Maroilles

If there is a product which Nord-Pas de Calais is particularly proud, it is without any doubt the Maroilles cheese, one of oldest cheeses of France. The Maroilles cheese is produced in the area since the VIIth century and it owes its name with a small commune of Avesnois where existed formerly a significant abbey in which the first Maroilles cheeses were refined This delicious cheese belongs to 27 French cheeses to profit from a label of origin. Its manufacture is guaranteed by the Trade union of the Manufacturers of Maroilles cheese.

The Maroilles cheese is a cow's milk cheese with soft paste and washed crust. Its marrowy crust is of orange color, slightly striated. The cows of Avesnois produce the milk which is used to make the white Maroilles cheese, which is dried in a "hâloir" where it is covered with a light blue mould. After being washed, the Maroilles cheese is refined between 2 and 3 months in the cellars of Thiérache which only allow the development of the particular flora which gives it its savour. Taste it just as it is at the end of the meal accompanied by beer glass or cook it in delicious gratins, in all the case you will regale yourself.