Cheesy Christmas 14: Pont l’Évêque

Reactions on today’s cheese were, without question, heavily leaning to one side…

… the wrong side!

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

One thing I love about this whole Cheesy Christmas experience is that it holds us together at the table for a few minutes longer than we otherwise would be there and we’re all learning something together rather than each one immediately going their separate directions to go about their various occupations.

Pont l’Évêque… a Description

Yesterday, I began by giving you some of the comments made in marketing literature. Today, I’ll give you the most descriptive quote I heard around the table.

“It’s like I can feel the cheese burning me from the inside out, slowly descending my throat, poisoning my innerds gently as it goes.”

Who do you think gave that description? If you have an idea, let me know in the comments below.

Now… let’s get on to the cheese itself…

Day #14: Pont l’Évêque

Name: Pont l’Évêque
This cheese takes it name from the city of Pont l’Évêque, where, in the 17th century, one of the most important regional markets was held between Lisieux and Deauville.
Region: Normandy is home to the Pont l’Évêque cheese and is the only place where this cheese can be made. Even at that, it’s not authorized for production everywhere in the region. Because of its Protected Designation of Origin, there are strict controls on its production, including the condition that herds whose milk is destined for Pont l’Évêque production must be at least 50% comprised of Norman breed cattle.
Milk: Raw Cow’s milk
Our Score: 2.8/5
In several ‘most smelly cheese’ lists, Pont l’Évêque is prominently placed. I’ll share a few of them below, but the strong smell was a first turn-off for a number of our crew. On its own, it was generally not well appreciated, but when combined with bread (a common association here), it went down a little easier. (Think of a ‘French cheese version’ of Julie Andrews’ ‘spoonful of sugar’ classic, change it to ‘mouthful of bread’ and it’s the same idea!). Timo was the least forgiving and gave a straight out ‘0’. I’m generally not a strong cheese person, but maybe they’re growing on me. Everyone else was solidly in between Timo and I.

Pont l’Évêque Rankings:

Treehugger.com‘s Top 17 Stinky Cheese list places Pont l’Évêque at #9 (incidentally, yesterday’s Trou du Cru was #6 on the same list).
CompleteFrance.com listed it as #2 of their Top 5.
HipParis.com‘s list of Top 8 Smelly Cheeses and Where to Find them in Paris, also places it at #2 (right ahead of Trou du Cru at #3).
…. Plus… a fun fact: It takes about 1 litre (1/4 gallon) of milk to make 100g (3.5oz) of this cheese.

Cheese quote of the day

Today’s quote comes in the form of a poem by Angelica Banks, in her book “Finding Serendipity”.

“Figs are delicious with soft cheese and ham,
Toast is quite scrumptious with butter and ham,
Eggs are improved by parsley and salt,
But milkshakes are best with strawberries and malt.”

Happy Cheesy Christmas….
See you tomorrow for cheese #15