Picodon is a soft raw goat's milk cheese produced in the departments of Drôme and Ardèche. It weighs approximately 60 grams and is shaped like a puck with rounded edges. Picodon has been an "Appellation d’origine contrôlée (AOC)" since 1983 and a Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) since 2009.
The PDO specifications set very precise rules concerning the conditions for raising goats. As soon as the weather permits, the goats must go out to enjoy the outdoors: In spring and summer, they go out to graze and eat grass, foliage, and all kinds of plants. In the fall, chestnuts, acorns, berries... In winter they are fed with cereals and hay from the Appellation zone.
Milk from milking is mixed with a small quantity of rennet (natural enzyme) and whey (whey). Renneting takes place at a temperature of around 20°C, a coagulation phenomenon takes place. The milk that has become curdled is molded manually with a ladle, so as not to break it. It is placed in pots with rounded edges and pierced with holes. The cheese drains and removes the excess whey, it will be turned once or twice and salted on both sides. The Picodon is then unmolded by hand then placed on racks, it then undergoes a drying phase of at least 24 hours, in a ventilated room, at a temperature of 23° C. Final stage refining, of 8 days to several months, during which the cheese is placed in the cellar so that the surface flora develops.
The milk produced by our goats is sold to the AGRIAL cooperative in Crest to be transformed into Picodon. The milk collection truck comes to collect our milk every two days. We therefore do not sell Picodon on the farm, you can find the map of all Picodon producers by following this link: Picodon producers
Source : www.picodon-aop.fr