Brousse du Rove

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Brousse du Rove is a type of goat milk cheese, made in the commune of Le Rove in the Bouches-du-Rhône region of France.

To distinguish it from other bushes in the region, enable clearer communication about a quality product and protect it from the appetites of some, a dossier was submitted by eight breeders in the spring of 2007.^[1]

Indeed, some industrialists and craftsmen, seeing a possible added value, were tempted to maintain doubt with an interesting product that didn't require the hard work and quality of feeding this particular livestock (mainly agro-pastoralism on the Rove and Étoile ranges).

Since 31 May 2018,^[2] Brousse du Rove has benefited from an Appellation d'origine contrôlée, In the book Balade au pays des fromages : Les traditions fromagères en France by Jean Froc, It is written:

In the Bouches-du-Rhône region, this recuite, from the Rove goat breed, is called brousse du Rove. It has been noticed since at least the beginning of the 19th century. Nowadays, this brousse, still rare and sought-after in Marseille and the surrounding region, has changed: it's made either with the milk of the Rove goats, or with cow's milk; in any case, it's milk rather than whey. Nevertheless, it is still eaten sweetened, drizzled with orange blossom water, or used as a base for an egg cake.

The Rove bush (AOC and AOP) is a farm production only cheese. It is based on whole goat's milk of the breed Rove and not with whey, unlike the other brousses which are whey cheeses. The Rove bush is therefore indeed a whey cheese in the sense of the French administration, as for the Swiss federal office of public health, and no longer a recooked.

The goats of Rove are carried out in agropastoralism on the scrublands of Rove, l'Étoile and other massifs surrounding Marseille. We can thus come across the shepherd, his goats and his dogs around Nerthe, Septeme, Simiane, Mimet, etc. They have a diet which must balance the grass, broom and gorse (argelas Genista scorpius) and other plants or shrubs (kermes oak Quercus coccifera) of this impregnated scrubland aromas of thyme, rosemary, or other more subtle ones like Helichrysum italicum and many others. They are brought back to the goat farm for milking at the end of the afternoon.

In the case of the commune of Rove, milking is done by hand, at the Vérune stable, in the center of the pastures, part of which overlooks the Berre pond and the other the rade de Marseille in breathtaking landscapes. Then he went down to the goat farm in Rove to be transformed. The farm is family-run and centuries old, unlike that of Septême where the last farmer gave way a few years ago to a municipal goat farm where the operator employs a shepherd. In addition to the heritage value of this goat farm, the other desired goal is the maintenance of an open landscape, "ecological" clearing in particular in the context of firefighting.

Immediately after milking, the milk is gradually raised in temperature to ~90 °C (194 °F) (it is therefore pasteurized), left to cool to ~70 °C (158 °F) , then the breeder-cheese maker adds spirit vinegar. He collects the lumps obtained with a skimmer and molds them into elongated conical shapes of 12 centimetres (4.7 in) in length. The yields and effluents of these cheeses should be compared with those of other cheese and other whey cheeses.

The exceptional level of fat in the milk of these goats is 45g per liter.^[3]

The elongated cylindrical faisselles would be a reminiscence of the tradition which would have made them served in ram's horns^[4] which had given way to tin cones then plastic cones.^[5] It is also found in "baskets".

Brousse du Rove is served in many of the finest restaurants and Michelin-starred establishments in and around Marseille, in a wide variety of preparations. Traditionally, it is served in cones, with coulis or other accompaniments, or simply plain.