The French have a knack for using everything. A French dictum is “Tout est bon dans le cochon,” or “Everything’s good from the pig,” meaning they use and eat everything from head to tail. You will see French chefs scraping the last of the egg white from the shell with their fore finger so as not to waste any. Fromage fort is another tasty French idea born from thrift. The name means strong cheese and I’ve heard that is due to the addition of garlic.
It is a way of using all those errant bits of cheese in your refrigerator and turning them into something special, spreadable, and good to the last cheese nub.
You can be pretty loose with this recipe, the only hard and fast rule is to bring it to the proper consistency. You will need a balance of soft cheese or butter to lend creaminess, essential for spreading on les biscuits. Other than that you can let your mind run free. To give you an idea of the varying softness and hardness of the cheese, the final test recipe I am doing now as I write is a mix of Brie, Gruyère, Parmesan, and Feta with creamy butter.
This freezes well if you’d like to portion it out and save some for another day. This recipe can easily be doubled or halved and is pretty forgiving. It is pretty tasty with a spring glass of rosé or Chardonnay; however, no harm if you pull out a red.