Goat's milk cheeses
Bright, tangy and white: chevre, Valencay, Garrotxa, Banon and the goat cheeses of the Mediterranean.
Goat's milk cheese is white, fresh-tasting and often tangy, with a faint note of the animal that grows with age. Goats thrive on rough, dry ground where cows cannot, so their cheeses come from the hills of the Mediterranean, the Loire, the Alps, the Canary Islands and the Andes. Chèvre is French for goat and for its cheese. Valençay, Crottin de Chavignol, Banon, Garrotxa, Majorero and Norway's geitost are among the best known.
Why it tastes as it does
Goats turn the carotene in grass into colourless vitamin A, so their milk and cheese stay bright white. Goat's milk has small fat globules and more short- and medium-chain fatty acids, such as caproic, caprylic and capric acids, named from capra, Latin for goat. These give the familiar goaty flavour, mild in very fresh cheese and stronger as it ages. The curd is more delicate than that of cow's milk, which suits the slow lactic set used for most French goat cheeses.
Seasons and shapes
Goats have a natural breeding season, so traditional goat cheese is best from spring to autumn, and many French farms stop making it over the winter. Banon, from Provence, is wrapped in chestnut leaves tied with raffia. Spain's Garrotxa, from Catalonia, has a grey, downy rind and a smooth, mild paste. Majorero, from Fuerteventura in the Canary Islands, is rubbed with paprika, oil or gofio. Norway's geitost is a caramel-brown cheese made from goat's whey and milk.
Beyond Europe
Goats are kept far more widely than cows across Africa and Asia, but much of their milk is drunk rather than made into cheese. Morocco's jben, a fresh cheese often made from goat's milk, is sold in country markets and eaten with bread, olive oil and honey. Mexico and Chile have farmhouse goat cheeses, and the United States has a strong craft tradition led by cheeses such as Humboldt Fog. In India, the Dogra kalari of Jammu is sometimes made from goat's milk, and goat-milk paneer is made on a small scale by farm dairies.
Worth knowing
- Valençay: Ashed pyramid of the Loire
- Crottin de Chavignol: Small goat drum, eaten young or old
- Sainte-Maure de Touraine: Ashed log with a straw at its heart
- Banon: Provençal cheese wrapped in chestnut leaves
- Garrotxa: Catalan cheese with a grey, downy rind
- Majorero: Canary Islands cheese rubbed with paprika
- Brunost: Norwegian geitost, caramel-brown
- Humboldt Fog: Californian goat cheese with a line of ash
Good to know
- Fresh goat cheese keeps about a week once opened; aged ones last longer.
- Roll fresh logs in herbs, ash or cracked pepper, or warm them on toast.
- Sancerre, the white wine of Chavignol, is the classic partner for crottin.
Sources and further reading
Original text by the EveryCheese desk, written with AI assistance and checked against the sources above. Customs are described as tradition, not as advice. If we have something wrong, tell us.
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