? ? ?Normandy · cow's milk
? ? ?Normandy · cow's milk
? ? ?Île-de-France · cow's milk
? ? ?Hauts-de-France · cow's milk
? ? ?Alsace · cow's milk
? ? ?Burgundy · cow's milk
? ? ?Jura · cow's milk
? ? ?Savoie · cow's milk
? ? ?Savoie · cow's milk
? ? ?Auvergne · cow's milk
? ? ?Auvergne · cow's milk
? ? ?Occitanie · sheep's milk
? ? ?Loire Valley · goat's milk
? ? ?Basque Country · sheep's milk
? ? ?Corsica · sheep's or goat's whey
Photo credits
- Cheese photos come from Wikimedia Commons. The photographers are:
- Coyau (Brie de Meaux, Camembert, Cantal, Crottin de Chavignol, Maroilles) · CC BY-SA 3.0
- Zubro (Beaufort, Munster, Pont-l'Évêque, Saint-Nectaire) · CC BY-SA 3.0
- Thesupermat (Comté, Roquefort) · CC BY-SA 4.0
- Matt Biddulph (Époisses) · CC BY-SA 2.0
- Myrabella (Reblochon) · CC BY-SA 3.0
- Pierre-Yves Beaudouin (Ossau-Iraty) · CC BY-SA 4.0
- Zouzou (Brocciu) · CC BY-SA 3.0
Rules & what counts
French Cheese Quiz: Rules & What Counts
France makes more than 1,000 cheeses, and a few of them are on every menu in the world. This quiz shows 15 of the most famous, one photo each, and you type the name of each cheese.
Each card shows the region and the milk as a hint. A soft white round from Normandy is Camembert. A big pale wedge from Savoie is Beaufort. A blue sheep's cheese from Occitanie is Roquefort.
The hard part is the mountain cheeses. Comté, Beaufort, Cantal and Ossau-Iraty are all firm, pale wedges. The hint tells them apart.
How to play
- Just start typing. The quiz checks your answer at every keystroke. There is no submit button.
- A correct name flips its card and shows the name plate.
- You can answer in any order. The name you type solves the matching card wherever it sits on the grid.
- Short names count. "Brie" solves Brie de Meaux, "Chavignol" solves Crottin de Chavignol, and "Iraty" solves Ossau-Iraty.
- Spelling is forgiving. Capitals, accents and hyphens are ignored, and frequent misspellings such as "Camenbert", "Rocquefort" and "Reblechon" are accepted.
- Click a card to see the photo at full size. Click it again to close.
- The timer starts at your first keystroke and counts up. Give Up ends the run and shows every cheese you missed. Progress saves automatically.
What counts in this quiz
- 15 cheeses from 12 regions of French food: Normandy, Île-de-France, Hauts-de-France, Alsace, Burgundy, the Jura, Savoie, Auvergne, Occitanie, the Loire Valley, the Basque Country and Corsica.
- Every cheese in the set has a protected designation of origin (AOP).
- Every photo shows the cheese itself, cut or whole, with no label and no printed lid. A label would print the answer.
- Every photo is a freely licensed Wikimedia Commons image. The photographers are credited under the grid.
What's not included, and why
- Processed cheeses and supermarket brands are not in the quiz.
- Only one cheese from a place is in the quiz. Morbier is made next to Comté, so Comté stands for the Jura. Livarot is made next to Pont-l'Évêque, so Pont-l'Évêque stands for the Pays d'Auge.
- Cheeses from Switzerland and Italy are not here. Gruyère and Emmental come from Switzerland, even when a French dairy makes them too.
- A dish does not count. Tartiflette, fondue and raclette are recipes, not cheeses.
Good to know
- Roquefort ripens in natural caves under the village of Roquefort-sur-Soulzon. In 1925 it became the first French cheese with a protected name.
- Comté is the protected cheese that France makes the most of. A wheel weighs about 40 kg.
- A story from the Congress of Vienna in 1815 names Brie de Meaux the king of cheeses.
- Reblochon got its name from a second milking. Farmers kept back part of the milk from the landlord and milked again after he left.
- Brocciu is made from whey, not from curd. Corsicans eat it fresh in winter and spring.