Tomme vs Tomme des Pyrénées
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.
Tomme des Pyrénées
Facts
- Texture
- Semi-hard
- Type
- Pressed
- Rind
- Waxed or sealed
- Country
- France
- Place
- Midi-Pyrénées
Tomme des Pyrénées is a rustic semi-hard cheese from Midi-Pyrénées, in the French Pyrenees. The usual shop wheel is a squat cylinder with a black or gold coat that makes it easy to spot. Under that coat the paste is supple, ivory to pale yellow, and dotted with small irregular openings. The taste runs from fresh and mild to fuller and lightly earthy, depending on how long the wheel rests. It is a flexible table cheese rather than a sharp grating block.