Saint-Marcellin

Saint-Marcellin

What it is

It appears in the household accounts of Louis XI from 1461, the first written trace; the legend attached to it — the dauphin saved from a bear by two Vercors woodcutters who shared their cheese with him — is dated 1445 and cannot be checked. It began as a goat cheese and only became a cow's-milk one in the twentieth century.

In the kitchen

Buy it at the stage you want and eat it there: young it is firm and chalky, at four or five weeks it collapses in its crock and is eaten with a spoon. Eight minutes at 160 °C in the crock, poured over potatoes, is the standard Dauphiné use.

Goes with

Potato Walnut Chives Lettuce Olive oil Black pepper Apple Ratte potato

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