1986 decree) under Regulation (EEC) No 2081/92, eAmbrosiaspec
  4. [agri-cvl-2022] Ministère de l'Agriculture, Les fromages de chèvre de la région Centre-Val de Loire (page on the five goat-cheese AOPs of the region, with a Selles-sur-Cher paragraph)gov