Food Encyclopedia

chèvre

French for "goat," chèvre is a pure white goat's-milk cheese with a distinctively tart flavor. Some of the better known chèvres include banon, bûcheron and montrachet. "Pur chèvre" on the label ensures that the cheese is made entirely from goat's milk; mi-chèvre means that it's comprised of at least 50 percent goat's milk, with the remainder typically cow's milk. The plural is chèvres, which originally referred to all French goat cheeses but is now widely used to refer to all goat cheeses, wherever their origin. Chèvres can range in texture from moist and creamy to dry and semifirm. They come in a variety of shapes including cylinders, discs, cones and pyramids, and are often coated in edible ash or leaves, herbs or pepper. Store, tightly wrapped, in the refrigerator up to 2 weeks. Chèvre that is over the hill takes on a sour taste and should be discarded. See also cheese.