Petit suisse

This article is about the cheese. For Little Switzerland in Luxembourg, see Little Switzerland (Luxembourg).
Petit suisse
Country of origin France
Region, town Normandy , Auvilliers
Source of milk Cows
Pasteurised Yes
Texture Smooth, creamy
Aging time ?
Certification N/A
Related media on Wikimedia Commons

Petit-suisse (meaning "little Swiss") is a French cheese from the Normandy region.

Production and use

Petit-suisse is a fromage frais, an unripened, unsalted, smooth, and creamy cheese with a texture closer to a very thick yogurt than a typical cheese. It is made from cow's milk enriched with cream so that its dry solids contain about 40% fat content (around 10% in the actual product eaten). The cheese is then smoothed and drained in a centrifuge. A typical cheese weighs 30 or 60 grams and is packaged in a cylinder around 4 cm high and 3 cm diameter or 5 cm by 4 cm in the larger size.

Petit-suisse may be consumed with sugar, as a dessert either on its own or with jam or honey, or salted and peppered with herbs. It is also used in meat stuffings. A mixture of petit-suisse and mustard is sometimes applied to rabbit to prevent the meat from drying during cooking.

History and development

Contrary to what its name suggests, petit-suisse did not originate in Switzerland, but in Normandy, where in the 1850s, a Swiss employee at a dairy in Auvilliers (Haute-Normandie) suggested adding cream to enrich the curd used for cheese.[1]

Originally, it was sold in a thin paper wrapping and packaged in wooden boxes, six to a box. The cheeses weighed 60 grams each and were called simply "suisse" (Swiss). Today, they are made throughout France. Though the 60-g version is often seen labelled petit suisse, the term is sometimes reserved for the 30-g ones, the larger ones then being referred to as a double petit-suisse, double suisse, or suisse double.

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Petit-suisse.


This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 5/10/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.