Morning and evening milk Morbier (Adventures in Cheese)

We popped into Booth's supermarket at Carnforth one Monday evening, and found a huge hunk of Morbier cheese on offer, so it came home with us. Morbier is a cheese we've not tried before, and as cheese lovers we had to put that right!

Hubbie doesn't do cheese at all (his usual comment on finding pungent cheese in the fridge is, "Something's died in the fridge!"), son decided he didn't fancy the Morbier - he prefers English cheeses on the whole, which meant that I have to eat it all... how sad is that?!

A bit more about this lovely cheese, from Wikipedia...
"Morbier is a semi-soft cows' milk cheese of France named after the small village of Morbier in Franche-Comté. It is ivory colored, soft and slightly elastic, and is immediately recognizable by the thin black layer separating it horizontally in the middle. It has a rind that is yellowish, moist, and leathery.

Traditionally, the cheese consists of a layer of morning milk and a layer of evening milk. When making Comté (cheese), cheesemakers would end the day with leftover curd that was not enough for an entire cheese. Thus, they would press the remaining evening curd into a mold, and spread ash over it to protect it overnight. The following morning, the cheese would be topped up with morning milk. Nowadays, the cheese is usually made from a single milking with the traditional ash line replaced by vegetable dye.

"The Jura and Doubs versions both benefit from an appellation d'origine contrôlée (AOC), though other non-AOC Morbier exist on the market.

"The aroma of Morbier is strong, but the flavour is rich and creamy, with a slightly bitter aftertaste."