Valency - a goat milk cheese that grows a mold

Made: July 1, 2012 from Goat's milk


Valencay made from Goat's milk

Made: July 1, 2012
Ready to Eat: September 1, 2012

Valençay is a mold-ripened French chèvres cheese. Valençay is made from unpasteurized goats-milk. Penicilium candidum is added to the milk so that the cheese forms mold. The mold is shown in the third picture on the left.

I dusted my Valencay with vegetable ash to form a dark thin rind. The vegetable ash causes the rind to turn a rustic blue-grey color due to natural moulds that form its rind.

The first picture on the left shows the cheese in the mold.
The second picture on the left shows the cheese with a dusting of vegetable ash.
The third picture on the left shows the mold, called "cat fur" growing on the cheese.

The young cheese has a fresh, citric taste, with age giving it a nutty taste characteristic of goats cheeses.

  • Valençay is a mold-ripened French chèvres cheese.
  • It is made in a truncated pyramidal shape and dusted with vegetable ash.

  • Vegetable ash is made from vegetables that are dried and turned into ash.
  • The vegetable ash is sterile, odorless and tasteless and it forms a dark thin rind on the cheese.
  • Ash is used for both aesthetic and practical reasons.
  • It is as much about tradition as it is the science of cheesemaking.

  • Valençay is made from unpasteurized goats-milk.

  • Its rustic blue-grey color is a result of the natural moulds that form its rind. The rind is darkened as a result of being dusted with vegetable ash.

  • The young cheese has a fresh, citric taste, with age giving it a nutty taste characteristic of goats cheeses.

  • This cheese was first made in the French Village of Valencay. It was made as a tribute to Napoléon campaign to conquer Egypt. Originally, the cheese was made as a complete pyramid.
  • However, on his way back from Egypt where his campaign was calamitous, Napoléon stopped in Valençay.
  • He saw the cheese and with anger took his sword to chop the top off.
  • Thus the pyramid is now truncated.

  • This cheese is aged for 3 or 4 weeks under controlled temperature and humidity and it is flipped daily.
  • The result is a cheese with a complex delicious mixture of goat tanginess,
  • and soft brie-like texture with a salty ashed rind that gives a little bite to the palate.





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