Apr 04 2025
Fourme d’Ambert cheese is a French blue cheese with serious intentions. It delivers with a subtle taste that leaves you longing for more, and with a nickname like ‘the great lady with a tender heart’, you know you have encountered a blue cheese like no other. As one of the oldest cheeses in France, it is guaranteed to have pedigree and Fourme d’Ambert has that in bucketloads, or should that be cylinder-loads.
The name ‘Fourme’ comes from the Latin word ‘forma’, which means ‘cylinder’ and refers to the unique cylindrical shape of the finished cheese, which quite literally stands tall – and narrow – above all its rivals. You might also have guessed that this is a cheese which originates from the village of Ambert in the Auvergne region, and specifically it was originally sold in the Bourgarde d’Ambert market, and has origins that date back to the 9th century.
Medieval origins are common with French cheese, of course, but few others have physical evidence of a widely held devotion to this popular and accommodating cow’s milk blue cheese. Chiselled into stone above a door entrance at La Chaume, a ninth century medieval chapel in Auvergne, is the unmistakable image of a tall, cylindrical wheel of Fourme d’Ambert cheese, as if eternally securing the unique shape of a unique cheese, many years before it achieved AOC status in 1972.
Fourme d’Ambert is a melt in the mouth blue cheese with a very mild taste, making it an accessible blue cheese for anyone dipping their toes in the glorious realm of some of France’s most popular and distinctive cheeses. Fourme d’Ambert has a thin rind with a hint of grey, and a creamy white colour with a slightly oily texture. Indeed, while Fourme d’Ambert should be served at room temperature, as all French cheeses should be, it should also be kept in the fridge, but wrapped in wax paper ideally, not cling film. This cheese needs to breathe and incorrect storage will make it sweat.
This is partly down to the love and attention the cheese receives throughout an attentive production process after 18 litres of milk have been curdled. The resulting cheese is carefully diced and stirred methodically to allow natural openings to form. After being molded, the cheese is drained in a warm room before being salted and pricked with hollow needles to aerate the inside. This allows the natural blue veins to appear during what needs to be a minimum of 40 days in humid, ventilated cellars, but ideally should be up to four months to maximise the quality.
A delicate and mild taste is the result; a pleasingly subtle introduction for novice blue cheese lovers, and an obligingly popular flavour which is appropriate for a ‘great lady with a tender heart’. Use Fourme d’Ambert in tarts, creamy sauces, baked souffles, soups, sprinkled on a risotto, on its own on a cheeseboard or as large chunks on some crusty bread. Pair it also with a glass of wine local to the Auvergne region.
Contact our expert team at Sodiaal and we can supply Fourme d’Ambert to your restaurant or café in the UK.
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