Valencay

Named after the town of Valencay in France where it was originally produced, an unpasteurised goats cheese with a long history. This style of cheese dated back to the reign of Charlemagne in late 700AD to early 800AD. The actual Valencay style and shape of the cheese has direct mentions dating from around the 16th Century onwards (give or take the top of the pyramid shape), there are many stories around how the pyramid became the truncated pyramid that we have today.

The most popular of these stories and one that does seem to have some historical references to back it up is one involving Napoleon. In 1798 he led a campaign to Egypt where he hoped to establish a French presence in the Middle East and to stop the British having access to the East Indies and India. The campaign did not go to plan after a lack of reinforcements from France and civil unrest in both Egypt and France meant he had to retreat home humiliated by the absolute disaster it had been. On his arrival home he attended a welcome gathering where he was served a Valencay in its original pyramid shape. He was that angry at the reminder of his disastrous campaign he drew out his sword and chopped the top off in a fit of rage. Since then all Valencay cheeses have been produced as truncated pyramids.

Valencay was the first region in France to achieve both a wine and cheese that hold an an AOC (Appellation d’origine controlle) status. Valencay was given AOC status in 1998 with regulations stipulating the geographic areas it is allowed to be produced in, the two goat breeds that are approved milk producers of Alpine or Saanen, it must be made with raw milk (unpasteurised) and it must be matured for 11 days. These among other regulations that make up the AOC and are in place to protect the characteristics of the cheese and the area it is from.

Valencay has a light and moussey texture with a fresh and lemony taste, as the cheese ages the flavour develops and becomes stronger.

The production of Valencay is a lactic set production where a starter culture is added to the milk to start the acidification process, this is sometimes the whey from an earlier cheese make (this can be a risky option, if you have any issues with your prior cheese make you risk transferring this into the next make and so forth) or sometimes a packet starter culture. Slow acidification then takes place before a tiny amount of rennet is sometimes added to coagulate the milk but for the most part the coagulation takes place from the acid produced from the lactic acid bacteria (LAB) which then forms the curd. The curd is then gently ladled into moulds where it is left to slowly drain further before being removed from the mould and lightly dusted with ash. Each cheese is then transferred to drying racks and moved to rooms where it will mature for the next 11 days and form its external mould rind. Due to the maturation process of the cheese our friends on the other side of the pond cannot enjoy Valencay because of their import laws stating a cheese must have matured for a minimum of 60 days before it crosses the border. Sad times for our friends in the USA.

However, its fab news for us in Europe as more and more Valencay is produced each year to meet demand as more people discover just how delicious it is. On average there is now 350 million tons produced each year.