January 20, 2010

La Fête du Fromage - Chèvre Férmier de Philippe

This cheese invoked some interesting comments during our tasting.
"Looks like a fine sponge."
"The texture reminds me of angel food cake."

Voilà Chèvre Férmier de Philippe, another special cheese from the fromager in Eauze who sells only small farm produced and artisan cheeses from the Pyrénées. I owe Kate Hill a huge thank you for taking me to see him.



Farm produced goat cheeses usually offer a healthy hit of goat flavor and this one didn't fail in that respect. Despite the medium-strong goatiness, this is an extremely well balanced, delicate and nutty cheese. Chèvre de Philippe's fine flavor and wonderful springy texture brought us all back for seconds. Then again for thirds.
I would have gone back for fourths, but we were tasting two other cheeses so I managed to show some restraint.

I've never seen these Pyrénées cheeses that are named after their producers down here in the Languedoc, so I think a trip back up to Gascony to track down this fantastic fromager is in my future!

Enjoyed with a glass of 100% old vine carignan. Pin It

6 comments:

Jill said...

You know how you can sometimes tell just by looking at a cheese that's it's good? This one has that look. Yum!

Maria said...

Loulou, why and how is this cheese processed differently from the soft goat cheese. at the restaurant where i work we use the regular white log goat cheese, but this one looks more dense and sounds like its softer in taste.
i hope this makes sense - and please forgive my lack of knowledge, i am a relative newbie to this wonderful food world.

Marysol said...

I'm hardly a cheese connoisseur, but being a lover of all things cheese, I'm very interested in this chèvre, as I never would've expected such a lovely texture from goat cheese.
I'm certain I would've been blackballed right out of that cheese tasting.

SavoringTime in the Kitchen said...

As much as I love cheese, I have a very hard time enjoying goat cheese - the soft kind, that is. I think I would like this one!

Fifi Flowers said...

OOooh I NEED to go to a cheese tasting event... YUM!

Jennifer said...

Jill
It was sooooo good!

Maria
This is an uncooked, pressed, semi-hard chèvre.
The fresh, white chèvre that you're used to seeing is not pressed, heated or mixed. They whey is drained off in molds and the cheese is dried for a very short time.
Hope that helps!

Marysol
The fine, airy texture was surprising. And delightful!

STK
These hard goat cheeses have nutty and sometimes caramel-like flavors. Completely different! You should try some Tomme de Chèvre if you can. You might be surprised. :)

Fifi
Hurry!