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Cheese from France, southern Poitou

Mothais sur feuille PDOMothais

Raw whole goat milk is soured with whey or a lactic starter and a little kid rennet and left at no more than 25 °C for at least 20 hours. The soft curd is ladled by hand into moulds without cutting, drains slowly for at least 36 hours, is dry-salted and set on a dried chestnut leaf. It ripens at least 12 days at 8–16 °C while Geotrichum makes the paste creamy.

Recipe

Amounts from a sourceThe specification gives limits, not a recipe; a finished cheese weighs at least 180 g, not counting the leaf.
Raw whole goat milkDairies seed it no later than 48 hours after the first milking; farms seed within 6 hours of the last milking[mothais-cdc]
Whey, or a lactic starter grown on local goat milklactic starter up to 3 % of the milk volume[mothais-cdc]
Kid rennetup to 5 mL per 100 L of milk (rennet of 520 mg chymosin per litre)[mothais-cdc]
Dry salt[mothais-cdc]
Dried brown chestnut leaf and a sheet of greaseproof paperLeaves may only be scalded and dried[mothais-cdc]
Starterwhey, or a lactic starter grown on local goat milk

Total time across the recorded steps: 3.3 days

Start
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up to 25 °C

What changes: Whey or lactic starter goes into the raw goat milk

Step 1 of 7
Seed the raw milk
Time
Not documented
Temperature
up to 25 °C
Set
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Lactic acid bacteria
Geotrichum

Only filtering and warming are allowed; micro- and ultrafiltration are banned.

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

At a glance

Raw whole goat milk is soured with whey or a lactic starter and a little kid rennet and left at no more than 25 °C for at least 20 hours. The soft curd is ladled by hand into moulds without cutting, drains slowly for at least 36 hours, is dry-salted and set on a dried chestnut leaf. It ripens at least 12 days at 8–16 °C while Geotrichum makes the paste creamy. Made in 7 steps over 3.3 days. The longest step, drain slowly, takes at least 36 h (Ministère de l'agriculture 2026) and runs at 18–25 °C (Ministère de l'agriculture 2026). Lactic acid bacteria from the whey or starter, which sour the milk over at least 20 hours and Geotrichum, which develops strongly on the slowly drained raw-milk curd and makes the paste smooth and creamy do most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main stepat least 36 hSet[mothais-cdc]Drain slowly
Temperature18–25 °CSet[mothais-cdc]Drain slowly
AciditypH up to 4.6Set[mothais-cdc]Slow lactic set

What makes this one different

A lactic goat cheese ripened on a dried chestnut leaf, which marks its base and keeps the paste moist; the specification requires raw milk, hand ladling and slow draining, which favour Geotrichum.

Milk
Raw whole goat milk, never heated above 25 °C
Ripening
At least 12 days from renneting, on a chestnut leaf
Size
Flat cylinder of at least 180 g with 65–85 g dry matter

Related ferments

Safety

The milk is raw. The specification limits tank storage of the milk to 4 °C or colder, though it lets milk be pre-matured warmer, and requires the curd to reach pH 4.55 or lower, or the whey an acidity of at least 55 °D, before moulding. Raw-milk cheese can carry Listeria, Salmonella and Shiga-toxin E. coli. ANSES, the French food-safety agency, advises pregnant women, young children, people over 65 and people with weak immunity not to eat it, except cooked pressed kinds such as Gruyère, which this soft goat cheese is not.

History and sources

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

Goat cheese trade grew in southern Poitou along the pilgrim road to Santiago, and in the 19th century the leaf cheese was sold on regional markets, mostly by women. Curnonsky described the leaf-wrapped cheese of La Mothe-Saint-Héray in 1953; the name Mothais sur feuille came into use in the late 1980s.

  1. [mothais-cdc] Ministère de l'agriculture, Avis relatif à l'enregistrement en AOP de la dénomination « Mothais sur feuille », with the consolidated Cahier des charges on which the Commission based Implementing Regulation (EU) 2026/1276, Bulletin officiel n° 2026-26 of 25 June 2026 (BO-Agri)spec
  2. [mothais-sd] European Commission, Single document 'Mothais sur feuille', EU Ref PDO-FR-03397, Official Journal of the European Union C/2026/688, 29.1.2026spec
  3. [mothais-syndicat] Syndicat de Défense du Mothais sur Feuille, site 'Le Mothais sur Feuille, la feuille aux mille saveurs' (Terre des Chèvres), page Histoire et zone de productionweb
  4. [anses2022] ANSES 2022, Fromages au lait cru, quels risques pour la santé et comment mieux les prévenir (8 April 2022)gov