Cheesy Christmas 20: Abondance

What an interesting name for today’s cheese… Abondance (‘abundance’ in English).

Kind of neat that it was scheduled for a Sunday as well…. since, as believers, our abundance comes from the Lord.

Let’s talk cheese…

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

Day #20: Abondance

Name: Abondance
Abondance is a small, mountain village in the Alps. As far back as the 11th century, monks at the Abondance Abbey began making cheese, the cows that they milked eventually became known as the Abondance breed. So you see… it all started out in a small, mountain village.
Region: Haute Savoie
This isn’t the first Haute Savoie cheese we’ve seen (see also days 5’s Reblochon and day 10’s Tomme à l’ail des ours). Can you tell that the mountains have a real cheese-making history?
Milk: raw Cow’s milk
Our Score: 4.1/5
As with many of the raw-milk varieties, there’s a strong cheese smell with this and not necessarily pleasant (though not strictly un-pleasant either). The website for this cheese describes fruity notes of pineapple, apricot, citrus and hazelnuts in the taste. Call me crazy, but I could taste a hint of pineapple, though the others didn’t. Timo mocked me mercilessly after that…. “Yes, oh yes… there’s definitely a taste of moroccan mandarines mixed with japanese grapes.” …. (cue the Eyeroll Emoji!).

Looking for More Info on Abondance?

Cheese.com has a good English description of Abondance ,
Abondance even its own dedicated website dedicated website.
Fun Fact: It takes 10 L (2.2 gallons) of milk to make 1 Kg (2lbs) of Abondance.

Cheese quote of the day

Today’s quote comes from Mark Beauregard, in The Whale: A Love Story. If you understand it… you’re smarter than I. 🙂

“I have been considering the possibility that the facts that can be ascertained about this cheese fail to satisfy because the facts themselves mask a metaphysical truth that can be known only through the transcendent, poetic expression of the cheddar. That is, though the world itself can never truly be known, one might begin to know some truth about the world through a metaphysical cheese.”

Happy Cheesy Christmas….
See you tomorrow for cheese #21