When visiting the Cheese Board last week, I saw, featured on the white board, a French cheese I had never heard of before: Petit Fuxéen. It bore that alluring green dot (meaning raw milk) but it was otherwise unlabeled. The cheese mongers were unable to tell me what region it came from, or its affinage. I googled it, and looked it up in my various cheese books, and came up with jack shit. But I can tell you this: it tasted pretty good.
Petit Fuxéen is a washed rind cheese. The rind itself is bright orange, with a white mold. It is approximately four inches in diameter, and about an inch and a half in height. I would say that the round I tried had an affinage of about two and a half months, but that's just a guess. The texture is soft, and almost creamy in the middle, sort of like a reblochon. It smells sharp and earthy, though not as "barnyardy" as an epoisses. It starts out salty, then melts into a creamy savoriness which is balanced out by a faint bitterness at the back of the palate. The final finish is very grassy. Overall, other than not knowing too much about it, I liked this cheese. It reminded me of Cato Corner Farms' Hooligan Cheese, which we sampled back in January at the Fancy Foods Show. If anyone can tell me more about this cheese, by all means, please share!
Posted by connie at May 10, 2004 10:19 PM | TrackBack