Pouligny-Saint-Pierre

The Pouligny-saint-stone is a Goat's milk cheese with soft paste with whole milk believed manufactured in the Indre.

Description

Resembling its neighbor the Valençay, this E cheese with the shape of a truncated pyramid at square base and weighs 150 or 250 grams.

Traditionally, the Pouligny-Saint-Pierre is a goat's milk cheese says “blue”, i.e. it has a slightly bluish crust, except when blocking are added to milk in order to prevent the development of the bacterium responsible for this coloring. Many farmers carry out themselves refining, their cheeses then being sold directly with the farm or on the markets.

History

In XVIII^e century, cheese drainers out of wooden and rye straw were used to give him its characteristic form which distinguishes it from other goat's milk cheeses produced in France. It is, says one, the bell-tower of their church which would have inspired to the inhabitants of Pouligny-Saint-Pierre the famous pyramidal form.

In September 1969, east creates the trade union of defense and promotion of the Pouligny-Saint-Pierre whose first action is to request the recognition in Name of Controlled origin. Recognized A.O.C by the decree of February 14th, 1972, Pouligny-Saint-Pierre name is governed today by the decree of December 29th, 1986 which determines the characteristics essential to obtaining and the maintenance of a.O.C. It is a question of first goat's milk cheese to be profited from a A.O.C, this one extends today on 22 communes located around Pouligny-Saint-Pierre.

The goat's milk cheese exists in the area since the 18^e century. In the years 1960, two dairies launched out in the manufacture of the Pouligny-Saint-Pierre. In September 1969 east creates the trade union of defense and promotion of the Pouligny-Saint-Pierre whose first step is to request the recognition in label of origin which will be granted to him by the decree of February 14th, 1972. The Pouligny-Saint-Pierre is then the first goat's milk cheese to be profited from a AOC.

The total production of Pouligny-Saint-Pierre is today of 350 tons and increased by 90% between 1989 and 1999. The farm production remains important still today since it accounts for 60% of the total. The producers are attached to the tradition and intend to preserve the identity of this cheese while developing a knowledge to make evolutionary and by maintaining balance between craft industry and industry.

Criteria of the AOC

The production of milk must come from a breeding located on the surface of name, it acts of a small zone gathering 22 communes. It is at the present time the smallest zone of cheese-making AOC of France. The producers and the refiners must be subjected to obligatory controls in order to be able to preserve their AOC.

The shape of cheese is characteristic: it is a truncated pyramid at square base, having to make nine centimetres of with dimensions at the base, three centimetres at the top and twelve centimetres and half height. Its mass is of 250 grams, but there exists from now on a small Pouligny-Saint-Pierre of 150 grams.

The methods of food of the herd are registered in the decree of the AOC (consultable on Légifrance ).

Quality standards precise having to be respected, the cheeses spend each month before a commission which checks in particular the taste, texture, the crust, the form, the behavior.

During its marketing, the cheese must comprise a green label, if it is about a farm cheese, or red, if it is a cheese resulting from industry.

Selection committee commission d'agr3ement

This commission, installation by Inao ( National institute of the labels of origin ), brings together the producers, the refiners, the slags, the DSV (Direction of the veterinary services) and the DDCCRF (departmental Delegation of consumption, the trade and the repression of the frauds).

The passage in committee takes place once a month with the town hall of Pouligny-Saint-Pierre. Two cheeses of each producer are examined there; one of them is tasted, the other is analyzed. A note is allotted to each producer according to three criteria: the aspect of cheese, its cut and its taste (eliminatory). If the total note of a producer is lower than 10/20, it receives a warning. At the end of three warnings, the producer is withdrawn from the AOC for one thirty days duration.

The remuneration of the farm producers

Until the summer 2003, the producers was paid 1,65 € the cheese. From now on, the system remunerates quality. With this intention, an employee of the cheese dairy notes three times per month the cheeses of each producer, the average of the three notes determining the class in which the producer is and, thus, the price of cheeses delivered during this month:

Catégorie has (note ranging between 33 and 32): 1,666 €;
Category B (note ranging between 31,9 and 29): 1,636 €;
Category C (note ranging between 28,9 and 25): 1,536 €.

This marking system causes dissatisfaction on behalf of the producers because the employees of the cheese dairy do not have the necessary qualification inevitably and are at the same time judges and parties. Moreover, only three cheeses per month selected then are cut out and noted, which is not representative of the production, this one being able to rise with more than 2500 cheeses per month in high season.

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