Picodon

The Picodon is a Fromage French with the milk believed of goat in fresh paste and white or blue flowered crust.

It is called Picaudon in Occitan, which the treasure of Félibrige translates into French by “small prickly cheese”.

It is produced in two departments, the Drome and the Ardèche, of the area the Rhone-Alps, and it profits from a AOC since 1991 and from a AOP.

Milk

The goat's milk is collected in Ardèche, in the Drome, the Canton of Barjac in the Gard and the enclave of Valréas in Vaucluse.

A goat gives on average 3 liters of milk per day; the manufacture of a picodon requires at least a half-liter of milk.

During the season of outdoor, the goats nourish grass, but also of Aubépine S, Genévrier S, Noisetier S, nipples of Chêne, Châtaigne S, Lavande and of Tilleul etc the winter, they are nourished of hay of meadow and Luzerne, which explains the variation of taste.

Manufacture

In the respect of the artisanal tradition, the producers mix the Full-cream milk and believed of goat with a very small quantity of Présure. Delicately, they assemble the Caillé to the ladle in Faisselle S at edges rounded, drying lasts at least twenty-four hours.

Drained, salted, unmoulded, the cheeses are refined during eight days at least. One however needs a refining of at least 14 days to have the name Picodon . They must also respect a certain number of criteria: form, crust, paste, taste, after-taste, texture.

Another manufacturing method AOC consists in washing the crust at least three times during a one month refining minimum. This method is known as “ Dieulefit ”, of the name of the common drômoise.

Production

Production: 500 tons in 2003.

Economically, the picodon relates to 360 breedings of goats and more than thousand direct uses. It makes it possible to safeguard a mountain and hill farming and the goat's milk cheeses are natural treedozers of the waste lands and are even able to go up in the shrubs. They effectively protect the territory against the fires.

External bonds

Syndicat of picodon AOC
let us picodons Them of the Cavet cheese dairy (located at Dieulefit)
the Festival of Picodon, with Saou (Drome)

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