Saint Agur (pronounced ) is a blue cheese made with pasteurised cow's milk from the village of Beauzac in the Monts du Velay, part of the mountainous

Auvergne Auvergne (; ; oc, label= Occitan, Auvèrnhe or ) is a former administrative region in central France, comprising the four departments of Allier, Puy-de-Dôme, Cantal and Haute-Loire. Since 1 January 2016, it has been part of the new region Au ...

region of central

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

. Developed in 1988 by the cheese company

Bongrain Savencia Fromage & Dairy, named Bongrain until 2015, is a French food company specializing in the production of cheeses. Brands include Saint Agur Blue, Saint Albray Saint Albray is a cheese which comes from the Aquitaine region of France ...

, it is made from

pasteurised Pasteurization American and British English spelling differences#-ise, -ize (-isation, -ization), or pasteurisation is a process of food preservation in which packaged and non-packaged foods (such as milk and fruit juices) are treated with mi ...

cow's

milk Milk is a white liquid food produced by the mammary glands of mammals. It is the primary source of nutrition for young mammals (including breastfed human infants) before they are able to digest solid food. Immune factors and immune-modula ...

, enriched with

cream Cream is a dairy product composed of the higher-fat layer skimmed from the top of milk before homogenization. In un-homogenized milk, the fat, which is less dense, eventually rises to the top. In the industrial production of cream, this process ...

, and contains 60%

butterfat Butterfat or milkfat is the fatty portion of milk. Milk and cream are often sold according to the amount of butterfat they contain. Composition Butterfat is mainly composed of triglycerides. Each triglyceride contains three fatty acids. But ...

, qualifying it as a double-cream cheese. Aged for 60 days in cellars, the cheese becomes stronger and spicier as it ages. The moist, rich, white cheese has characteristic olive green mould veins throughout and a smooth, creamy texture with a subtle mild spicy taste resembling a softer and finer

Roquefort Roquefort is a sheep milk cheese from Southern France, and is one of the world's best known blue cheeses. Though similar cheeses are produced elsewhere, EU law dictates that only those cheeses aged in the natural Combalou caves of Roquefort-sur ...

in presentation and taste. It is not as salty as more traditional blue cheese, and its tangy and creamy nature are balanced so as not to overpower with a sharp bite, although this is dependent on the age of the cheese. Owing to its double-cream nature, this cheese is easily spread and also melts well. Saint Agur is produced in octagonal prisms, rendering a shape that makes it easy to cut into wedges. It has no rind and sometimes comes in foil to prevent the cheese from becoming more blue.

References

* {{Blue cheeses French cheeses Occitan cheeses Blue cheeses Cow's-milk cheeses

See also

References