Les Fromages de l’isle d’Orleans

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On our Quebec Culinary Adventure, Tomiko and I stopped at Les Fromages de l’isle d’Orleans in Sainte-Famille. After buying some of their cheeses, we had a picnic on the front lawn of the fromagerie. Our picnic consisted of a baguette and croissant from Boulangerie Blouin, a vegetarian pâté and some veggies from the Marché Jean-Talon, fresh-picked strawberries from the Île d’Orléans, and the oldest cheese in North America.

The fromagerie Les Fromages de l’isle d’Orleans makes the oldest cheese in North America; the current cheeses are made using the same techniques that were used by the French settlers that came from Champagne, France in 1635. Until 1970, there were still 38 families on the island making the cheese, the most famous of whom was Monsieur Gérard Aubin.

The cheeses have a special flavour that comes from drying the cheese on reeds that were found on the north shore of the island. The reeds were home to particular microorganisms that impart the unique flavour to the cheese. In 1965, new government regulations required all cheeses aged under 60 days needed to be pasteurized, and that all equipment had to be updated. For the cheeses from Île d’Orléans, the oldest cheese is only aged for up to 30 days. In 1995, M. Aubin contacted a Laval University professor who helped him replicate the cheese in industrial settings. They isolated the reed microorganisms and sprayed them over the cheese to create the famous cheeses in a modern facility.

The fromagerie Les Fromages de l’isle d’Orleans makes cheese that comes in three forms, depending on different stages of production:

• La Faisselle: a fresh cheese
• Le Paillasson: dried for three to four days; this is best fried in a pan before being eaten
• Le Raffiné: washed in brine and aged in cellars for 28 to 30 days

The fromagerie also had a small food counter where they sold small cheese plates. They grilled the Paillaison cheese and served it with some fruits and crusty bread, all the while dressed in old-fashioned garb. The whole building was constructed using ancient building techniques that use wooden pins and mortise and tenon joints (which means no nails!), and roofed with cedar shingles.

In addition to coolers full of cheese, the fromagerie was lined with shelves full of jams, terrines, sauces, dressings, and various maple products.

Tomiko and I bought some foodie gifts for our friends and family back in Toronto. I bought a small jar of Terrine de Wapiti (elk) made with Canadian whisky, and a jar of maple caramel. Tomiko bought sirop de Cassis (black currant syrup) and maple and blueberry vinegar.

We eventually fried the Paillasson cheese a couple days later when we fired up our portable propane grill overlooking Tadoussac – coming soon! Check out some of the recipes (in French) using the Paillasson and Faisselle cheeses.