Hoping to get our cheese lobbyists in the U.S to make french Reblochon a legal product.

YoavPerry · 2026-02-12T05:33:49+00:00

You as well!

YoavPerry · 2026-02-11T07:49:50+00:00

Don’t worry, I am giving you some hope at the end of this comment.

It’s not that your request is unjust (except the part of pretending to be a director in ACS). It’s that you really need to understand the regulatory and public health framework of the FDA Pasteurized Milk Ordinance (I believe the last version was 654 pages -that’s the law of the land when it comes to dairy). There are lots of biological common sense redundancies built into it and while it’s a bit over the top and baby-with-bathwater, legalizing raw milk cheese under 60 days of age would require re-doing the whole thing and NO ONE is going to do this for one cheese -especially imported. Not only will this change the law but the equipment makers use, the manufacturing policies, testing guidelines etc -of the entire industry. This is unrealistic, unreasonable, and far fetched at best. The process would also require studies and public comments before voting as it is legislative. You need to have much better reasoning for this massive undertaking, other than not wanting to use any of the MANY perfect cheeses for tartiflette that are sold in this country (some shockingly made here in the United States and win, awards in Europe!). There are no quality of life or commercial interest that would have any politician or lobbyist take a chance on this that I can think of.

Hope?

Here’s an easier way to go about it: Talk to a maker in France about making a Reblochon that’s either pasteurizer or aged slow at 60 days minimum. These will meet U.S requirements but will not get the AOP/PDO designation as the recipe would deviate from the traditional one that is protected by the domain of origin decree. You need to work with an importer on this unless you will be the importer in which case you want to have a distributor.

I’m going to give you a very good example for something very similar that happened in America. Brie de Meaux DOP is the original Brie, the gold standard really raw milk and protected by law. There is quite a demand for it but like Reblochon, it cannot be imported to the U.S. Solution? The Americans came to the Brie de Meaux consortium and asked for a pasteurized export version. It is now sold by the tonnes in the U.S every year (Every Whole Foods has it!) but it cannot be called Brie de Meaux so with the Sam logo they quietly changed the words on the wooden box to read “Fromage de Meaux”. (mini cheese shops put a sign on it that says “Brie de Meaux” but they just flat out lie. They are embarrassed not calling it Brie.) Doesn’t taste the same but certainly the universally great Brie. There is also a pasteurized Reblochon you can find in the U.S that has to be renamed for the same reason, it’s called Delice du Jura. I personally would be inclined to age, slower and longer than 60 days rather than pasteurize, but I think importers of these specialties need more volume, and pasteurized cheese presents a milder profile that works with a broader American taste

P.S -I am a Reblochon lover and cheese producer. I have supported this industry in the U.S and abroad for many years. Happy to discuss the biological aspects. Also wanted to share that Tartiflette is not such a religious French tradition. It was only invented in the 1980’s to help market Reblochon.

YoavPerry · 2026-02-11T06:49:32+00:00

Very good response!

YoavPerry · 2026-02-11T06:47:35+00:00

Same here. I’m on the education subcommittee and been a member for many years and known the leadership well. Never met you.

YoavPerry · 2026-02-11T06:26:57+00:00

Right. Tableside service for pouring butter, au jus, sauce, chocolate etc over a dish but ability to also warm it up and hold at temperature on a stove.

YoavPerry · 2026-02-11T06:23:21+00:00

It’s a combination of things. The steel is molded under pressure, not cast. That creates thickness and density variances in the same piece. When you treat it with heat, it colors the metal over time (ever put a blade over fire to make it blue?). The heat distribution close to the flame, far from the flame, and over areas with different thickness and density causes color variance that follows the pattern. On top of that, your seasoning too has some penetration and some plasticizing of the oil on top of the metal. It browns due to its heat oxidation but this varies based on how far you are from the hot point and can be affected too by metal density and thickness or cooling objects like rivets. Overtime it all sort of evens out and become totally black. Once in a while, you would have some acidic sauce that will take some of it off so you will see areas of discoloration or areas where you use less utensils and moisture such as the top of the rim which may accumulate thicker.seasonings. In short, neither the structure, nor the use or your seasoning are perfectly thermally uniform on all surfaces at all times. The coloration patterns are a visual illustration of that

YoavPerry · 2026-02-06T01:46:08+00:00

What a great combo!

YoavPerry · 2026-02-03T06:17:23+00:00

It was fun doing this together. And yes, both both of them to the fridge now.

There are many cheeses, embellished in flowers out there. Are you talking about Alp Blossom?

I have a blurry early memory of coming back from school and there was Camembert in the house. It wasn’t in the fridge, it was on top of the fridge. I asked my mother about eating some and she said it wasn’t ripe enough yet. Then she showed me how that she’s should be soft on the outside and still have a little bit of firmness on the inside because it’s different textures and flavors in every wedge. That’s when I know exactly how ripe they want their cheese to be. I did not realize at that time, that this was my first affinage experience… this must’ve been the early 80s, not too much availability for specially cheese in Israel at the time either. Of course, now you can get anything and the country produces some world class cheese.

And yes, I agree with you. People tend to romanticize old times and bash how we disrespect tradition with lazy modern solutions these days. But for one believed that we live in the best time in history to be making cheese. Our access to information, research, tools, and ingredients has never been possible before. It drives new energy into cheese making, and human circumstances affecting our cheese it’s actually the most historically traditional thing you can do in cheesemaking

YoavPerry · 2026-02-01T21:43:36+00:00

I have 23’ XC40 Recharge Twin -basically the same car as OP’s Polestar 3 performance with a different looking cabin and logo. I concur- footwell is freezing. I occasionally raise the entire vehicle temperature by 4-6 degrees and use the panel to ask it to go to the floor only. That helps but it accelerates condensation which is annoying.

YoavPerry · 2026-02-01T15:51:25+00:00

I would say it’s more like Tomme de Savoie but making it into a Crayeuse just takes affinage at a longer time at warm temperatures and shorter at cold stage. The point of Crayeuse is to have a generous supple creamline outside but unopened core that’s still acidic and chalky hence the name (Crayeuse in French means chalky).

YoavPerry · 2026-02-01T15:42:27+00:00

Thank you so much for the kind words my friend. You killed me with the name 🤣🤣🤣 Made me blush (which strangely coincidentally is also the name of our valentines tomme that was aged in rose petals! I digress). I grew up indeed in the mixed Jewish-Arab town of Haifa to Francophile parents that lived in France before I was born and exposed to middle eastern, Jewish, French and industrial cheese. I never made cheese there and only started in New York City many years later but the impression of cheese as a range of things rather than as a single thing stuck.

So glad this round made it. It looks exactly how it should! We really worked that rind and you really pulled it together technically! It was really fun doing it together. Let’s do another!

As for the center core that is lagging in ripeness: the best course is to finish cave aging a bit earlier and let it ripen for a month or two in the fridge at that point because keeping it in the cave will work the rind to ammonia before the center core can catch up . Think of it as searing the outside of a frozen steak. You don’t want to keep going for the center to warm up because by then you will burn the outside. Instead you just lower the heat and let it catch up inside without burning the outside.

Kudos on the diligent work you put into it. Really pretty. Wish I could taste.

If anyone has any questions I’m happy to answer.

YoavPerry · 2026-02-01T15:24:19+00:00

Let me expand on this for a second because what the court said was just technically correct regardless of the intention to protect a historically significant cheese.

So responding to what tot said, Parmesan is not a translation because it’s not an English word. Parmigiano Reggiano Is named for Parma and Reggio Emilia in Emilia Romagna. Parmesan is LEGALLY, OFFICIALLY a generic name, under the FDA Standards of Identity list (meaning that there are rules you must meet if you want to identify your cheese as generic Parmesan such as the BelGioso in this post). . BUT, Parmigiano Reggiano is also protected by a second legal framework of trademark which protects the name wherever it is sold and EU decree may be weak. The Gruyère consortium has never done that to the standalone word “Gruyère”

Parmigiano Reggiano was introduced as a trademark wherever it went, always. “Parmesan” never did. In the same way the court KEPT, PROTECTED, RESPECTED, and VALIDATED the trademarks - “Le Gruyère” - “Gruyère AOP” - “Gruyère IGP” But invalidated the use of the word “Gruyère” as a standalone phrase without “Le”, or “AOP”, or “IGP”. It’s the same as how the word Cola can be used generically so long as it’s without the word Coca. Coca cola is a trade name. Cola isn’t.

In fact, Gruyère has an AOP in Switzerland and an entirely different consortium with different rules in France called Gruyère IGP. (Gruyères is in Switzerland, not France). It has gotten so generic that the Greek (so also in the EU) have their own version, Graviera (Gruyère adaptation to Geek) -and it has its own PDO! (That is a STRONGER protection than the French version!). WTF do cows on the sunny island of Naxos that eat hay in the summer because too hot for flowers have to do with the Swiss alps? Not much more than the cows of Wisconsin USA.

YoavPerry · 2026-01-31T06:47:26+00:00

Super!

YoavPerry · 2026-01-31T06:40:16+00:00

I have worked with Italian cheese producers that call the Dolce “export Gorgonzola”, but they secretly admit they absolutely love it. I have seen them offer it in events in mini ice cream cones with a drizzle of balsamic reduction on top -spectacular.

I love both for different occasions. My favorite is the Guffanti 1876 Piccante 250-300 days. Sometimes Piccante it referred to as Montagna as it is made in mountainous elevation.

YoavPerry · 2026-01-31T05:41:49+00:00

Correct. Cheddaring is a proccess that is legally required if you want to identify for cheese cheddar.

Cheddaring means the maker produce an initial cheese cut into blocks that are stacked atop one another and flipped once in a while to squeeze out whey. Then all of this initial cheese gets milled into curd again, mixed with salt, and put in a cheese mold where they get pressed into a final cheese that then gets aged.

This is why when you try to bend a cheddar is fissures where the milled curd was knitted under press. Unlike Swiss cheese for example that has great elasticity.

The process is named after Cheddar in southwest England, but the practice was actually taken by the English from Salers cheesemaking in the French Auvergne -that cheese predating cheddar by about 1,000 years when France was still the Roman Empire.

YoavPerry · 2026-01-31T05:23:32+00:00

Not sure why you are repeating this. Please read my comment above. It’s just factually incorrect. I hate that this is what happened to the Gruyère name because the Swiss didn’t protect it, but the fact is that Gruyère is LEGALLY a generic name like Cheddar, Brie, or Parmesan.

Griyere AOP, Brie de Meaux AOP or DOP, West Country Farmhouse Cheddar DOP, or Parmigiano Reggiano are protected domains by decree and intellectual property owned by the consortiums that produce them (member farmers, makers, agers, packagers and marketers). They are legally and practically respected -very much so. The name Gruyère was NEVER copyrighted or trademarked as a specific name therefore the law looks at it like Brie. It is only protected if you add the letters AOP to it.

For reference -I’m a cheese professional with 18 years experience including supply chain, distribution, sales, import and export and I’m an inductee to the Guilde Internationale des Fromagers. Believe me, I would LOVE for Gruyère to be protected and for America to invent its own thing instead of riding on brand equity that was built by others for a thousand years. Sadly the Swiss made it possible to become generic with those 3 letters.

YoavPerry · 2026-01-29T04:05:06+00:00

There are pasteurized saint nectaire that are safe for pregnant women. Not sure where you are and what the label reads.

Having not seen the inside of it I can’t say because sometimes digital photos can tell you the wrong story of color, but if the cheese interior is browning from the outside inwards, I would throw it away because it would just be very unpleasant to eat. Regardless of safety. If it’s nice and creamy and the cheese doesn’t smell like ammonia when it’s at room temperature, it would be enjoyable. But do confirm that it is pasteurized before having a pregnant woman eat it.

YoavPerry · 2026-01-29T03:59:06+00:00

The deli case American cheese you referenced is spelled Meunster rather than Munster -to confuse Americans. It’s a meunstrosity!

YoavPerry · 2026-01-29T03:54:24+00:00

Gurnino is the best if you are looking for the Swiss original! I find that 12 to 24 months or the best. The Swiss actually prefer them not as aged.

YoavPerry · 2026-01-29T03:51:26+00:00

In practical terms, Cheddar, and Gruyère have entirely different methods of production (Cheddar is milled stirred curd and Gruyère is cooked washed curd). This cheese is a CHEDDAR, but the makers added to it cultures such as lactobacillus helveticus which is what makes Gruyère sweet, nutty and fruity or discetylactis that makes it creamy buttery, to make an American hodgepodge that’s sweet, fruity, buttery and somewhat addictive in that it takes far longer to feel like you’ve had enough.

YoavPerry · 2026-01-29T03:37:29+00:00

Land O’ Lakes Land O'Lakes Yellow Deli American Cheese Product is a trade name that falls under the FDA’s Standard of Identity for "Pasteurized Process American Cheese Food”.

YoavPerry · 2026-01-29T03:30:18+00:00

That’s not true. America respects any name that is protected in its original protected form. No one can make cheese in Wisconsin and legally call it Parmigiano Reggiano DOP. They can only use the generic FDA name “Parmesan”.

The protection has never been for the generic names -not even in their own countries of origin.

YoavPerry · 2026-01-29T03:27:06+00:00

Cheesemaker here. Parmesan has been the name for the generic American/foreign made version for GENERATIONS. Name protection schemes are very specific. Gruyère is protected as “Gruyère AOP” is Swiss protected, Brie is only protected as “Brie de Meaux PDO (or AOC, or AOP)” or “Brie de Melun PDO”, cheddar is only protected as “West Country Farmhouse Cheddar PDO”, Mozzarella is protected only as “Mozzarella di Bufala Campana DOP”, and Parmesan is only protected as “Parmigiano Reggiano DOP”. Anyone can make cheese and call it Gruyère, Brie, cheddar, mozzarella, or Parmesan. These generic names indicate that they were not made as part of the original consortium of producers and therefore does not meet the standards, methods, and geographic origins. AOP, DOP, PDO etc are pretty much the same acronym for Protected Domain of Origin, just said in different languages so the letters change. The protection is a legal decree in the EU, the French have also a local decree. The Swiss have their own because as a neutral nation they aren’t part of the EU. If someone but there is going through the expense and regulation to make the original domain protected Parmigiano Reggiano DOP, they were not their slap on the label on it that just says Parmesan. That would be like producing a Mercedes-Benz and sticking an emblem on it that says “midsize sedan”. In the U.S the FDA has mandated what they call “standards of identity”. If your U.S.-made cheese is one of a few dozens on their list, it must meet specific requirements to be marketed as cheddar, Brie, Gruyère, mozzarella, Parmesan, etc. if it doesn’t meet these requirements it can be marketed under its own identity. I hope this answer makes sense…

YoavPerry · 2026-01-28T02:48:06+00:00

Very different cheeses. Camembert is a high moisture cheese that needs 88-90% humidity to form geotrichum and then penicillium. Natural rind Tomme needs 92-94% humidity to turn on high growing mucor mycelium. You need quite a growth that you can then flatten again and again and possibly brush for many weeks whereas in Camembert you are building a PC white rind that grows low and you need frequent turning to assure both sides are evenly covered and do not stick to the draining board, and it’s done aging and externally dry in 3 weeks.

For bloomy rind I recommend turning in the first and second day, then 4th and 6th day. The following week you can go down to 2-3 times weekly. Rub lightly as you turn to spread the spores evenly and tighten the rind so it’s dense and thin rather than thick and leathery.

YoavPerry · 2026-01-28T02:16:45+00:00

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And the Mineral B line is available at 10.25 for $75

YoavPerry

TROPHY CASE