Feb 24 2025
It is true that a quality French cheese can be enjoyed the World over, but there is something extraordinary to be savoured if you experience eating a local cheese in the region it was produced. And in terms of sensory indulgence, nothing beats enjoying a cheese produced in the French Alps while warming yourself in the afterglow of an exhilarating afternoon of heady mountain pursuits in the most enchanting Alpine surroundings.
Picture the scene: you remove your ski goggles, hat and gloves and return to your wooded chalet retreat. The fireplace is already aglow as you place down your skis and other equipment and start to remove your boots and thermal layers. There is excited chatter amongst your friends as you discuss who navigated each slope the best, and you realise you need something instant and accessible to capture this mood and enrich this moment. And then someone brings out the Abondance cheese.
Produced in the Haute-Savoie region of the French Alps, Abondance is the ‘classic mountain cheese’. Achieving its strong, earthy scent and well-balanced taste from the natural feed given to the Abondance, Tarentaises and Montbéliardes breeds that produce it, Abondance is a smooth, creamy and rich cheese that is perfect for these warming, cosy occasions.
Although Abondance is characterised as a ‘winter’ cheese, which offers visions of dipping huge chunks of crusty bread into gooey pots of luscious, melted loveliness, its prime quality is in its versatility. Abondance can be used as a snack, a mains ingredient, an accompaniment or as an elegant finish to a four-course meal. On its own, Abondance is perfect eaten straight off the knife as soon as you return to your room after a day on the icy descents, its well-developed flavour serves as the perfect pick-me-up, particularly if you pair it with apples or cornichons.
If your holiday group are looking for simple dining then Abondance forms the centrepiece of a Berthoud fondue, a potato dish from the Chablais region containing melted Abondance with hints of garlic, nutmeg, pepper, white wine and port. A Fondue Savoyarde is another popular use of Abondance, while it is the perfect cheese for the top of gratins too. And for the ultimate indulgence you have to complete your winter warming evening with a drink, and Abondance pairs perfectly with a dry or medium bodied red or white wine, as well as matching up nicely with an ale or to really warm the cockles, a delightful aged whiskey.
Abondance can be enjoyed from the age of 3-4 months (it is aged for a minimum of 100 days) and right up to one year old, when cracks and fissures appear in its ivory-yellow texture to deliver a more complex flavour with a hint of bitterness, and yet the soft indulgent feeling is still there. This is why Abondance is the ultimate winter warming cheese, because it retains its soft ooziness at all times, and its best qualities are released when it’s melted and enjoyed as a simple, rustic treat. Whether its apres-ski or an extravagant end to a chilly winter’s walk with the dog and the kids, enjoy Abondance with the dark and cold locked outside, the glow of your loved ones close by and the comfort of luxurious Abondance cheese on your plate.
Contact Sodiaal UK to get authentic Abondance cheese shipped to you today.
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