Banon vs Pélardon
Banon
Facts
- Milk
- Goat
- Texture
- Soft
- Rind
- Natural rind
- Country
- France
- Place
- Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur
Banon is a soft goat cheese from Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur in France. Each small round is wrapped in chestnut leaves and tied with raffia, which is how shoppers recognize it. The milk is goat's milk, and the curd is set in a way that stays gentle rather than sharply sour. Under the leaves, the paste is creamy and can turn almost runny when ripe. The leaves add a woody, slightly tannic note that plain fresh goat cheese does not have.
Pélardon
Facts
- Milk
- Goat
- Texture
- Soft
- Rind
- Natural rind
- Country
- France
- Place
- Languedoc-Roussillon
Pélardon is a small goat's cheese from Languedoc-Roussillon in southern France. The milk is raw goat's milk, and the cheese is a low round with a thin natural rind. The paste is soft and moist when young, then firmer and drier as it ripens. White, cream, or blue-grey molds can speckle the coat, and that varied surface is normal. The taste is goaty, floral, and lightly nutty, and it belongs on a board or in simple southern cooking.