Cheesy Christmas 13: Le Trou du Cru

This one took me by surprise.

The look of it didn’t impress me.
The smell impressed me even less.
The descriptions used words like ‘very strong’ and ‘pungent’.

Hint: If the French describe they’re cheeses as strong, it’s generally NOT hyperbole… it is!

(Wondering ‘Why the daily cheese posts?’… read this 🙂 )

‘Trou du Cru’ Descriptions

Let me begin by giving you my English approximation of a couple French descriptions of this cheese. The French really do have a way with words.

“A strong taste with surprising floral notes in the aftertaste.” (les Alpages)
“…will delight amateurs of strong cheeses.” (fromages.com)

Name: Trou du Cru
The descriptions all agree on the strong taste and the strong smell of this cheese. The reason is simple. During the 3-week aging process, the soft, edible rind is rubbed regularly with marc de Bourgogne, a by-product of the wine-making process, contributing to it’s orange colour. It’s often compared to an époisse cheese.
Region: The Côte d’Or is a department in the Bourgogne-Franch Comté region of eastern France.
Milk: pasteurized Cow’s milk
Our Score: 2.8/5
One comment heard around the table was: “Smells like cow patty.” So that should give you an idea as to why it rated as low as it did. In all honesty however, the overall grade was likely brought down by Timo’s “1-rating”, fair enough. I’m not typically keen on strong cheeses, but when served on bread, I quite enjoyed it (the picture below does a good job at showing the texture, but not the colour which was actually more of an ivory-cream colour). 2.8 however, remains a fair reflection of how the 5 of us rated it.