Dairy
Salers
Salers is a traditional Auvergne cow’s-milk cheese related to Cantal but bound to summer mountain pasture milk and stricter farmhouse practice. The curd is milled, dry-salted, and pressed into tall cylinders; the paste is firm and aromatic, with herbal, spicy, and savoury notes that reflect high-altitude grass and longer, more rustic ripening than young industrial Cantal. True Salers (Salers AOP) is seasonal and often raw-milk, made only when cows graze, and is prized as a table and grating cheese. It should not be confused with cheese merely labelled from Salers-breed milk outside the PDO process.
Also known as: Salers AOP
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Characteristics
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Grading systems
Grades are placed along a shared scale so systems can be compared side by side.
History
Summer transhumance cheeses from the Salers and surrounding Cantal highlands supplied valleys through winter.
Farmhouse milled-curd wheels from pasture milk were distinguished locally from leaner winter makes.
AOC rules began separating traditional Salers production from broader Cantal manufacturing.
EU PDO status reinforced seasonal pasture milk and traditional methods for Salers.
Specialty demand for raw-milk summer Salers grew among affineurs seeking herbal alpine intensity.
Clearer consumer distinction between Salers AOP and Cantal reduced confusion over related mill-curd styles.