Cantal

With its ivory-colored paste and its brown-tinted rind, Cantal is the only cheese in France to bear the name of its birth department. It is also one of the oldest cheeses whose origins go back thousands of years. It acquired the PDO in 1956. It is made from uncooked cow's milk and is pressed twice. It is a large cylinder 36 to 42 centimeters in diameter and weighs between 35 and 45 kilos. It takes 400 liters of milk to make a 40 kilo cheese! Originating from volcanic pastures, between Puy Mary -the highest volcano in Europe- the Planèzes and the Châtaigneraie, it is now produced in a production area of 7200 km² including the whole of the Cantal, 23 communes of the Puy-de-Dôme and a few communes of the Aveyron, Corrèze and Haute-Loire.