World Cheese Encyclopaedia - Each Sunday learn all about a new cheese. 

This week Murol from France. 

Country: France 🇫🇷

Region: Auvergne

Made from: Cow’s milk

Pasteurised: Yes

Texture: Firm, creamy, springy, elastic

Taste: Mild, milky, sweet, savory

Certification: No

Aging: at least 5 weeks

Murol, also called Grand Murols, is named after the village in the Auvergne region of France. It is a unique cheese in that it is shaped like a donut – with a hole in the center and also has an intense reddish/orange color. It is said to be the younger brother of the famous Saint-Nectaire cheese which is produced nearby in the same region. Murol is considered a fairly young cheese by French standards, having been created only 70 years ago in the period between the two world wars. 

Murol is a pasteurised, semi-soft, cow's milk cheese with 45% fat. It has a strong aroma but is less pungent than other cheeses from the region. The texture is firm and quite elastic and springy. Murol has a smooth yellow to white paste and a pale orange to red rind which gets its color from being washed with beer and chilies during production. Its flavour is mild, savory, and relatively soft.

Murol cheese is produced in discs of about 450 grams in weight and 10 to 12 cms in diameter. To distinguish it from Saint Nectaire, a hole was cut in the center of the cheese. Having a hole in the middle also speeds up the affinage - the maturing process – and helps the cheese mature evenly. The plug of cheese that is cut from the center is not discarded – but is wrapped in red paraffin wax and sold separately under the name Murolait or Trou de Murol (Murol hole). 

History

Murol cheeses were created in the early 1900s by a local cheesemaker, Jacques Bérioux who founded La Fromagerie du Grand Murols. He differentiated the cheese from Saint Nectaire by introducing the hole in the middle. The name Bérioux can still be seen on many of the labels and the cheese is often sold as Murol du Grand Bérioux. The fromagerie was taken over by Pierre Dischamp about 20 years ago. 

How to Enjoy It

The soft flavour of Murol goes very nicely with Champagne or with a red Gamay such as a Fleurie.

Sources: Lesnouveauxfromgiers.co.uk, Behind-the-French-Menu, Wikipedia, cheese.com, plus-de-bulles.com, fromages.com

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