Époisses is a soft cow's-milk cheese from Burgundy, and a protected name. The rind is washed with marc de Bourgogne, the local grape spirit, while the cheese ages.
The smell is famous. The paste is salty, spoonable, and rich when ripe. Keep it in its own box. It was nearly lost in the twentieth century and later revived.
History
The cheese belongs to the village of Époisses and the surrounding Burgundy country, west of Dijon. It was a farm and local-dairy cheese, small and strongly washed, known in the region and then famous enough for its smell to be part of its reputation. The stories that attach it to famous diners are optional. The place and the marc wash are not.
Production nearly disappeared in the middle of the twentieth century. A Burgundy dairy brought it back, and the protection later fixed the zone and the method. The cheese people buy now is that revived tradition, not an unbroken tub in every village shop. It is still made to be sold in a small round wooden box, one cheese at a time, because the ripe paste will not survive as a neat wedge in a crowded case.
How it is made
Cow's milk is set and ladled into small rounds. The cheeses are salted and repeatedly washed as they ripen. Marc de Bourgogne in the wash gives the rind its particular treatment. The rind goes from pale to orange to a deeper brick. The paste softens from the outside in until a ripe cheese can be eaten with a spoon.
This is not a cheese to press, age for years, or ship carelessly. It is ready when the top yields and the smell is strong and clean. A chalky young round is unfinished. A collapsed, bitterly ammoniated round is finished in the wrong direction. Producers box it so the rind can stay moist and so the cheese does not glue itself to its neighbors.
Taste
A ripe Époisses tastes salty, meaty, and creamy, with a powerful washed rind and a sweet richness in the paste. The marc is part of the ripening. You should not taste a glass of raw spirit in every bite. You taste what the wash did to the milk. The smell will be larger than the taste.
Judge it at room temperature, in the box, with the lid opened for a minute. If the smell is only ammonia, or the paste is brown and bitter, the cheese is past its moment. If there is almost no smell, it is unripe or too cold. A good one is intense and still makes you want bread. Intensity by itself is not success.
In the kitchen
Serve the whole round with bread, a sharp white wine or a simple red from the region, and little else. Spoon the paste. Eat the rind if you like the full aroma, or leave the driest part of it. This is a cheese course, not a sandwich slice and not a cooking cheese.
Do not bake it, grate it, or stir it into a delicate sauce. Heat makes the smell harsher and wastes the texture. Do not crowd it against mild cheeses on a small board. Give it a plate. If you cannot find it, a ripe Munster or another strong washed Burgundy cheese is the nearest idea. None of them is a perfect copy, because the marc wash and the spoonable format are specific.
Around the world
Époisses is made in its Burgundy zone and exported in small amounts to people who already know they want a strong cheese. It is not a supermarket staple in most countries. Restaurants use it as a cheese-course showpiece. The box and the spoon are part of how it is served.
The name is protected. A pungent orange cheese from another place is not Époisses, even if a shop describes it as being in that style. Buy it when you will eat it within a day or two of ripeness. This is a poor cheese to abandon in the refrigerator for a month. It will announce itself and then decline.