We don't see authentic Selles-sur-Cher at American cheese counters any longer because this esteemed French goat cheese is considered unsafe for American consumption. Selles-sur-Cher is made with raw milk – by French law, it has to be – and aged less than the 60 days that our government deems safe for raw-milk cheeses.
Consequently, what we receive in the United States is a reproduction, a Selles-sur-Cher-style cheese produced with pasteurized goat's milk. It looks just like Selles-sur-Cher, and the store signage may give it that name, but the cheese made for the U.S. market doesn't meet the French requirements for Selles-sur-Cher.
Too much information? Maybe. But it's by way of explaining why the little ash-covered disks that you may find identified as Selles-sur-Cher in Bay Area stores don't bear that name on the official label. Jacquin, the producer to look for, simply labels them as "chevre." It's as if the French government told a Napa Valley winery that it could only put "red wine" on an export label instead of the more specific appellation recognized here.
To read the rest of the story, please go to: The San Francisco Chronicle
