Saint-Nectaire
Name of Group of Producers
Route des Fraux, 2 - B.P. 9
63610 Besse en Chandesse
Champs Elysées, 138
75008 Paris
Cows's-milk cheese with a semi-firm body, pressed, presented in the form of a flat wheel weighing approximately 1.7 kg.
Geographical area : the region of Monts-Dore in Auvergne, straddling the Departments of Cantal and Puy-de-Dôme.
Long manufactured in the region, this appeared in 17th century gastronomy under the name of "Saint-Nectaire". A Marshall of France made it famous at the table of Louis XTV. Referred to in numerous works (particularly in 1786 and 1787), its production expanded in the 19th, and then in the 20th, century among small mountain farms with small herds, where it became the perquisite of farmers' wives.
The cheese is obtained from hot-renneted milk. The tome is broken, brought together, placed in a mould and pressed. The
cheese is then salted, cloth-wrapped, placed back in the mould and pressed again. Ripening takes at least three weeks after drying.
