Livarot and Vimoutiers etc
|
We never reached this
unfamiliar sounding place just outside Vimoutiers, but Mum and Dad could
smell it anyway!
|
The Manoir de l’Isle in Livarot – home to one of many cheese
museums
|
Dad and D on the steps to this château
|
|
||
|
Making cheese: [their own translation] Livarot, located in Normandy in the south country is a famous
agricultural center for its cider and its dairy products. Fame of Livarot rests on the quality of its famous cheese manufactured
according to secular traditions. Like all Norman cheeses, the notoriety of this cheese comes from the
quality of milk employed. Thanks to the richness of the pastures of the
country, the cows produce a milk very high quality. MILKING At the farm. milk is collected two times per day, morning and evening.
Before proceding milking, it should be nade sure that udders of the cow are
cleaned. Milking can then begin. It is enough to pinch and to draw let us
milk them of the cow two by two. Milking by hand can last of 15 to 20 minutes
and it's possible to extract 20 to 30 liters of milk per day. SKIMMING Creaming makes it possible to extract 97% to 99% from fat
content of milk. It is obtained by the centrifugal force. Lighter cream
remains at centre of the eddy, while heavier skimmed milk is forced to the
outside. Skim milk will be used for manufacture of cheese, while the cream
after having rested, will be used for making butter. |
Milking
Skimming
Churning
BUTTER Butter is formed
by agglomeration of the fatty globules of the cream resulting from the
creaming of milk. To obtain butter, it is necessary to agitate the cream in
an intense way. Turning stops once the butter is thick enough, so the whey
will be take back. Then butter came out then mixed. The purpose of mixing is
to join together the small pieces of butter, and to expel water and butter
milk which could have remained inside. LIVAROT CHEESE'S PRODUCTION Part of skim milk is
mixed with full cream milk. It is warmed around 28 degrees. A ferment is
added, called rennet, the milk curdles after 30 minutes. The curds is broken
and stirred to avoid the formation of clots. It is put to rest on light
canvas attached to a wooden frame to allow the whey to seep out. The draining
is helped by turning the cheeses over regularly. It is completed in moulds,
for at least 24 hours. To give its taste. to the cheese, to speed
up and to develop the surface ferments, the cheeses are removed from the
moulds and salted by hand. |
They are laid on shelves where they are
turned over several times a day. Two weeks later, the rind forms. The cheeses are placed into a cellar where
they will mature slowly for several weeks. The temperature is lowered from
250 to 1200, so the cheese becomes soft and smooth, and the flavour develops. ‑Before the final step, the cheese
is, first washed with water and then, with "rocou" (originated from
a tree in Central America) It gives the cheese its orange colour. The matured cheese is surrounded with 5 turns
of sedges (dried reed leaves) so that it remains circular. It will have taken 3 months from the
milking to the consumption and the use of 5 liters milks to obtain a livarot
cheese. CONCLUSION The men knew to preserve the gestures which
perpetuate the know‑how and the quality of the products of the soil. To precise her qualities, the Livarot Cheese Brotherhood was created
in 1990 for the three hundred years of the livarot cheese. It is for
defending and promoting the livarot cheese around France. |
|||
|
Now, what is a British postbox
doing outside Livarot’s post office?
The lady who took this photo explained that it was a present from the
twinned town of South Molton. Her husband used to be chairman
of the twinning committee. |
|
|
|
||
|
|
|
|
|
||
Vimoutiers
|
We
suppose the cow was surrounded by a moat to prevent it catching foot and
mouth! And
this young lady is to blame for the cheese…. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
While we ate, D noticed that the bells were ringing all sorts of little tunes every hour…. but the wind was so high and blustery that most of the effects were lost – still – this little imported ditty from the UK came out OK: