St Félicien Cheese

Description

St Félicien is a bloomy rind, double cream cow’s milk cheese. The cheesemakers add crème fraîche to the milk before the whey is drained from the curds. The resulting cheese has a soft, slightly porous texture. Inside, the cheese is creamy and pasty. It has a slight aroma with flavours of fresh grass, butter and cream. This is all rounded off with a delicious acidity in the finish.

St Félicien is made at the Etoile du Vercors near Grenoble, Rhone-Alpes. It is an adaptation of St Marcellin PGI, which is a traditional cheese from the Lyon area. Allegedly, the recipe was developed by a St Marcellin PGI producer who had too much extra cream left over from market day. Rather than throw it away, he blended the cream into his fresh whole milk and followed his usual cheese recipe. The resulting bundle of wonderfulness was a St Félicien. The cheese itself tends to have minimal salting in order to allow the rich and creamy flavours to thrive alongside a lactic freshnesss.

We love to pair it with a Viognier or an easy going, light red wine. For an easy meal it can be baked in filo pastry or added to creme fraîche to make a cheesy sauce.

Ingredients (Allergens are listed in capitals)

MILK, starter cultures, rennet, crème fraîche, salt.