Skip to main content
Support

Browse by category

All categories
Fermentation Atlas

Cheese from France, Vosges massif

Munster

Cow milk, raw or lightly pasteurised, is set with calf rennet in 7–15 minutes, cut to hazelnut–walnut size and drained in moulds for at least 15 hours with no pressing. After salting, the rind goes through a warm yeast phase and then repeated washing and rubbing at 10–16 °C, which turns it orange-red over at least 21 days. Made in 8 steps over 23 days. The longest step, finish ripening and wrap, takes at least 21 days (INAO 2017). Red-smear ferments, among them Brevibacterium linens, which colour the rind and Rind yeasts Debaryomyces hansenii and Geotrichum candidum, likely added as cultures do most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main stepat least 21 daysSet[inao-munster]Finish ripening and wrap
Temperatureup to 73 °CSet[inao-munster]Hold the milk and warm it if it waited
AciditypH 4.5–4.9Set[inao-munster]Mould and drain without pressing

Recipe

Amounts from a sourceThe specification fixes ingredients and steps but gives no amounts except for caraway.
Cow milk · Raw, or pasteurised at 73 °C or less for 40 s or less; may be standardised in fat[inao-munster]
Calf rennet[inao-munster]
Harmless cultures of bacteria, yeasts and moulds · Surface ferments include Brevibacterium linens[inao-munster]
Salt[inao-munster]
0.5–1.5 % of the cheese, dryCaraway seed (Carum carvi), optional · For the caraway (cumin) version; added before or during moulding[inao-munster]
Starterlactic cultures; surface ferments with Brevibacterium linens and yeasts

Total time across the recorded steps: 23 days

Start
Drag the bar or press Play
up to 73 °C

What changes: Starting material: cow milk, raw or briefly pasteurised

Step 1 of 8
Hold the milk and warm it if it waited
Time
up to 26 h
Set
Temperature
up to 73 °C
Set
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Brevibacterium linens
Yeasts
Geotrichum candidum
Lactic acid bacteria

Output: cheese milk.

Flavour
Not documented
Texture
Not documented
Colour
white

Microbes at work in this step

raw-milk flora in farm cheese

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

Munster keeps a lactic core because its curd is soured and drained for at least 15 hours without pressing. The rind goes through a yeast phase first, then at least two or three washes and rubs that bring up the orange smear. Rind colourants are banned, and one version carries caraway seed in the paste.

Milk
Raw milk, or milk pasteurised at 73 °C or less for up to 40 s; farm Munster is raw only
Setting
Rennet at 38 °C or less, set in 7–15 min; curd cut to hazelnut–walnut size
Draining
No pressing; drains at least 15 h before salting
Washing
A yeast phase at 16 °C or more, then washing at 10–16 °C, RH 90% or more; at least 2 or 3 washes by size
Ripening
At least 21 days; Petit-Munster at least 14 days
Size
Munster 13–19 cm across, at least 450 g; Petit-Munster 7–12 cm, at least 120 g; caraway variant 0.5–1.5% dry Carum carvi

Related ferments

Variants

  • Munster au cuminContains 0.5–1.5 % dry caraway (Carum carvi), added before or during moulding.
  • Petit-Munster7–12 cm across, at least 120 g, ripened at least 14 days.

Safety

Farm Munster is made from raw milk. Dairy cheeses must reach pH 4.5–4.9 at the core by day 5.

History and sources

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

  1. [inao-munster] INAO, Cahier des charges de l'appellation d'origine « Munster » ou « Munster-Géromé », proposed text in the minutes of the national committee session of 29 June 2017 (CP206)spec
  2. [martin2024] Martin A.J., Revol-Junelles A.M., Petit J., Gaiani C., Leyva Salas M. et al. 2024, Deciphering rind color heterogeneity of smear-ripened Munster cheese and its association with microbiota, Foods 13(14):2233, doi:10.3390/foods13142233paper
  3. [dugatbony2016] Dugat-Bony E., Garnier L., Denonfoux J., Ferreira S., Sarthou A.S., Bonnarme P., Irlinger F. 2016, Highlighting the microbial diversity of 12 French cheese varieties, International Journal of Food Microbiology 238:265–273, doi:10.1016/j.ijfoodmicro.2016.09.026 (accepted manuscript)paper