Tomme de Savoie IGP

Tomme de Savoie is the everyday cheese in Savoie. A flat wheel with a grey flowered rind, a supple yet firm paste with a mild, sometimes slightly cellar-like taste. Less prestigious than the AOP cheeses, it is nonetheless the most widespread cheese in the region, present on every table. It carries an IGP (protected geographical indication).

A cheese born of a mountain economy

Tomme tells a simple peasant logic. On the farms, the cream of the milk was used to make butter, which was more valuable. The skimmed milk that remained was not wasted: it was turned into a lean cheese, the tomme, to feed the family. That is why a real Tomme de Savoie is often low in fat, around 20 to 30% depending on the version, where other cheeses use whole milk. This modest cheese crossed the centuries because it was useful and cheap.

Milk, making and rind

Tomme is made from cow’s milk, raw or pasteurised depending on the maker, with the local breeds: Abondance, Montbéliarde and Tarine provide most of the milk. It is a pressed, uncooked paste, moulded then aged several weeks in a cellar. The grey rind takes on natural moulds, sometimes yellow or red spots, which are part of the cheese’s identity. The “Savoie” mark is printed on the heel or top of the wheels under IGP.

A family of tommes

Under the name tomme lie many variants: a more characterful raw-milk farm tomme, a milder dairy tomme, versions aged for shorter or longer periods. All share the same grey rind and the same supple paste. It is a forgiving cheese, easy to love, ideal for getting into the cheeses of Savoie before moving on to the more pronounced AOP ones. To place it, see the Cheeses of Savoie pillar.

Tasting and cooking it

Tomme is eaten as it is, at the end of a meal or as a snack with bread and a glass of light red. Its rind is eaten or removed, to taste. In cooking, it melts well and goes into gratins and croziflettes. For wine, a Savoie red such as mondeuse or a dry white does the job: see Savoie wines. You find it everywhere, but it is best bought from a cheesemonger or a village dairy, for example in the Aravis or around Annecy.