Salers
AOP📍 Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes · Cantal
Farmhouse cheese from Salers cow's raw milk, pressed.
The cheese
The quintessential summer-pasture cheese, AOP Salers is produced exclusively from 15 April to 15 November, when Salers cows (a rustic mahogany-coated breed) graze the Auvergne mountains. Raw milk, drawn directly at the burons (altitude huts), is worked in a wooden gerle (traditional vat) that brings its natural ferments. A cylindrical wheel of 30 to 50 kg, Salers ages at least 3 months, often much more for the best, in natural caves. The golden yellow, highly aromatic paste delivers powerful complex aromas: mountain herbs, toasted hazelnut, salted butter, dried fruit, sometimes with a piquant finish. More characterful and authentic than its Cantal cousin, it remains confidential. Serve with a Marcillac, Madiran or a characterful Côtes d'Auvergne.