Fourme d'Ambert

{{Short description|Semi-hard French blue cheese}}

{{infobox cheese

| name = Fourme d'Ambert

| image = 225px

| country = France

| region = (Puy-de-Dôme), Auvergne

| town = Ambert

| source = Cow

| pasteurized = Depends on variety

| texture = Semi-hard

| aging = 1-4 Months

| certification = AOC 2002, PDO 1996
With Fourme de Montbrison
since 1972

}}

Fourme d'Ambert ({{IPA|fr|fuʁm dɑ̃bɛʁ|-|LL-Q150 (fra)-Lyokoï-fourme d’Ambert.wav}}; Auvergnat: Forma d'Embèrt) is a semi-hard French blue cheese. One of France's oldest cheeses, it dates from as far back as Roman times.{{verify source|date=January 2019}}{{cite web|url=http://www.cheese.com/ambert/|title=Cheese.com profile}} It is made from raw cow's milk from the Auvergne region of France, with a distinct, narrow cylindrical shape.{{cite book | last =Iburg | first =Anne | title =Dumont's Lexicon of Cheese | publisher =REBO publishers | year =2004 | isbn =90-366-1689-1 | url-access =registration | url =https://archive.org/details/dumontslexiconof0000ibur }}

The semi-hard cheese is inoculated with Penicillium roqueforti spores and aged for at least 28 days.

Almost identical to Fourme de Montbrison, the two were protected by the same AOC from 1972 until 2002 when each was recognized as its own cheese with slight differences in manufacture.{{cite web|url=http://www.fourme-ambert.com/htm/aoc.htm|title=AOC Fourme d'Ambert et de Montbrison|access-date=2006-12-26|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070211095606/http://www.fourme-ambert.com/htm/aoc.htm|archive-date=2007-02-11|url-status=dead}} A likeness of the cheese can be found sculpted above the entrance to a medieval chapel in La Chaulme, Puy-de-Dôme.{{cite web|title=Fourme d'Ambert - (formaggio.it)|url=http://www.formaggio.it/francia/fourmedambertE.htm|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20130612082109/http://www.formaggio.it/francia/fourmedambertE.htm|archivedate=2013-06-12}}

Although most often produced with pasteurized milk by industry and Coopératives, more recently artisanal production has begun using raw milk, and farm or fermier production has now restarted.{{cite book |last= Barthélemy |first= R. |author2=Sperat-Czar, A. |title= Cheeses of the World |publisher= Hachette |year= 2004 |isbn= 1-84430-115-X}} Currently, four farmers produce annually up to 35 tonnes (38.58 tons) of fourme d'Ambert fermière AOP made with raw milk.