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Cheese from France, Bas-Berry

Valençay PDOValençay

Raw whole goat milk is ripened with whey or lactic cultures, then set slowly with a little rennet for at least 18 hours. The curd is ladled straight into truncated-pyramid moulds and drains by itself, then each cheese is salted and coated with charcoal ash. It is sold from the eleventh day, once a mould rind covers it.

Fully documentedCheese38 hPDO (EU, 2014); AOC since 1998Family: Lactic soft-ripened cheese family (goat/sheep/cow lactic curd)

Recipe

Amounts from a sourceThe specification fixes limits, not a recipe. A large-mould cheese has more than 90 g of dry matter, a small-mould cheese more than 45 g.
Raw whole goat milkAlpine or Saanen goats or their crosses; at most the last four milkings (two on farms); not homogenised or concentrated[cdc-vale2014]
Whey or mesophilic lactic culturesTo ripen the milk before renneting[cdc-vale2014]
Rennet (520 mg chymosin per litre)At most 8 ml per 100 L of milk[cdc-vale2014]
Salt and charcoalEvery face is salted and ashed after unmoulding[cdc-vale2014][agri-valencay-2025]
Ripening moulds and yeasts (optional)Geotrichum, Penicillium, Kluyveromyces, Debaryomyces or Trichosporon cultures[cdc-vale2014]
Startercheese whey and/or mesophilic homofermentative or heterofermentative lactic cultures

Total time across the recorded steps: 38 h

Start
Drag the bar or press Play
shapes, not to countLactic acid bacteria

What changes: Whey or lactic cultures go into raw goat milk to start the souring

Step 1 of 6
Ripen the milk with whey or cultures
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Lactic acid bacteria
Moulds
Penicillium
Yeasts
Geotrichum

Output: ripened raw milk.

Flavour
Not documented
Texture
Not documented
Colour
Not documented

Microbes at work in this step

mesophilic lactic bacteria start to grow and give the curd its lactic character

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

Raw whole goat milk is ripened with whey or lactic cultures, then set slowly with a little rennet for at least 18 hours. The curd is ladled straight into truncated-pyramid moulds and drains by itself, then each cheese is salted and coated with charcoal ash. It is sold from the eleventh day, once a mould rind covers it. Made in 6 steps over 38 h. The longest step, drain without pressing, takes at least 20 h (Ministère de l'agriculture 2014). Mesophilic lactic acid bacteria (homofermentative and heterofermentative), from the raw milk, whey or cultures, which set the curd and Surface moulds of the genera Geotrichum and Penicillium, from the raw milk, whey or added cultures do most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main stepat least 20 hSet[cdc-vale2014]Drain without pressing
Temperatureup to 25 °CSet[cdc-vale2014]Set slowly with a little rennet

What makes this one different

Valençay is the only truncated pyramid among the ashed, mould-ripened goat cheeses of the area; its top was cut off. Pouligny-Saint-Pierre is a taller, narrower pyramid. Like Selles-sur-Cher, Valençay is salted and ashed after unmoulding.

Milk
Raw whole goat milk from Alpine or Saanen goats or their crosses
Setting
Slow lactic set of at least 18 h at no more than 25 °C; at most 8 ml rennet per 100 L
Ripening
Sold from the eleventh day after renneting
Size
Square-based truncated pyramid; at least 40% dry matter; more than 90 g (large) or 45 g (small) of dry matter

Related ferments

Variants

  • Large ValençayMould base 50–55 mm; more than 90 g dry matter
  • Small ValençayMould base 40–44 mm; more than 45 g dry matter

Safety

This is a raw-milk soft cheese. 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 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

Goats in the Berry appear in Charlemagne's capitularies and 16th-century archives of La Châtre. The specification says Talleyrand, lord of the Château de Valençay, helped change the mould to a truncated pyramid and helped the cheese reach aristocratic tables in Paris. Sales spread in the 20th century, and the French ministry says it was recognised as an AOC in 1998 and as an EU PDO in 2014.

  1. [cdc-vale2014] Ministère de l'agriculture, Cahier des charges de l'appellation d'origine « Valençay », notice AGRT1413739V, in force since Implementing Regulation (EU) No 297/2014 (BO-Agri)spec
  2. [anses2022] ANSES 2022, Fromages au lait cru, quels risques pour la santé et comment mieux les prévenir (8 April 2022)gov
  3. [agri-valencay-2025] Ministère de l'Agriculture 2025, Le Valençay AOP, une pyramide de saveurs (11 December 2025)gov