France · Hard cheese; AOC dairy; Auvergne heritage
Fabrication du Cantal et du Salers
The making of Cantal — one of the oldest cheeses in France, documented from Roman times — and Salers, its most traditional variant, which must be made exclusively in the buron (mountain shelter) from raw milk of the Salers breed during the May–October grazing season. The Cantal process is unusual in French cheese-making for involving two distinct curdling and pressing stages (a double-pressing method unique in French cheese tradition), producing wheels of 35–45 kg.
Risk level: Vulnerable · Not listed; AOP Cantal (1956) and AOP Salers (1979)
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