Midi-Pyrenees : in the heart of the Cathare heresy !

To understand Midi-Pyrenees cheeses you have to do the splits ! The Land of Plenty which shelters us was not always the “cheese land of plenty”. Judge for yourselves : while the parfaits, the Cathare priests, worn out by asceticism and by fasting, refused themselves the right to eat cheese, the common people were authorised to do so. Some centuries ago, cheese was essentially the fruit of mountain farms or of those at the foot of the mountain range.

It was above all produced in the south, in the Pyrenees Mountain Chain ; it was also made in the foothills of the Massif Central in the north, and in the Causses region situated slightly lower down. Elsewhere there existed a vast cheesemaking ‘no man’s land’ its main axis being the Garonne valley and the towns which were developing around it.

In the entire vast plains region (the Garonne river, Gascogne, the Tarn and Aveyron valleys), cheese was essentially a food product which was eaten fresh. If the flocks were big, they were put to graze in the embouche (grasslands where the animals were fattened). Cows and ewes produced a few litres of milk, which were quickly consumed as family food. In the villages and small towns goat raising (the poor man’s animal) proliferated, and this gave rise to a trade in fresh cheese, with cheese strainers or straw straining being employed. As for real cheeses, they were manufactured by transhumance herds which had just grazed the grasslands in the winter period. These dairy herds thus served to fertilise low-lying ground, and belonged tothe tommes and fourmes cheeses produced at altitude, minus the aromatic richness.

These are the distinctive characteristics of which we are the heirs today. They are mainly found in the Midi-Pyrenees region :

 In the southern part, cheeses in the form of more or less thick tommes (from 5 to 17cm high and a diameter of 20 to 30cm), with more or less cloth-based rinds and more or less covered with mycores and grey-black penicillium fungi are found. These are essentially cow-milk cheeses in the foothills or gently-sloped Pyrenees valleys ; thus the severely irregular enclosed valleys are reserved for ewe-milk cheeses. Consequently, from east towards the west, Bethmale, Castillonais, Moulis, Samortein, Aubisque, Ossau and its incomparable Greuilh can be found.

 In the northern part, in the Laguiole hill cows are once again found. But further south, where the drailles (tracks left by millenia of transhumance) remain very present, it is the kingdom of the ewe, with Roquefort serving as its capital. Next to the highly renowned Roquefort we mustn’t forget Pérail, which is a small disc-shaped highly aromatic cheese formerly produced before and after the opening of the Roquefort dairies. In fact because ewes produce only six months per year, the manufacture of Roquefort is roughly spread over December to June. Bleu des Causses is a subsidiary Roquefort product, formerly refined in make-do cellars, subsequently abandoned by Roquefort since today there is no question that Roquefort be refined anywhere else but in the place that bears its name ! This is our cheese history, and the Causses dairy milk herds were able to adapt to all these customs and the burgeoning legislation.

 The third cheese centre, in the Midi-Pyrenees is found on the Lot side of the Causses, the goat kingdom since the Arab invasion, with its fief Rocamadour and its cheese in the form of a large immaculate coin. Its kid brother Gramat is in reality a big brother by its size, double its thickness and about 10cm in diametre.

This is then the cradle of traditional cheese-making in the Midi-Pyrenees, which to be complete, must be added the whole panoply of more or less confidential, or more or less traditional cheeses, very often the work of neo-rural producers who in the middle of the last century brought with them good cheese-making practices.

Thus the following can be mentioned :

 goats’ milk :  : Pavé de la Ginestarié, Cathare, the incomparable Anneau de Vic Bilh, Crottins du Tarn, Résineux de Loubières from Ariège or Aydius from Béarn, etc…

 ewes’ milk : we here find a whole series of delicate and authentically cossetted cheeses made by small producers, such as Tomme de Carayac, Cazes-Haut, Cocagne, Coeur de Paulinet or last but not least, Tomette de l’Ours.

 cows’ milk : Barousse, Bethmale and Moulis remain our favourites ; these are cheeses with a human dimension born in the wide Pyrenees spaces …

Xavier, 20th July, 2007