Beaufort
AOP📍 Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes · Savoie
Large mountain hard cheese, nicknamed the prince of gruyères.
The cheese
The "prince of gruyères" according to Brillat-Savarin, AOP Beaufort is an enormous wheel of cooked pressed cheese with concave sides (up to 70 kg), made in Savoie from raw Tarine and Abondance cow's milk. Three designations exist: Beaufort (year-round), Beaufort d'été (June to October) and Beaufort d'alpage (high-altitude pastures above 1,500 m, from a single milking). Its ivory paste, very fine and without holes, offers cooked milk, mountain flower, hazelnut and fresh butter aromas. Longer ageing (5 to 18 months) brings more complexity: dried fruit, leather, spice. A key ingredient of Savoyard fondue (with Comté and Emmental), it also excels grated on gratins, in savoury tarts or cubed with a glass of Mondeuse or Roussette de Savoie.