Skip to main content
Support

Browse by category

All categories
Fermentation Atlas

Cheese from France, Haute-Savoie

Abondance PDOAbondance

Raw whole milk from Abondance, Tarentaise or Montbéliarde cows is renneted in an open copper vat, cut into grains smaller than a centimetre and heated to 45–50 °C, so the paste is semi-cooked. The curd is lifted in a cloth into a hoop that gives the wheel its hollow sides, pressed at least seven hours and salted. It ripens at least 100 days on spruce boards, rubbed often with morge. Made in 7 steps over 3.6 months. The longest step, ripen on spruce, rubbed with morge, takes at least 3.3 months (Ministère de l'agriculture 2018) and runs at 10–13 °C (Ministère de l'agriculture 2018). Lactic cultures grown on whey from the previous batch or taken from a listed culture bank and Surface smear flora (morge), which the cloth-marked rind is shaped to hold do most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main stepat least 3.3 monthsSet[cdc-abon2018]Ripen on spruce, rubbed with morge
Temperature10–13 °CSet[cdc-abon2018]Ripen on spruce, rubbed with morge

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedThe specification fixes limits, not a recipe. Farm vats hold at most 1500 L; each wheel weighs 6–12 kg.
Raw whole cow milk · Abondance, Tarentaise or Montbéliarde cows, with at least 45% Abondance-breed animals; no cream added or removed; heated only once, to 30–35 °C[cdc-abon2018]
Lactic cultures · Grown from the whey of an earlier batch, or commercial strains from the producers' culture bank[cdc-abon2018]
Calf rennet[cdc-abon2018]
Salt · Brine and dry salt[cdc-abon2018]
Starter: lactic cultures grown on whey from an earlier Abondance batch, or listed commercial cultures

Total time across the recorded steps: 3.6 months

Start
Drag the bar or press Play
4–14 °C

What changes: Starting material: raw whole milk from two milkings, kept cool

Step 1 of 7
Keep the milk cool and use it fast
Time
up to 14 h
Set
Temperature
4–14 °C
Set
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented

Dairies must rennet the two milkings before noon of the day after the oldest one.

Flavour
Not documented
Texture
Not documented
Colour
Not documented

Microbes at work in this step

Not documented for this step.

Method

Measured measured in a studySet fixed by a specification or tested recipeReported one source reports itTypical a general value, not sourced for this fermentUnconfirmed not yet checked against a source

What makes this one different

Abondance is semi-cooked at 45–50 °C, cooler than fully cooked Alpine cheeses such as Beaufort or Comté, so its paste stays supple. It is smaller, at 6–12 kg, and the hoop gives it a concave heel. The specification links the small size to family herds on individual summer pastures and to farm making.

Milk
Raw whole milk from Abondance, Tarentaise and Montbéliarde cows, at least 45% Abondance breed
Cooking
Semi-cooked, curd heated to 45–50 °C
Ripening
At least 100 days from renneting
Size
Flat wheel 7–8 cm high with a concave heel, 6–12 kg; at least 48 g fat per 100 g dry matter and 58 g dry matter per 100 g

Related ferments

Variants

  • Abondance fermierMade on one farm from its own herd, with a green oval casein plate; cutting, moulding and turning are done by hand
  • Abondance laitierMade in a dairy from pooled milk, with a red square casein plate

Safety

This is a raw-milk cheese. ANSES advises pregnant women, young children, people over 65 and people with weak immunity not to eat raw-milk cheeses other than cooked pressed ones such as Comté; Abondance is classed as semi-cooked. Cooking the cheese removes the risk.

Hazards the sources name: Listeria monocytogenes, Salmonella and Shiga-toxin-producing E. coli (risks ANSES names for raw-milk cheeses).

History and sources

Every number is labelled with how it is known. How this atlas is made

The 1990s EU application credits the canons of the Abondance monastery with raising Abondance cattle and making cheese before the year 1000; the current specification dates their role to the 13th century. In 1381, 15 quintals of the cheese were sent to the papal conclave at Avignon. Alpine pastures were run by single families, which tied the cheese to farm making. It became an AOC in 1990.

  1. [cdc-abon2018] Ministère de l'agriculture, Cahier des charges de l'appellation d'origine protégée « Abondance », homologated by arrêté of 29 August 2018, version in force from 27 December 2018 (BO-Agri notice)spec
  2. [eamb-abon] INAO, Demande d'enregistrement d'AOP Abondance under Regulation (EEC) No 2081/92, summary sheet, eAmbrosia attachment 60383archive
  3. [anses2022] ANSES 2022, Fromages au lait cru, quels risques pour la santé et comment mieux les prévenir (8 April 2022)gov