Saint Marcellin

What is Saint Marcellin Cheese?

Saint-Marcellin takes its name from a small town in Isère. It is made in a zone covering part of the old Dauphiné province, now inside the Rhône-Alpes région. The account books of King Louis XI record the cheese at Plessis-lès-Tours and the Louvre from 1461, and legend has it he first tasted it in the Vercors in 1445 after two woodcutters saved him from a bear.

Before the 19th century, small soft cheeses like this were made across the plains and hills of what is now Isère, mostly for home use. These little tommes were ripened with a bloomy rind or dried and called séchons. The name Saint-Marcellin only became common in the 19th century, once better roads and transport opened up markets in Romans, Grenoble, Lyon and Bourgoin-Jallieu. Coquetiers carried the trade at first, buying eggs, kid goats, cheeses and rabbits from farms to sell at market, and creameries followed.

Production moved from farmhouse to dairy at the start of the 20th century. Around the 1980s the milk changed too, from a mix of goat and cow to cow's milk alone.

Each cheese is small, roughly 80 grams, at 50% fat, with a mottled creamy-white exterior. It runs more as it ripens, and the outside picks up blue and then yellow tones within two to three weeks of making. Buyers can choose among three stages of affinage: sec, crémeux and bleu. The texture and taste sit close to Saint-Félicien, a bigger cheese from another part of the Rhône-Alpes.

Curing in marc brandy for a month or longer turns it into Arômes au Gène de Marc. Cured in white wine instead, it becomes Arômes de Lyon.