Sainte-Maure de Touraine

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Sainte-Maure de Touraine is an unpasteurized goat cheese from the Touraine province of France, sold as a small ash-rolled log with a straw running through its centre. The straw carries the AOC seal and a number identifying the producer.

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Key Facts

Country of Origin	France
Specific Origin	Indre-et-Loire and bordering cantons
Protection	PDO (1996), PDO (1990)
Milk Type	Goat’s milk
Milk Treatment	Raw
Fat Content	45% milk fat
Rind	Gray-blue
Texture	Semi-soft
Colors	White
Forms	Log shape, with cereal straw in the middle
Age	Minimum of ten days
Alternative Spellings	St Maure de Touraine, Sainte Maure de Touraine

What is Sainte-Maure de Touraine Cheese?

Sainte-Maure de Touraine comes from the province of Touraine in France, made mainly in the department of Indre-et-Loire. It takes its name from the small town of Sainte-Maure-de-Touraine, which sits at equal distance from Chinon to the west and Loches to the east.

The cheese is made from unpasteurized full fat goat's milk. Each one is shaped into a small log of 16 to 17 cm (6.3 to 6.7 in), weighing at least 250 g (8.8 oz). A straw runs down the centre to keep the roll together while it is made, and that straw is marked with the AOC seal and a number indicating the producer.

Under a greyish moldy rind the paste is white and soft. The outside is rolled in wood ash. The finished cheese has 45% milk fat.

The AOC seal has protected the name since 1990 and covers only cheese made by traditional methods. A separate industrial cheese sold as plain Sainte-Maure is also produced in Touraine without meeting those criteria. Its straw carries no seal, which is how the two are told apart.

Output reached 1,065 tons in 2003, 58% from dairies and 42% from farms. Before AOC status arrived in 1990 the figure was 275 tons. It now ranks second among French goat's cheese AOCs by volume, behind Crottin de Chavignol.