Cancoillotte

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Cancoillotte is one of France’s most unusual cheeses — a flowing, translucent, low-fat preparation from Franche-Comté that challenges every assumption about what cheese should be. It begins with metton, a cooked pressed curd made from skimmed milk that has been allowed to ferment for several days at 25-30°C until it develops a strong, pungent ammonia smell and turns pale yellow. The metton is then crumbled and gently melted in a saucepan with water (or milk) and butter, stirred continuously at 60-65°C until it transforms into a smooth, pourable, almost gelatinous mass. The traditional proportions are 200g metton to 50ml water and 30g butter — the resulting cancoillotte has remarkably low fat content (around 8-12%) compared to conventional cheeses (25-45%). Garlic is the classic flavoring, with a whole crushed head stirred in during the melting phase, but vin jaune (Jura’s famous oxidized wine), cumin, and shallot versions exist. The texture when warm is like a thin fondue; when cooled, it sets to a spreadable, slightly elastic consistency. Cancoillotte is eaten warm, spread on toast, or used as a sauce for boiled potatoes, sausages, or vegetables. In Franche-Comté and the broader Burgundian sphere, it represents the ultimate peasant cheese — made from the byproduct of butter-making (skimmed milk), it wastes nothing. The industrial versions sold in plastic tubs bear only passing resemblance to farmhouse cancoillotte made from properly aged metton, where the fermentation contributes a depth of flavor that the mild supermarket product cannot approach.

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