AUZANNE CENDRÉE

Auzanne Cendrée owes its distinctive shape to a Napoleonic legend: returning from the Egyptian campaign, Napoleon Bonaparte is said to have been so irritated by the little pyramid served to him at the Château de Valençay that he sliced off its top with his sword. To keep tighter control over ageing, Hervé Mons chose to collect this farmhouse raw milk goat cheese just 4 days after production, rather than the 10 days required under the Valençay AOP rules. No longer able to use that name, it became the Auzanne Cendrée, though the taste hasn't changed one bit.

Renneting is light and coagulation slow, taking a full 24 hours. The curd is ladled into the moulds in several passes, with draining pauses in between, then the surface is smoothed off. Salting and ashing, dry salt mixed with vegetable ash, happen two days later, once the cheese is unmoulded.

After a spell in the drying room, the cheeses are aged on beds of rye straw, turned onto different sides to even out the ageing across every face.