Don’t be frightened by that blue line you see in the center of this cheese. It's only vegetable ash. According to tradition, local farmers would, in order to keep insects out, cover the milk from the evening milking with ash from their fires. The next day the farmers would take milk from the morning milking and pour it on top of the prior evening's ash-covered milk, leaving a blue-gray line in the middle of the cheese. But that was long ago, and today the line is mostly for show. (Then again, what isn't mostly for show these days?) Regardless of its superficiality, Morbier is one of the quintessential cheeses from the Jura in Franche Comte. It's an earthy, robust, buttery cheese made from the milk of Montbeliard cows. Try melting it over potatoes.

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