Hard Cheeses / Pressed Cooked Cheeses

Hard cheeses are the giants of the French cheese counter, the huge golden wheels that the cheesemonger has to cut with a wire or a two-handled knife before you can even think about buying a piece. With Comté cheese being the most bought by the French and me! I always have a piece in the fridge to eat as is or to grate over a French onion soup. They come from the mountains, where summer milk was turned into cheeses big and sturdy enough to last until the following spring, and they’re still made in much the same way today.

Some are mild and sweet, with large round holes, while others are dense and closed, aged for a year or two until they taste of toasted hazelnuts, brown butter and dried fruit.

So what are hard cheeses, exactly? In France, they’re pressed cooked cheeses: the curd is heated in the vat to over 50°C (122°F), which makes it shrink and lose most of its whey, then pressed into very large wheels and aged for months or even years. The result is a dry, firm cheese that keeps beautifully.

What is a hard cheese?

In French, these are fromages à pâte pressée cuite, or “pressed, cooked paste cheeses”. The pâte is the inside of the cheese, pressée means the curd is pressed into its mould, and cuite means it has been “cooked”, which is the cheesemakers’ word for heating the curd in the vat before moulding.

That cooking step is what sets them apart from the uncooked pressed cheeses in my uncooked pressed cheese guide. Both families are pressed, but cooking the curd drives out much more whey, so a hard French cheese ends up drier, denser and able to age for far longer. In English we tend to call them hard or firm cheese, although a young one can feel quite supple and only becomes really hard with age.

Almost all French hard cheeses are made with cow’s milk, and most of them come from the Jura and the northern Alps, where cooperative dairies have been pooling milk from neighbouring farms for centuries. Some are protected by an AOP or an IGP, which fixes where and how they’re made, and there are also semi-cooked cheeses, heated a little less, that sit somewhere between this family and the uncooked one.

Why are hard cheeses so big?

The size comes straight from the way these cheeses were born. Mountain farmers had plenty of milk in summer and needed to keep it for the winter, so the milk of many cows, often from several farms, was pooled to make one large wheel. Several hundred litres of milk can go into a single wheel, and the biggest ones weigh around 80 kg (175 lb).

A big wheel also ages better. The bigger the cheese, the smaller its surface is compared with its volume, so it dries out more slowly and can sit in the cellar for a year or more without turning into a brick. Small cheeses made the same way would lose their moisture far too quickly.

Why do some hard cheeses have holes?

The holes, which cheesemakers call “eyes”, come from bacteria rather than from air trapped during making. Some hard cheeses have special bacteria (propionic bacteria) added to the milk, and when the young wheels are moved to a warmer cellar for a few weeks, these bacteria wake up and produce carbon dioxide.

Because the paste of a cooked cheese is dense and elastic, the gas can’t escape, so it collects in round pockets that slowly grow, anywhere from the size of a cherry to the size of a walnut. Once the eyes are big enough, the wheels go back into a cold cellar to slow everything down. The same bacteria also give these cheeses their mild, sweet, slightly nutty taste.

Hard cheeses without holes are kept in cool cellars the whole time, so those bacteria never get going and the paste stays closed, with perhaps a few small, irregular openings here and there.

Why are hard cheeses so nutty and complex?

Most of the flavour comes from long ageing. As the months go by, enzymes from the milk, the rennet and the cultures slowly break down the proteins and fats in the paste, creating hundreds of aroma compounds that you taste as hazelnut, butter, broth, fruit and caramel.

The milk itself matters too. Cheese made from summer milk, when the cows are grazing flowering mountain pastures, often tastes fruitier and more floral, while winter milk from cows fed on hay tends to give a rounder, more buttery cheese. That’s why two wheels of the same cheese, made in different seasons, can taste quite different from one another.

The defining characteristics

How French hard cheeses are made

French cheesemaking for hard cheeses is a big operation, and much of it still happens in small village dairies where the cheesemaker works with copper vats the size of a bath.

1. Collecting the milk
Milk from the morning and evening milkings is brought to the dairy, often from several farms nearby. Many French hard cheeses are made with raw milk, which has to be used quickly and kept cool in the meantime.

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2. Setting the milk
The milk is warmed to around 32°C (90°F) and heat-loving cultures are added, which will survive the cooking that follows. For cheeses with holes, the propionic bacteria go in at this stage too. Rennet sets the milk into a curd in about half an hour.

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3. Cutting the curd
The curd is cut with a curd harp into tiny grains, roughly the size of a grain of rice. The smaller the grains, the more whey they release and the firmer the finished cheese will be.

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4. Cooking
This is the step that defines the family. The curd and whey are slowly heated to around 53 to 55°C (127 to 131°F) while being stirred, for anything up to an hour. The grains shrink and push out even more whey, until they feel springy and squeak a little between your fingers.

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5. Gathering and pressing
The cheesemaker lifts the curd out of the whey in a large cloth, then drops it into a wheel-shaped mould. The cheese is pressed for several hours, often most of a day, and turned a few times so the grains knit into a smooth, even wheel.

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5. Salting
The next day, the wheels are put into brine for a day or more, depending on their size, or rubbed with dry salt.

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7. Aging
The wheels go into cellars where they’re turned and rubbed with salty water for months, which builds the dry, golden rind. Cheeses with holes spend a few weeks in a warm cellar before going back to a cool one. The minimum ageing is usually around three to four months, and the best wheels are kept for a year, two years or more.

The mountain dairies behind French hard cheese

In the Jura and the Alps, hard cheese has always been a village affair. One farm on its own couldn’t produce enough milk to make a large wheel, so farmers brought their milk to a shared dairy, where a cheesemaker turned it into cheese for everyone. In the Jura and Savoie these cooperatives are called fruitières, and many villages still have one, often with a small shop where you can buy straight from the cellar.

Ageing is often handed over to specialists called affineurs, who collect the young wheels and look after them in huge cellars for months or years, turning and rubbing each one by hand or with robots that do the same job. Some of these cellars are old forts or tunnels in the mountains, and a few are open to visitors.

In summer, some herds still go up to high mountain pastures, and the cheese made from that milk, up in the mountains, is often sold under a special name and at a higher price, because the flowers and herbs in the grass give it a more complex flavour.

The spectrum of hard French cheese

French hard cheeses all follow the same basic method, but they don’t all taste alike.

By eyes

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By age

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By season

How to buy hard French cheese

Hard cheeses are usually cut to order from a large wheel, so it’s easy to ask for a taste before you choose, and most cheesemongers are happy to let you compare two ages side by side.

What to look for

• The rind: It should be dry, firm and evenly golden to brown, without wet or sticky patches, deep cracks or grey and black mould.
• The paste: The cut surface should look smooth and even in colour, from ivory in winter cheese to deep yellow in summer cheese, with no dark spots, dry cracks or sweating. If the cheese has eyes, they should be round and shiny.
• The feel: A young hard cheese should be firm with a little spring, an older one firm and slightly brittle, and neither should feel greasy or rubbery.
• The smell: Clean and appetising, of butter, nuts and cellar, never sour, musty or of ammonia.
• Crystals: Small white crunchy specks in an older cheese are amino acid crystals that form during long ageing, a good sign rather than a fault.

Reading the labels

AOP or IGP: The cheese comes from a defined area and follows rules on the milk, the method and the minimum ageing. AOP is the stricter of the two.

Fruitière, fermier or laitier: A fruitière is a village cooperative dairy, fermier means the cheese was made on the farm with its own milk (rare for hard cheeses, because of the size of the wheels), and laitier means it came from a larger dairy.

Lait cru: Raw milk. Many French hard cheeses are made with raw milk, which gives them more depth. Raw-milk cheeses are generally advised against during pregnancy and for vulnerable people, so check your local health advice.

Age: Most labels or cheesemongers give the age in months, sometimes with words like jeune (young), fruité (fruity, medium-aged) or vieux (old). These terms vary from one cheese and one seller to the next, so the number of months is the more useful guide.

Buying in the US and the UK: Because these cheeses are aged well beyond 60 days, raw-milk French hard cheeses can be sold in the US, and you’ll find them at good cheese counters in both countries, often at a few different ages.

How to store hard cheese

Hard cheeses are the easiest of all to store, and the main thing to protect them from is drying out. Keep them in the fridge at around 4 to 8°C (39 to 46°F), ideally in the vegetable drawer where the temperature is steadier.

Wrap the cut piece in cheese paper, baking paper (parchment paper sheets) or waxed paper, pressing it closely against the cut faces, then put it in a box or a loosely closed bag. The rind protects the rest of the cheese, but the cut surfaces dry out and crack if they’re left exposed. Cling film (plastic wrap) is fine for a few days if it’s all you have, though the cheese keeps its flavour better in paper.

How long does it keep?

A cut piece of hard cheese keeps well for three to four weeks, and older, drier ones often last longer if you rewrap them each time you cut into them. Always go by the use-by date on the pack first.

If a little mould appears on the surface, you can cut it off with a good margin, about 2.5 cm (1 inch) around and below the spot, and eat the rest. If the cheese smells sour or of ammonia, or turns slimy, throw it away. A piece that has dried out at the edges can be trimmed, or grated into cooking.

Can you freeze hard cheese?

Yes, and hard cheeses freeze better than any other family, although they lose a little flavour and become more crumbly. Grate the cheese or cut it into small portions, wrap it well in a couple of layers and freeze it for up to about three months. Grated hard cheese can go straight from the freezer into gratins, sauces and gougères, so it’s a handy way to use up the last bits of a piece.

How to serve hard cheese

Hard cheeses need a little longer out of the fridge than softer ones, so take them out 45 minutes to an hour before serving. Cold, they taste of very little and feel rubbery, and it takes time for such a dense cheese to warm through.

Cut them into thin slices or small wedges with a cheese knife, and if you’re serving two ages of the same cheese, put them side by side so everyone can taste how much they change. Walnuts, a crisp apple, a few grapes and a slice of country bread all go well, and so does a glass of dry white wine from the mountains or a nutty, oxidative wine from the Jura.

If you’d like to go further with pairings, my cheese and wine tasting e-book walks you through it.

Can you eat the rind?

The rinds of hard cheeses are natural, so they’re edible, but after months of ageing they’re usually hard and taste quite strong, and most people cut them off. (I actually prefer to eat it together with my cheese.) If you don’t, keep the rinds in the freezer and drop one into a vegetable soup or stock as it simmers, where it adds a lovely savoury depth.

Cooking with hard cheese

Hard cheeses are the ones French cooks grate over almost everything, and young to medium-aged ones melt beautifully.

Fondue savoyarde

A pot of hard mountain cheeses melted with white wine, garlic and a splash of kirsch, with cubes of bread speared on long forks and swirled through it, that’s a fondue Savoyarde. Plenty of French families bring it out at least once each winter, I do it way more then once!

Gougères

These little cheese puffs gougères from Burgundy are made with choux pastry and plenty of grated hard cheese, then baked until crisp outside and hollow inside. In France they’re served warm with an aperitif, and a well-aged Comté cheese gives them more flavour than a young one, so you can use less.

Gratins

A handful of grated hard cheese gives a gratin its golden, crunchy top. Layer it with potatoes, cauliflower, leeks or pasta and cream or béchamel, keep some for the top, and bake until bubbling. Mixing a young cheese, for melting, with an older one, for flavour, gives the best of both.

Tips for cooking with hard cheese

• Grate it cold: Hard cheese grates more neatly straight from the fridge, and finely grated cheese melts faster and more evenly.
• Use gentle heat: These cheeses melt smoothly over moderate heat but turn stringy and oily if they boil, so stir them into sauces off the heat.
• Young for melting, old for flavour: Very old cheese doesn’t melt as smoothly, so grate it over finished dishes or mix it with a younger one.
• Watch the salt: Hard cheeses add a fair amount of salt, so taste before seasoning.

FAQ

Final thoughts

Hard cheeses take more time, more milk and more patience than any other French cheese, and you can taste every month of it in an older wheel. If you’re new to them, start with a young or medium-aged piece, let it come to room temperature and taste it on its own, then buy an older piece of the same cheese and compare the two.

Once you’ve done that, grate the leftovers into a gratin or a batch of gougères, and you’ll see why there’s nearly always a wedge of hard cheese in a French fridge.

Which hard cheese do you always come back to, and do you prefer it young or well aged? Tell me in the comments!