Beaufort is a large pressed cow's-milk cheese from the high country of Savoie, and a protected name. The wheel has a concave rim, so you can recognize the shape across a counter.
The flavor is buttery and a little sweet, with broth underneath. It melts, and it also eats well in a piece. Summer cheese from the high pastures and winter cheese from the valleys are the two great versions of the same name.
History
Beaufort comes from the Tarentaise, the Beaufortain, the Maurienne, and nearby valleys of Savoie. Those valleys made a large cooked, pressed cheese in the alpine family, close in kitchen use to Gruyère and Comté and still its own wheel. The protection keeps the cheese tied to that Savoie zone and to local cow's milk.
The herds move. In summer, many go up to the high pastures, and the cheese made there is Beaufort d'alpage. Cheese made in the winter, when the cows are down and often eating stored feed, is a different expression of the same appellation. Both are Beaufort. The concave rim is the visible mark of the wheel. You do not need the story of how the shape was carried. You need to recognize it.
How it is made
Raw cow's milk from local Savoie breeds is set, the curd is cooked and cut fine, and it is pressed into large wheels. The rind is natural. Aging brings a firm paste that still melts, with few holes compared with Emmental. Alpage wheels are made in the mountain chalets during the summer pasture. Winter wheels are made lower down. The method is one method. The milk of the season changes the flavor.
A wheel is a keeping cheese, not a fresh disk. It is aged until the paste is dense and savory. Copies called Beaufort-style do not have the zone, the breeds, or the seasonal alpage. They may still be decent pressed cheeses. The concave Savoie wheel under the protected name is the cheese this page describes.
Taste
Beaufort tastes buttery, lightly sweet, and savory, often with a note of broth, grass, or warm milk. Alpage cheese is frequently more fragrant. Winter cheese is often quieter and still deep. The texture is firm and smooth, and an older wheel can show a little crystal grit.
It should smell clean and appetizing, never rancid and never like nothing. A bitter finish is a fault. If a wedge tastes only mild and rubbery, it may be a different alpine-style cheese, or a Beaufort that was cut a long time ago. Taste a fresh-cut piece. This cheese is subtle enough that a dried face will slander it.
In the kitchen
Eat it in slices with bread as a mountain snack, which is how it is used on a hike and at a table in Savoie. Melt it into potatoes, a gratin, or a fondue. Grate an older piece. It is in the same cooking family as Gruyère and Comté: a cheese that can be a meal with bread, or the savory fat in a hot dish.
Do not waste an alpage wheel on a sauce that will be heavily smoked or spiced. Eat that one plainer, and cook with a younger or more ordinary wheel. Gruyère is the Swiss substitute. Comté is the Jura substitute. Emmental is sweeter, full of eyes, and less brothy. Use Emmental only if the dish wanted that sweetness.
Around the world
Beaufort is a Savoie cheese, eaten in the valleys as an ordinary proud food and exported as a specialty alpine wheel. Visitors often meet it next to Reblochon and Tomme de Savoie and then confuse the three. Reblochon is the small soft washed cheese. Tomme is a different, usually smaller pressed cheese. Beaufort is the large concave wheel.
Outside Savoie it appears on serious cheese boards and in recipes that want a French mountain cheese gentler than a long-aged Comté or a sharp cheddar. Buy alpage in summer and autumn if you want the high-pasture milk. Buy the winter cheese on purpose for cooking and for a milder slice. Both names should be on the label when the distinction is claimed.