Saint-Nectaire vs Tomme
Saint-Nectaire
Facts
- Milk
- Cow
- Texture
- Semi-soft
- Type
- Pressed
- Rind
- Natural rind
- Country
- France
- Place
- Auvergne
Saint-Nectaire is a semi-soft cow's milk cheese from Auvergne, in central France. It is pressed, not cooked, and formed into a flat round with a gray, mottled rind. The paste is supple, ivory to pale gold, and usually has a few small holes. The smell of the rind suggests damp earth, straw, and a cellar, while the inside stays milky. Farmhouse and dairy versions both exist, and the label tells them apart.
Tomme
Facts
- Texture
- Semi-hard
- Type
- Pressed
- Rind
- Natural rind
- Country
- France
Tomme is a French cheese word more than a single recipe, and it usually means a round, flat wheel with a natural rind. The paste is pressed and not cooked the way a very dry grating cheese is cooked, so the texture stays semi-hard and supple. Many tommes were traditionally made from milk that had already lost some cream. The word covers farm cheeses across France. A label that says only tomme names a style, not one fixed cheese from one valley.