Tome fraîche de l’Aubrac 
Tome fraîche de l'Aubrac is a French cow's milk cheese made from strongly pressed, lightly fermented curd pulled out of laguiole, cantal, or salers production before salting and ripening. Unsalted and unripened, it is known for the stretch it gives to cooked dishes such as aligot.
Key Facts
| Country of Origin | France |
| Specific Origin | Aubrac region, including parts of Aveyron, Cantal, and Lozère departments |
| Protection | PGI (2022) |
| Milk Type | Cow's milk |
| Milk Treatment | Raw when taken from laguiole or salers; raw, pasteurized, or microfiltered when taken from cantal |
| Fat Content | Minimum of 50 g of fat per 100 g of cheese after total desiccation |
| Moisture Content | Not less than 50 g of dry matter per 100 g of cheese |
| Texture | Supple but firm, with occasional small holes |
| Flavor | Milky, fresh, and buttery |
| Aroma | Milky, fresh, and buttery |
| Colors | Creamy to pale yellow |
| Forms | Sold in portions or crumbled; may be film-wrapped, vacuum-packed, or in modified-atmosphere packaging; crumbled form may be sold deep-frozen |
| Age | Unripened |
| Alternative Spellings | tomme fraîche; historically tome, without the adjective fraîche |
| Also Known As | tomme fraîche |
What is Tome fraîche de l’Aubrac Cheese?
Tome fraîche de l'Aubrac, also called simply tomme fraîche, is a tomme-type cow's milk cheese from the Aubrac region and from Haute-Auvergne in the Massif central. It was never a cheese made for its own sake. Producers took the curd out of the laguiole, cantal, or salers cycle and sold it for cooking. It received Protected Geographical Indication status on 23 October 2023.
The name comes from the Occitan toma, meaning a fresh cheese, or touma, an unkneaded soft cheese that has had only a first working. At the end of the 19th century the French spelling was tome rather than tomme, and the adjective fraîche was not used at all.
The curd is pressed hard and lightly fermented, then removed before grinding, salting, the second pressing, and ripening. That heavy pressing gives a high dry matter content, and the short maturation with no ripening leaves a fairly marked acidity. The cheese sits between pressed uncooked cheeses and fresh cheeses without meeting all the criteria of either. Milk and methods follow the specifications of the three protected designation cheeses it comes from: raw milk only when it comes from laguiole or salers, and raw, pasteurized, or microfiltered milk when it comes from cantal. The production area matches the appellation areas of those three cheeses. Cantal versions are made in industrial or artisanal dairies and on farms, laguiole versions in industrial dairies or on farms, salers versions on farms only. The label tome fraîche fermière is reserved for a farmer-producer working in his own farm with milk from his own herd alone.
The taste is milky with a light acidity, and the cheese melts well. Cooked at high heat it turns remarkably stringy. It is sold cut to order, in direct sales at collective or individual processing sites, in specialty cheese shops, and in some supermarkets, where ready-to-buy vacuum packs are becoming more common.
People usually eat it cooked and melted. It goes into aligot and retortillat in the Aubrac, truffade and patranque in the Cantal, and its flavor and melting behavior have carried it into gratins, vegetable tarts, pizzas, and sweet tarts. In the saint-nectaire area, bakers make a brioche with the tome fraîche from that cheese. It also turns up cold in mixed salads.
How Does Tome fraîche de l’Aubrac Cheese Compare?
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