Selles-sur-Cher

History of the Selles-sur-Cher cheese

Although many people think that the rearing of goats in this region is a strong ancient tradition, the archives do not provide much evidence as to the origins of the Selles-sur-Cher cheese. At first, the cheese was made exclusively by farms and made on the day that the milk was collected from the small number of goats that the families kept, and was eaten by the families. The Selles-sur-Cher has not been cited or written about in books, but instead its name was spread by word of mouth.  It is not until the beginning of the 20th century that word of mouth makes way for the written word, when a farmer, native to the commune of Selles and born in 1887, states that the area had always produced this type of cheese "said of Selles" in cheese strainers made from clay earth and then from tin, and her mother had made the cheese before her and so on.  In the 19th century, the "coquetiers" or "pick-ups" who passed by the farms regularly to collect the farm products, had the habit of buying the goat's cheese that they would then sell on in the towns of the region where they were highly appreciated. Certain of these "coquetiers" specialised in buying the cheese fresh from the farms and then maturing it themselves in premises they converted for the purpose, before selling the matured cheeses to the public. The fact that the principle gathering of cheese sellers was in the market town of Selles-sur-Cher explains how the cheese has taken its designation.  Also, in the accounting books of the affineurs  (cheese refiners) of the region, the word "Selles" is employed to describe these round, lightly truncated cheeses. Today, still the affineurs continue to play an important role in the commercialisation of the Selles-de-Cher cheese. The Selles-de-Cher is one of the first cheeses to obtain an AOC by the decree on the 21st April 1975, which was later modified on the 4th August 1980.