Famous French Cheeses - Emmental

Emmental

Steph & Chris Dagg run Notaires & Alder lakes. Through this personal Blog, Steph is going to describe her experiences of moving to France and living the dream of many UK carp anglers.

Since this is the land of cheese (around 429 varieties I believe), I thought it was time I started to pay attention to fromage. So every now and again in this blog I’ll be looking at some of the more popular and/or unusual cheeses on offer.

But some groundwork to do first. Cheese comes in families in France, and there are anything between 3 and 8 of them, according to the source you look at. I’m going with the eight families, since we might as well do this properly!

1. Fresh cheeses – fromages frais

These are the white, rather runny cheeses with a high water content (up to 82%). They’re made without using rennet and aren’t aged at all. Familiar examples would be fromage blanc and Petit Suisse.

2. Soft cheeses with natural rind – Fromages à pâte molle et à croûte fleurie

Brie and camembert are examples of this family of soft cheese made from cow’s milk which has a distinctive floury rind. They’re aged for about a month.

3. Soft cheeses with washed rind – Fromages à pâte molle et à croûte lavée

These cow’s milk cheeses are literally washed during the aging process to stop surface moulds forming. They usually have bright rinds. Pont L’Évêque is such a cheese.

4. Pressed cheeses – Fromages à pâte pressée

Right, these cheeses are pressed while they age and this rids them of some of their moisture content. They’re also washed, brushed and turned to give them nice even rinds. Cantal is an example of this family of cheese.

5. Pressed and cooked cheeses – Fromages à pâte pressée et cuite

Emmental comes into this category. Cheeses in this group are heated before they’re pressed. They’re left to ripen for a long time.

6. Goat cheese – Fromages de chèvre

I don’t think this needs any more explanation! There are over 100 different types of French cheese made from goat’s milk.

7. Blue cheeses – Fromages à pâte persillées

These are the smelly cheeses (like the one I wrote about in this story) which are aged for a long time before they’re eaten. They have the distinctive blue veins running through them. Some are made from sheep’s milk, such as Roquefort. We visited that factory – I can still smell it!

You either love this type of cheese or hate it.

8. Processed cheeses – Fromages à pâte fondue

These are made from a blend of cheeses and often have herbs and flavourings added. Delicious Boursin falls into this category.

So that’s a quick introduction to the main groups of fromage.

This Tuesday’s cheese is Emmental, you know the one with holes in it. I usually buy this cheese pre-grated in 1 kg bags at the supermarket. We get through vast amounts of it. It’s one of the most popular and cheaper cheeses. It’s mainly produced in the east of France and the Emmental from certain areas (for example, france est central) has an IGP label (Indication Géographique Protégée – a quality mark). Not the sort that I buy though!

Almost half a million tonnes of Emmental are produced in Europe each year, and France makes approximately half of this, using 13.1% of all the milk produced in France. It takes 12 litres to make 1 kg of Emmental. It’s made in big  loaves of up to 80 kg, which is a lot of cheese.

So where do the holes come from? Carefully controlled mice? Nope. A bacteria is introduced which produces carbon dioxide while the cheese is aging and this is what gives rise to them. So now you know.

It’s reckoned that on average, French people eat about 3.3 kg of Emmental a year. Well, if that really is the case then a lot of people can’t be eating anything like that much since we Daggs are heavily skewing figure upwards. We really do eat an awful lot of it! I blame the adverts that used to run in Ireland, funded by the cheese marketing board. ‘With cheese, please!’ was the motto, and the ads encouraged you to add a thick crust of grated, sliced or melted cheese coated cheese to everything you consumed, from your breakfast muesli to your evening mug of hot chocolate.

OK, I’m exaggerating, but only slightly! We’ve been totally brainwashed by them and have become cheese junkies as a result.

Now you know a bit more about Emmental. Do come back and discover another French cheese in next Tuesday’s blog.

Tidy up nearly finished at Bletiere carp lake

John London is the owner of Bletiere and through this Blog section he’s going to keep a diary of the daily life of a French carp lake owner.

Having had a very mild and dry winter up to now we’ve managed to get the lake spring clean finished a lot earlier than usual.  This is really good as last year due to the snow and wet we working up to the week before our first guests arrived in March.

We have strimmed all the banks and raked them.  It’s something I always do as it encourages the wild flowers to grow and helps keep the nettles and brambles down – why is it that weeds always grow and flowers sometimes struggle?

We have cut back all the trees around the lake as these sometimes caused problems for guests with the wind blowing the line over branches, but still left plenty to give a bit of a challenge to reach those fish.

Today we worked on the house swim and cut down all the old bulrushes.  I put on my waders and went in to clear their roots that were spreading across the lake edge and sticking out from the end which made landing fish harder.

I also cleared all the iris and bulrushes that were slowly blocking up the swim to the right, so there is now more room to land fish and also to put your pods or bank sticks.

I also spent some time picking up some rocks that were close in and may have caused problems.  I moved any I kicked and took them out the lake.

Tomorrow I will start my trips up to the local saw mill and get a few trailer loads of wood chip to top up the swims and help to keep the mud down and fishing gear cleaner.  It also helps to keep the bank side noise down.

We have been feeding the fish all winter and over the last week they have been very active and feeding heavily.  This will hopefully reflect in the weights this year, and hopefully that first carp over 45lb will come out.

Hopefully anyone taking advantage of our early season offers will have some good fish out and if they continue to feed as they are now I can even see a new lake record coming out early on.

Tight lines and we will publish more as the big tidy up continues,

Best wishes,

John and Lesley, Bletiere

Carp fishing in France - January Webcast

In this edition, we review some of the best moments from our coverage of 2011, which started with a 76lb carp on the bank and ended with us seeing a 62lb carp being stocked.  We followed the runs and records that happened in between and 2011 turned out to be a fantastic season for our anglers.

Protect those valuable carp rods!

www.rod-box.co.uk

Water temperature and carp spawning

The ducks back!

As I promised before Christmas I will this weekend (28/29^TH Jan) start to publish the air and water temperatures every week here at Bletiere.  You can follow it here.

I know a lot of anglers found it useful to see what the weather was doing here in France and it also gives you a guide to how close to potential spawning we are as you follow the rise in  temperature.  At least it will give you a rough idea if the carp are likely to start spawning near your visit.

I have taken a look at last years on the forum as its still there.

I started it in February and it was 6 degrees air and 8 degrees in the lake.  Today it is 9 degrees in the air and 10 degrees in the lake so a big difference.

As long as we do not get the usual cold weather in February it’s looking good as it will get the fish feeding with the warmer weather we get in March, and hopefully for any lucky anglers taking advantage of our early fishing offers  they will get off to a good start.

Tight lines, John

La Bletiere

Ripsaw Niger Catfish visits the bank at TopCats, Thailand

A rare Ripsaw Niger Catfish

TopCats , Thailand, is home to over 26 species fish and one lucky customer had a shock when his bait was picked up by our Niger Catfish.  The take was slow and steady but once the hook was set it ripped off like a torpedeo!  The lucky man was Joe from USA.  Well done and good luck next time for another rare one.

A day winter carp fishing at Villefond

43.01 – who says carp don’t feed in the winter!

We arrived at the lake at 7.30am just before it got light. There were three of us fishing, Myself (Mark Lambert) the owner (John Lambert) and our friend Gavin Rose. Just as it became light enough to boat the rods out I put my three rods on my spots. John also got his two rods out and I moved to his swim to talk. Just then we heard a very pleased yell from Gavin he had only got two rods in the water and he was already into a carp.

As I moved round to help with the fish he yelled again as his second rod took off. He landed both fish the first a lovely 44.10 mirror the other smaller at 30.8. What a start we thought and I hurried back to my rods in anticipation. It was not one hour before Johns rods screamed off and after a fight all in at the margins we slipped the net under a 43.10 mirror.

The mirror later identified on Villefond fish gallery where we keep track of all the fish photo’s we get had shown a 10lb growth in under a year! The rest of the day was quiet until in the evening Johns rods went off again and we slipped the net under a small but really fat 23lb common, a stocky from the beginning of the year.

The day was uneventful for me but we went home with impressed again with how the bait is pulling the fish out even though the temperature didn’t rise above 2 degrees at its hottest.

Mark, Villefond

Lac du Val’s final carp stocking for 2012

Lac du Val ‘s final stock fish have just been put in our stock pond ready for March / April movement into the main lake.

These 36 beautiful mirrors arrived on Saturday 14th Jan and are hand picked fish farm stock.

The largest was 37lb 8oz and the smallest 27lb 7oz and all lovely fat fish in fantastic condition.  So this brings the total to 52 new carp for 2012.

I’m hoping the first lads on will help with the netting of the stock pond to rehome them into the main lake.

Regards, David & Sammy

Villefond's Top 5 Carp of 50lb+

It has been a real pleasure to watch Villefonds fish grow into some real monsters and it has been discussed for a long time about which fish are going to be the next biggest caught so I decided to compile a list detailing the top 5 to date, as at January 2012;

1.  BIG JOHN

Big John is currently considered the lakes largest resident carp even though it was knocked off the top spot back in early 2011 when the number two big fish came out heavier. Big John is a extremely long common and has massive potential to grow huge and was the reining heavy weight champ right up to 2011, however Big John is a far longer fish and has never really been a fat fish or had big shoulders. One interesting fact about Big John is that it has never been caught during the night.

Heaviest weight to date; 51.2lb

Weight last caught; 50.2lb spawned out

Date of last capture; May 2011

Swim most caught from; 3

Prediction for the future; I think he could be well in front of the others right now as it was caught nearly a year ago spawned out at 50.2lb. Some of the other carp spawned out as much as 10lb! This means Big John could be sitting on the plus side of 60lb right now so the next capture of him will be very interesting.

2.  ARTHUR

Arthur is the owner of two titles, the first is the lake record for heaviest carp and the second is record for heaviest original carp as it is the biggest fish so far not stocked by us. Arthur is not nearly as long as Big John, it is a rather stockier common carp and it is also much darker in colour.

Heaviest weight to date; 53.6lb

Weight last caught; 53.6lb

Date of last capture; May 2011

Swim most caught from; 5 & 7

Prediction for the future; I believe Arthur won’t reach the heights of Big John because it is much shorter in length but because of Arthur’s character and it is a much more wild older looking common it will remain on most peoples to catch list.

3.  ARNOLD

Arnold came out of no where to make the top 5 and got the name Arnold because it had massive almost unbelievable shoulders like the famous Arnold Schwarzenegger. Arnold has had some of the most massive weight gains and if it keeps going could move up the rankings very quickly.

Heaviest weight to date; 50.10lb

Weight last caught; 50.10lb

Date of last capture; November 2011

Swim most caught from; 3 & 4

Prediction for the future; Arnold is quite often caught because of its massive appetite which made it so large and if it keeps going at the rate it is Arnold could be one to watch.

4. BENNETT’S

Named after one of its captors this fish is a real brute of a fish, it is a huge solid fish who hasn’t ever had big shoulders or a belly just a very large framed fish with a lot of potential. Bennett’s has had a tough year spawning heavily twice but it is expected to pack on size over winter again to fill its massive bulk.

Heaviest weight to date; 47.4lb

Weight last caught; 45.6lb

Date of last capture; September 2011

Swim most caught from; 5 & 7

Prediction for the future; Bennett’s has been up and down with its weight this year due to the fact they spawned out heavily twice but never dropped lighter than the low forties so given the bigger fish spawn up to 10lb he could well be going over 50lb after a good feed in winter.

5.  ROSE

Now 5^th place is really a tough call as many fish are now well into their forties and fish are still turning up in their forties which have never been caught before. Rose has only been caught four times herself in the four years since it was stocked. Rose came out of the blue to pip some of the other fish to the 5^th spot.

Heaviest weight to date; 45lb

Weight last caught; 45lb

Date of last capture; August

Swim most caught from; 7

Prediction for the future; Rose’s spot in the top five is going to be really tough to keep. With well in excess of 30 different fish over forty pound in weight now the competition is really tough. With so many fish biting at its heels and so many that haven’t been caught for a long time which could be already a lot heavier and the fact there are still fish coming out never caught before over forty pound I believe Rose’s rein as a top 5 fish is going to be short and glorious one. Rose is a stunning fish but unless it feeds and grows at the rate of some of the others Rose could just drop short of the top 5.

This top 5 list was made in January 2012 and will shortly be rearranged after the coming years fishing.