Spring sees many types of cheeses that require little maturation being freshly available.
Continuing on from March cheeses of many kinds are now on the shelves, a change from winter where the majority of recommended products are hard, cow’s milk cheeses matured before the winter begins.
Mimolette
One cheese recommended for this month that is similar to the cow's milk cheeses of winter, however, is Mimolette.
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The well-known orange cheese is matured for between three and 24 months in most cases, but many of the best versions of the cheese become available in April.
The cheese, produced in the north of France, is similar to Edam – historically it was dyed orange to distinguish it from its Dutch counterpart.
Aside from its colour, Mimolette is famous for its distinctive rind. Similarly to Cantal and some German cheeses, the rind is made by adding mites to the cheese that produce its distinctive outer casing.
This has led to the cheese being banned in the US – despite being pasteurised – over the risk of allergic reaction to the mites, but the ban was lifted in 2014.
Despite the mites it is popular in France, with several thousand tonnes being produced each year.
There are rumours it was the favourite cheese of Charles de Gaulle.
Unlike many other recommended cheeses, however, mimolette does not have a label of origin (AOP/AOC), however aged varieties can have quality labels.
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Chabichou
Returning to the goat’s cheeses so popular in March, Chabichou is a soft cheese from the west of France – its full name is Chabichou du Poitou.
A young cheese usually matured for between 10 to 20 days, Chabichou is a rich ivory colour and has a sweet and lactic taste, and comes in small mounds around 140g thick.
In some cases, the cheese is left to mature a little longer, where it develops a more complex flavour with hints of dried fruit.
It is often paired with local white wines from the region.
The cheese has both AOC and AOP status, but is relatively rare, with less than 400 tonnes being produced in 2017.
It follows recommendations in March for other western goat’s cheeses such as Rocamadour and Crottin de Chavignol.
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Mascarpone
The final cheese recommended for the start of spring is not French, but Italian, in the form of mascarpone.
This cheese is produced using cow’s milk cream, mixed with a hint of lemon juice. The cream is slowly heated to turn it into a cream cheese.
Textures vary from silky soft to heavier and spreadable, however the cheese is widely-used as an ingredient in both sweet and savoury dishes, or on its own on top of bread or crackers.
Dishes that use mascarpone as a constituent ingredient include tiramisù, perhaps the most famous usage of the cheese.
As the days get longer and warmer in April. mascarpone can rapidly disappear from French supermarket shelves as people look to make homemade versions of Italian classics.
It is often confused with ricotta however this is made from whey as opposed to cream.
The cheese does not have an official protected status, meaning it is made in various forms from small batches to mass-produced low-cost versions.
Unlike probably any other cheese listed in the previous months, mascarpone is probably the only one that can be reliably made at home using good quality heavy cream.
