🧀 Livarot

Livarot is a soft French cheese with a Protected Designation of Origin (PDO), registered in the EU in 1996. According to the single document it is a cylindrical cheese made exclusively from renneted cow's milk, with a soft, slightly salty paste, a reddish washed rind and three to five strips wrapped round it during ripening.

Milk. As of 1 May 2017 the herd of each farm must consist exclusively of Normande dairy cows. The cows graze at least six months a year, on at least 0.33 ha of grass per cow in milk, and at least 80% of the dry matter of the basic fodder ration comes from farm parcels in the area; complementary feed is limited to 1,800 kg per cow per year. The only ingredients and additives allowed in the milk are rennet, innocuous bacterial cultures, yeasts, moulds, salt and calcium chloride.

The cheese. It contains at least 40 g of fat per 100 g of dry cheese, with a dry extract of 44% to 52%. The rind is washed and slightly sticky, from straw yellow to reddish; the paste is supple and dark yellow with a light scattering of small holes. The aromas are strong and lingering, the paste slightly salty and runny, with a pronounced taste recalling straw, hay, farmyard and smoke. Sizes: petit (80 to 94 mm, 200 to 270 g), 3/4 (107 to 115 mm, 330 to 350 g), 4/4 or simply Livarot (120 to 128 mm, 450 to 500 g) and grand (190 to 210 mm, 1,200 to 1,500 g). Ripening, counted from renneting, lasts at least 21 days for petit and 3/4 and at least 35 days for Livarot and grand. The strips are wound round the cheese three to five times during ripening; from 1 May 2017 the 4/4 size is wrapped in strips of vegetable fibre.

Where it is made. The milk is produced and the cheese made, ripened and wrapped in strips in the defined area, which covers cantons and parts of cantons in the departments of Calvados, Orne and Eure, in the Pays d'Auge.

Labelling. Each cheese is sold with an individual label bearing the name of the designation and the words Appellation d'Origine Protegee or AOP, and the EU PDO logo.

Livarot or Camembert? Both come from Normandy, but the cheeses are not alike. Camembert has a white bloomy rind; Livarot has a washed, slightly sticky rind from straw yellow to reddish and three to five strips wound round it. The paste is soft, slightly salty and runny, with a pronounced taste recalling straw, hay, farmyard and smoke. Livarot is a PDO whose milk comes only from Normande cows grazing at least six months a year in the Pays d'Auge area.

Look for the name “Livarot”, the words Appellation d'Origine Protegee or AOP and the EU PDO logo (protected designation of origin) on the individual label. A Livarot is a cylinder with a reddish washed rind and three to five strips round it; the size is petit, 3/4, 4/4 (simply Livarot) or grand. It is sold whole at a supermarket cheese counter, a delicatessen or a cheese shop.

Link with the area. According to the specification, Livarot is first mentioned in writing in the 17th century, and in the second half of the 19th century it became very popular as it spread from city to city by rail.