About us

François Coumes:

said Rousset (the nickname was used to identify the different families of the same name, as it was very common to meet the same family names in the Couserans), Majouarou (ie shepherd-cheesemaker in summer) in the mountain of Rogalle; He was born on May 17, 1864 in Rogalle and died there on March 5, 1948.

Justin Félicien Coumes:

Born in Rogalle February 2, 1896 and died May 11, 1967. He took over the work of his father and also made cheese in summer thanks to his cows.

Fernand Coumes:

Born on December 23, 1921 in Rogalle, he gave the name "Rogallais" in homage to the native village of his ancestors, cheese already made for several generations. He devoted himself solely to this activity until 1957. Like his great fathers he continued, while making cheese, to work the land and keep the flocks. He developed cheese in Rogalle before moving to Seix in 1981. He died on June 22, 2000.

Julien Coumes:

Born in Rogalle on February 1, 1952. He succeeded his father in 1985. He kept all the know-how of his ancestors while developing and modernizing the cheese factory. It greatly increased the production and marketing of "Rogallais".

Marie Lise Coumes:

Born on September 1, 1979, at the age of 6, she saw her parents take over the family tradition. In turn in 2015, she takes care of the cheese factory. Célia, Florian and Lily:

The 6th generation is already forming ...

We find the origins of Rogallais in the mountain of Rogalle at the end of the 19th century where it was made in summer mainly for family consumption. . It is Fernand Coumes who baptized his cheese "the Rogallais" and deposited the mark. The cheese was made from the milk of the family cows. As milk production was insufficient, he turned to milk for collection. Her cow's heads weighed, after ripening for 2 to 3 months, about 4.5 kg. Julien Coumes, his son, succeeds his father and develops the production where 1600 L of milk are used every day in the manufacture of Rogallais. Cheeses of 2.5 kg and 4.5 kg are kept in the cellar on oak boards for 6 to 8 weeks. Every morning it is necessary to rub them, salt them and return them to give them a beautiful golden crust. With whey, he made "broussach" which was consumed as a dessert with sugar and traditionally in the Couserans with plum brandy or coffee. The churn butter molded every morning was the treat of the taste buds. Then the cheese dairy will develop other cheeses: tomme sheep, goat then later sheep cows and three milks. In order to meet the tourist demand of the 500 g toupees of cow, sheep and goat were born. Since a few months, we also find in our cellars cheese cow maturing longer. The Rogallais then takes on a more intense flavor and this cheese, which is traditionally creamy and creamy, becomes drier.

The recipe for making this cheese has been handed down from generation to generation. It takes thirty milliliters of rennet per hundred liters of milk. The setting time is important, and requires one hour. The milk was gently heated to 30 ° C. In the tank, work began. The curd was slicing into large cubes using a slice curd also called lyre. The "duck" or "tuft", consisting of the head of a branched tree except the terminal branch, in the shape of an inverted cone whose multiple oars pass into the solidified milk. The grain must be regular and one made sure of the good consistency by filling the palm of his curd hand and the cheese maker judged it thanks to his experiment. Several times hand-brewed, the curd was heated to 45 ° C before being separated from the whey. The remaining cream, then extracted using a cream separator was used to make churn butter and whey was used for the manufacture of the bush also called "broussatch". The remaining dough was molded into drilled plastic cylinders. A thick, dripping round was trapped in a thick white gauze, which reached the mold on the drip table. This one was put in press and after twenty-four hours of draining, during which the cheeses were returned, then one passed them in cellar of ripening to make them ripen during four to six weeks. Every day, the cheeses were rubbed and returned manually with salt water and walked in the cellar to arrive on the sales display.