All about Brebis

You’ve heard of chevre, the ubiquitous fresh goat’s milk cheese that graces supermarket cheese displays, fast-casual salads, and high-end cheese boards. And maybe you’ve tried fromage blanc, made with cow’s milk, spread on a hunk of baguette or swooped onto your morning toast. There’s another luscious, lactic cheese you should know: Brebis (pronounced “breh-bee”), the fresh sheep’s milk cousin of these two more common cheeses.

In France, “brebis”—which comes from the French for “ewe”—functions the way “chevre” does. The word refers to sheep’s milk cheese of any age. The same way “chevre” can mean a fresh, spreadable lactic cheese made from goat’s milk or a wrinkle-rinded crottin, brebis can be used to describe any sheep’s milk cheese produced in the French or Basque manner. The term is often used for French sheep cheeses, particularly those produced in the Pyrenees, the mountainous region dividing Spain and France that’s also home to the Basque people. Aged mountain cheeses made from sheep’s milk like Ossau-Iraty (full AOC name: Ossau-Iraty-Brebis-Pyrenees) fall under the category of brebis. Rich, pungent Roquefort—the iconic French blue cheese—is also a brebis, although the term is typically limited to wheels made in the hard-aged mountain style. In the United States, though, the term brebis is often used to refer to a fresh, lactic cheese made from ewe’s milk—the sheep equivalent of fresh chevre or fromage blanc.

Like its soft, spreadable goat and cow’s milk cousins, brebis is a lactic or acid-set cheese. The milk (whatever animal it comes from) is coagulated primarily from cultures producing lactic acid. The acid causes proteins in milk to form into curd over a much longer timespan (think 16 to 24 hours versus just 30 minutes for rennet-set cheeses). This creates a bright, acidic flavor and a softer, weaker structure in the finished product. After forming the curd, a fresh, high-moisture cheese like brebis would then be drained in cloth bags before being packaged.

So what’s the difference between these three fresh cheeses if they’re all soft, spreadable, and aged for just a few days? Although each one has the characteristic tang of a fresh lactic cheese, chevre tends towards more citrusy notes and a drier texture. Fromage blanc, made with cow’s milk, tends to have a milder flavor and richer texture than chevre. But brebis is even more luscious, soft, and supple. Why? Because sheep’s milk contains twice as much fat and 70 percent more protein than the others. Since cheesemaking is essentially the art of capturing as much of these solids as possible, you need only half as much sheep’s milk to make a pound of cheese as you do cow’s or goat’s milk. And because fresh cheeses are so dependent on the quality of the milk they’re made from—without secondary cultures, aging time, or affinage techniques to bring out more complex flavors—brebis is the richest of them all, with a subtly earthy flavor beneath the brightness of its lactic acid cultures.

Sadly, brebis is much less common here than chevre or fromage blanc—and it’s no wonder, considering that there are only a few hundred sheep dairies in the U.S. out of around 60,000 dairy farms counted by USDA, the vast majority of which milk cows. There are reasons for this: Despite their high-yielding milk, sheep produce just a tenth of the volume of milk that cows do. They’re also very susceptible to health issues like parasites, diseases, and predators, which makes the animals riskier for dairy farmers to raise. Plus, outdated restrictions around importing sheep during the mad cow disease panic in the late ’90s have made it nearly impossible to import better-quality breeding stock for dairy sheep from Europe or Canada.

If you’re having trouble finding brebis locally, a more common fresh sheep’s milk cheese in the States is sheep ricotta, which is a higher-protein soft cheese made from the whey remaining after the production of aged cheeses. Though it’s lower in fat, with a custardy texture thanks to the whey protein, it can substitute for brebis in a pinch. But there are still some great sources for this lush, extra-special fresh cheese to be found domestically. Blackberry Farm, the tony, pastoral resort in Tennessee's Great Smoky Mountains, is known for its supple, Good Food Award-winning brebis, available to ship seasonally. You can get Green Dirt Farm’s brebis—straight-up or flavored with herbs and seasonings—shipped to you via their website. Landmark Creamery in Wisconsin also ships their light, lemony brebis around the country. And Vermont Shepherd, one of the country’s longest-running artisan sheep dairies, blends their own sheep’s milk with cow’s milk sourced from a small neighboring dairy to make a mixed-milk take on this fresh cheese.

If you’re lucky enough to have a small sheep dairy in your region, chances are they’re producing a brebis-style cheese. Whether you’re serving it on a cheese board, spreading it on bread, or even schmearing it on your morning bagel, smooth, supple brebis is worth seeking out.

Cheese EducationAlexandra JonesNovember 2, 2020Sheep, French, American