Gaperon

Gaperon

What it is

The name comes from gape, the Auvergnat word for the buttermilk left in the churn, which is what the cheese was originally made from. Farms hung the domes from the kitchen beam to dry, and the story goes that a suitor's family counted the ones hanging there to judge the size of the dowry.

In the kitchen

The garlic is raw and sharpens as the cheese dries, so buy it young for the board and old for the pan. Crumbled into a potato gratin it seasons the whole dish and makes any other garlic redundant.

Goes with

Potato Rye berries Smoked cured pork belly Apple Walnut Butter

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