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Cheese from Switzerland, Bernese Jura

Tomme de La Chaux-d'Abel

Tomme de La Chaux-d'Abel is a soft cow-milk cheese from one Jura dairy, first made around 1960. Raw milk is warmed to 32 °C over a wood fire, set with rennet and lactic cultures, cut to cherry-size grains and drained unpressed in moulds for a few hours. After salting it ripens for one to two weeks, until a fine white mould covers it.

Fully documentedCheese7.1 days – 14 daysnone (single dairy; listed in the Culinary Heritage of Switzerland inventory)Family: Bloomy-rind soft cheese family (Camembert de Normandie as template)

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedSmall, demand-led production with no published batch size. Each cheese weighs 400–800 g.
Cow milkFrom several nearby suppliers; the inventory calls it raw milk, a 2024 distributor sheet thermised milk[patrimoine-ch][pomona2024]
Rennet[patrimoine-ch]
Selected lactic acid bacteria[patrimoine-ch]
SaltDry or as brine; no amounts given[patrimoine-ch]
Starterselected lactic acid bacteria

Total time across the recorded steps: 7.1 days – 14 days

Start
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32 °C

What changes: Milk is warmed to 32 °C over a wood fire and stirred

Step 1 of 6
Warm the milk over a wood fire
Time
Not documented
Temperature
32 °C
Reported
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Lactic acid bacteria
Moulds
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

Tomme de La Chaux-d'Abel is a soft cow-milk cheese from one Jura dairy, first made around 1960. Raw milk is warmed to 32 °C over a wood fire, set with rennet and lactic cultures, cut to cherry-size grains and drained unpressed in moulds for a few hours. After salting it ripens for one to two weeks, until a fine white mould covers it. Made in 6 steps over 7.1 days – 14 days. The longest step, ripen until white mould covers it, takes 7–14 days (Kulinarisches Erbe der Schweiz / Patrimoine c…). Selected lactic acid bacteria and A fine white mould that covers the ripe cheese do most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step7–14 daysReported[patrimoine-ch]Ripen until white mould covers it
Temperature32 °CReported[patrimoine-ch]Warm the milk over a wood fire

What makes this one different

It is a larger relative of the Vaud and Neuchâtel tommes, four to eight times heavier, and its milk is warmed over a wood fire like all the dairy's cheeses.

Milk
Cow milk; raw according to the inventory, thermised according to a 2024 distributor sheet
Ripening
7–14 days
Rind
Brown-white, with a fine white mould
Size
400–800 g, four to eight times a Tomme vaudoise
Fat
50–51 % as given by the inventory
Keeping
A 2024 distributor sheet lists 450 g wheels kept chilled at 5 °C, described as a soft cheese with a washed rind

Related ferments

Safety

The inventory says the cheese is made from raw milk and ripens only one to two weeks; a 2024 distributor sheet lists thermised milk and chilled storage at 5 °C. For the raw-milk version, the CDC says pregnant women, newborns, people 65 or older and people with weak immunity should avoid any cheese made with raw milk unless it is heated to 165 °F (74 °C) or until steaming hot.

History and sources

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

The inventory says a former owner of the La Chaux-d'Abel dairy, P. Sause, started making it around 1960, and that it has changed little since and stays very local. In 2025 the Spielhofer dairy of Saint-Imier announced it would continue the dairy's Chaux-d'Abel cheese from summer 2025; whether the tomme moved too is not stated.

  1. [patrimoine-ch] Kulinarisches Erbe der Schweiz / Patrimoine culinaire suisse, national inventory entry 'Tomme von La Chaux-d'Abel', no. 26archive
  2. [spielhofer2025] Fromages Spielhofer 2025, notice that the Chaux-d'Abel cheese will be continued in Saint-Imier from summer 2025 (4 September 2025)web
  3. [pomona2024] Groupe Pomona, product technical sheet 'Tomme chaux d'Abel 1/1 meule de 450GR environ Zimmermann Kurt', article 256683, version 4.0 (17 May 2024)other
  4. [cdc-listeria] US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Preventing Listeria Infectiongov