At the risk of revealing my age, I never tasted goat’s cheese (chèvre) before arriving in France. It was so long ago that the goat's cheese salad had only just begun its march across every bistro menu.
To my younger mind, a goat was simply an animal at the petting zoo, and a whiffy one at that. The thought of eating anything that tasted even faintly of goat was unthinkable until, one day, a perfect crouton with melted Crottin helped me stop seeing the animal and, instead, taste the place. How had I eaten cheese all my life and never tasted anything like this?
France, a land of so many cheeses it has been said to be ungovernable, is the world’s leading goat’s cheese producer with an annual output in excess of 130,000 tonnes, of which 80% is consumed on home territory. On average, this amounts to about 2kg of goat cheese per household each year.
This may seem a lot when you picture France as a land of speckled cows and lush pastures. But much of the country is stonier and more austere than that, and it is precisely on the thin limestone soils and rocky hillsides of the Loire, the Ardèche, and the Cévennes that goats have always thrived where cattle could not, tended by smallholders who never saw reason to replace them.
Like all artisanal foods, French goat’s cheese has seasons, and it is at its best in spring and early summer, when the milk is richest. You will be able to find goat’s cheese year-round, but know that the taste of a cheese made in May will be different from the same cheese made in October.
Enjoy goat's cheese with crusty bread or in a fresh saladElena Kulygina / Shutterstock
A good place to start is a small list of lesser-known appellations, all carrying AOC status, which guarantees the cheese comes from a specific place and is made in a specific way that cannot be replicated elsewhere. The following small list of soft goat’s cheeses, all lesser-known appellations, have AOC status.
Most of us arrive at French goat cheese in a similar way: a grilled Crottin on a salad, or an ash-covered pyramid of Valençay on a cheeseboard. But these represent only a fraction of France's AOC goat cheese map, and some of the most interesting names on that map are ones most people have never heard of.
Pélardon from the Cévennes/Languedoc-Roussillon area is small and soft, tastes of the scrubby garrigue where the goats graze. It is said to be herbal and chestnutty at the same time, a good example of landscape-in-a-cheese.
Picodon, named from the Occitan word for piquant, is from the limestone hills of the Drôme/Ardeche. It can be eaten young and mild, or aged.
Mâconnais, from Burgundy, is a tiny cone-shaped cheese, which comes from the same hills that produce the region’s white wines. That’s also a big clue for what to drink with this.
Chabichou du Poitou is a cylindrical cheese, from the Poitou-Charentes, is an area steeped in goat-farming traditions, going back to the 8th Century.
Pouligny-Saint-Pierre is the holder of the oldest AOC (1972) of all the goat cheeses. Eat it young for something soft and floral; wait for the blue rind and it becomes nutty, firm, and frankly goaty.
Goats do not graze like cows, who nibble the grass at their feet. Goats seek out bitter plants, woody scrub, wild herbs and bark, which is characteristic of the harsher terrain they inhabit. The taste of their milk reflects their diet and landscape more directly than that of cows.
Which is all very well, if the goat in question is actually feeding in the wild. Many French goat farms, including some producing AOC cheese, are partly or wholly indoor operations where animals eat standardised feed. The organic AB label can be useful here. It restricts intensive feeding and requires access to pasture.
That said, a small conventional farm whose goats feed primarily on scrubland can produce more interesting milk than a larger certified-organic operation where animals spend time indoors. This is one of the few cases where an organic label may not be the most useful guide and a conversation may be better.
If ever there was a case for buying cheese at the market or from a fromager who knows the producer, goat's cheese is it, so ask not just what the cheese is, but how the goats are kept.
Recipe: Asparagus with goat’s cheese
Asparagus is another product at its best in May, plus its grassy bitterness pairs well with spring goat’s cheese.
Roasted asparagus with hard goat's cheese shavingsLaura Washburn Hutton
My favourite way to cook with goat’s cheese, learned from my fromager, is to always have a small, rock-hard Crottin in the fridge, for grating, as you would a Parmesan.
Ingredients
Asparagus
Hard goat's cheese (Crottin) of choice
Vinaigrette of choice
Half of a lemon
Salt and pepper
Method
Lightly roast your asparagus in the oven with plenty of oil until soft and tender. Top with a sprinkle of salt and pepper.
Serve on a dish with a squeeze of lemon and a drizzle of vinaigrette.
Take your Crottin and grate the goat's cheese generously over the asparagus.
Serve this as a starter or side dish or incorporate in savoury tarts or a warm salad of white asparagus, soft-boiled egg, hazelnuts and shaved chèvre.
