Morbier

TAST­ING NOTES FROM THE CURATOR

Mor­bier is ivory-col­ored with a yel­low­ish leath­ery rind, and a very dis­tinct thin black lay­er divid­ing it hor­i­zon­tal­ly in the mid­dle. This alpine cheese is creamy, springy, and sup­ple, with a fair­ly soft and elas­tic texture. 

It has a very strong smell — pun­gent and grassy. But don’t let that deter you! Its taste is much milder and sub­tler than its aro­ma would indi­cate. Citrus‑y, and slight­ly tangy, this cheese is rich and full in fla­vor but nev­er over­pow­er­ing. Tru­ly, a delight.

PAIR­INGS AND PREPARATION

Like many semi-soft cheeses, Mor­bier is bril­liant on its own or as part of a cheese plat­ter. Have a bot­tle of Domaine Rol­ly-Gassmann Gewürz­tramin­er or a Vil­lard Expre­sion Reserve Pinot Noir with this cheese!

Melty and deli­cious, this cheese is an excel­lent ingre­di­ent to ele­vate your dish­es. Make a creamy sauce to top fresh pas­ta with, or use it on savory crêpes. Even bet­ter, attempt a Morbiflette! 

A tra­di­tion­al dish, and the most pop­u­lar use of Mor­bier, this includes melt­ing and pour­ing a wedge of the cheese onto boiled pota­toes, some small pick­led onions and pieces of smoked bacon. Incredible!

A DASH OF ASH

Mor­bier was orig­i­nal­ly made for home con­sump­tion by the mak­ers of the Comté cheese, the region’s oth­er spe­cial­ty. How­ev­er, it took less time to mature than the much big­ger Comté, so they took the oppor­tu­ni­ty to increase their sales by sell­ing Morbier.

But how did it come about? The Comté cheese­mak­ers would have left­over curd at the end of the day, but not enough to make anoth­er entire cheese. So, they would press that into a mold and spread ash (usu­al­ly made of burnt grape vines) over it. This pro­tect­ed the alpine cheese from insects and the ele­ments overnight. This is the lay­er they called ​“evening milk.” The next day, they would place the remain­ing curd left­over of that day on top to com­plete the cheese — the ​“morn­ing milk.” This isn’t done any­more, of course, and the black line is now pure­ly for dec­o­ra­tive pur­pos­es to keep with tra­di­tion. Nowa­days, it’s made of veg­etable dye.

Storage Instructions

Cheeses (except brined ones in jars) should be stored in the crisper or the but­ter draw­er of a refrig­er­a­tor, not on the shelves them­selves. This is to help reg­u­late their tem­per­a­ture and humid­i­ty lev­els — and pre­vents the for­ma­tion of mold. Once opened, they should not be kept in their orig­i­nal pack­ag­ing. Soft cheeses with del­i­cate rinds need to breathe, so they are best placed in glass con­tain­ers lined with paper tow­els to absorb extra mois­ture. Leave the lid open a tiny bit for air to cir­cu­late and don’t for­get to write up a label with the date you first opened the pack­age. Your cheese will be fine for up to one month, unless oth­er­wise stat­ed in best before date stamped on the label.