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A perfect taste of fall flavours for your holiday cheese board.
Cheese: Le Coutances
Origin: Normandie, France
Milk Type: Cow’s milk
Style: Soft ripened / bloomy rind
Description: Le Coutances comes in a small wheel, weighing in at two hundred grams. The shape is slightly cylindrical and only about 8 centimetres across, and 6 centimetres high. As the cheese gets close to perfect ripeness, the top center will slump inwards slightly. That’s a sign that the inside is beautifully soft, and the cheese is ready.
The plant in the town of Coutances, in Normandie, has been bought in recent years by the French cheese-making giant Savencia, but the quality of this small production doesn’t seem to have suffered at all.
Tasting Notes: Le Coutances is a double cream cow’s milk cheese with a silky, smooth texture. The paste is dense and creamy on the palate, getting downright runny the closer it gets to its ripening date. Hints of cooked root vegetables, cauliflower and mushrooms, make this deceivingly simple looking cheese a lovely surprise. It’s noticeably aromatic, maybe even slightly funky, but it doesn’t have any bitterness on the rind.
Pairing: It is a lovely addition to a cheese plate as it will stand up to whatever you pair with it, without overpowering the rest of the selection. I find it particularly delicious with a slightly sweet nut and fruit cracker, like Raincoast Crisps or Rustic Bakery. It’s excellent paired with a tomato jam or an onion confit.
