Comté cheese

History

Comté production is based on artisanal techniques that developed in the Jura Mountains around 1,000 years ago. It is a cooked and pressed cheese made daily from raw cow's milk that has been partially skimmed. The cheese was manufactured seasonally and stored for many months to provide food for the farmer's family during the cold season. The natural resources of pasture, water, and firewood in the Jura Mountains enabled the production and heating of the large quantity of milk—500 litres—needed for each wheel.

Milk was collected from farms and processed at cooperative dairies called fruitières, of which about 150 eventually operated in the area. A traditional method involved using a large linen cloth to collect curd grains from the whey in the vat, but this technique has largely disappeared. France introduced Appellation d'origine contrôlée (AOC) rules for cheese in the 1920s, and Comté received AOC status in 1958. The EU-wide Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) largely replaced the AOC in the 1990s, and Comté obtained PDO status in 1996.

As of 2026, it is one of 46 French PDO cheeses. The cheese is formed into discs or wheels, each 40 to 70 cm in diameter and about 9 to 13 cm thick, weighing up to 55 kg with a fat in dry matter content around 45%. The rind is typically dusty-brown, and the internal paste, called pâte, is a pale creamy yellow. The texture is fairly hard but flexible, and the flavour is mild, nutty, salty, and slightly sweet.

Fresh milk is poured into large copper vats and gently warmed; each cheese requires up to 600 litres of milk. Rennet is added to coagulate the milk, the curds are cut into small grains the size of rice or wheat, stirred, and heated again for about 30 minutes. The contents are then placed into moulds and the whey is pressed out. After several hours the mould is opened, and the cheese matures in cellars—first for a few weeks at the dairy, then over several months elsewhere.

AOC regulations, fully introduced in 1976, prescribe that only milk from Montbéliarde or French Simmental cows (or crossbreeds of the two) is permitted.

Grading

Comté cheese is judged by inspectors on a 20-point scale, with points allocated as follows: up to 1 for overall appearance, 1.5 for rind quality, 3.5 for internal appearance, 5 for texture, and 9 for taste. A cheese earning more than 14 total points gets a green casein label featuring a green bell logo and is classified as Comté Extra. Scores between 12 and 14 earn a brown label and the simple name Comté. Any cheese that scores just 1 or 2 points for taste, or falls below 12 overall, cannot carry the Comté name and is sold for other uses.

Jury terroir

Comté cheese is shaped by its terroir, produced in 160 village-based fruitières where local farmers supply milk from their own cows. Strict production rules link the cheese to its place of origin, and seasonal environmental changes affect its character. Each Comté undergoes a process called jury terroir, in which panels of trained volunteer tasters from the region and the cheese supply chain meet to discuss flavor. Their findings are published every two months in the newsletter Les Nouvelles de Comté.

Food scientist Florence Bérodier created this jury system to address early challenges with Comté’s unfamiliar taste and smell. As one original member put it, the jury exists to speak of all the richness in the tastes of a Comté. While quality improved, achieving a uniform flavor was impossible due to the 160 different fruitières. The jury terroir shifted focus to communication among tasters, sharpening their ability to perceive and describe flavors.

Over time, they built a shared culture for exchanging descriptions of Comté’s taste. Pierre Androuët noted in his 1983 Guide du fromage that there is a world of difference between lowland and mountain Comté, and that while the original and lowland versions may look similar, their quality varies.