It is a PDO cheese made from partially skimmed raw cow's milk with 31% fat on finished product.
It is part of the cooked pressed cheese family.
County's odors are classified into 6 aromatic families:-Lactic family (aromas of milk and derived products).- Fruity family (aromas of fresh or dried fruits, seeds...).- Roasted family (aromas of cooking, caramelization...).- Animal family (aromas related to the animal world).- Vegetable family (aromas of green plant, vegetables, mushrooms, humus...).- Spicy family (aromas of spices and aromatics).The Comté Aroma Wheel groups the 83 main odors encountered in tasting
- The saltiness: it is contributed mainly by the salt with which the Comté cheese was rubbed during the maturing process. The salty character must be balanced in the other flavors.- The acid: Not very intense, the acidity is often more noticeable in young cheeses than in Comté cheeses that have been ripened for a long time.- The sweet: It is found quite clearly on some cheeses. During maturation, propionic fermentation and proteolysis develop this flavor.- The bitter: The bitterness is sometimes found, at the end of tasting. Unpleasant if it is too marked, it participates however in a positive way to the taste of some Comté
The colors:Pale, it will correspond to a "winter Comté" made when the cows stay in the cowshed and are fed with hay, which results in a milk that is low in carotene, a natural vegetable coloring agent.
Inversely, a yellow paste will correspond to a "summer Comté" made when the cows graze in the Jura meadows and feed on fresh plants, rich in carotene.
The production of large cheeses is attested to as early as the twelfth and XIII centuries in fructeries. As early as 1264-1280, cheese production is reported in Déservillers and Levier. This cheese is called vachelin, as opposed to chevrotin cheese made with goat's milk. In 1380, large cheeses confirm the importance of the dairy farms without which the necessary quantity of milk could not be collected. The manufacture of today's Comté cheese derives from the Gruyère recipe and was introduced around the beginning of the xviii century in Franche-Comté, as in the Jura vaudois, by cheese makers originating from Gruyère.
