Cancoillotte: The TikTok Cheese Changing the Way France Eats
Fishwives of Paris
Caroline Fazzelli and Emily Monaco explore the viral TikTok rise of cancoillotte, a historically regional French cheese from Franche-Comté that has been rebranded as a low-fat,
Key takeaways
- Cancoillotte originated in Franche-Comté as a practical way to use leftover skim milk from butter production, historically melted with water or milk and aromas like garlic or vin jaune.
- Fitness influencer Yoann Paps catalyzed the cheese's viral explosion on French TikTok in April 2026 by highlighting its low-fat, high-protein profile, prompting massive media coverage.
Main topics
- Cancoillotte cheese history and production methods
- TikTok viral food trends and influencer marketing in France
Notable quotes
"Emma Beddington called it lactose ectoplasm."
Conclusion
Listeners gain a nuanced understanding of how global fitness trends ar
Transcript preview
Speaker 3 (0:00) Bonjour, Caroline here. I just wanted to quickly pop in at the top to let you know that our podcast has been nominated for the Lovey Awards. This is the Webby Awards benchmark for European digital excellence. And we, Fishwives of Paris, have been nominated for Best Writing, Arts and Culture, and Best New Podcast. This is a huge deal. It means so much to us. And now it's up to you. You have to vote for us. So you do have to sign up if you're going to vote, which is kind of annoying, but you know, it's how these things work. Go to fishwivesofparis.com and we have all the direct links to vote for us. Voting ends on October 15th. So you got to do it now. We are just so happy. We're so thrilled. We really, really want to win. We're up against some really high quality competitors and we know we can win it though. So we need your help. Vote. for us on the Lovey Awards. We are just so, so grateful. Thank you so much. Speaker 2 (0:54) Bonjour, Emily. Speaker 3 (0:55) Bonjour, Speaker 2 (0:55) Caroline. We are the Fishwives of Speaker 3 (0:57) Paris, and today we're going to talk about a TikTok sensation, a cheese that looks like snot. It Speaker 2 (1:06) does look like snot. I recently read an article in The Guardian where Emma Beddington called it lactose ectoplasm. Speaker 3 (1:16) And this Cheese that everyone's talking about and giving quite unflattering descriptions to is concouillette. Did I say that right? You Speaker 2 (1:24) did say that right. Correct. Excellent. Well, Speaker 3 (1:27) I'll tell you what. I worked on that a lot last night in bed with my husband. Concouillette? That's sexy. Concouillette? So wait, can you say it once properly for us? Concouillette. C'est Speaker 2 (1:43) un Speaker 3 (1:43) peu... C'est un peu... C'est un peu... C'est un Speaker 2 (1:46) peu... C Speaker 3 (1:49) 'est Speaker 2 (1:50) un Speaker 3 (1:50) peu... C'est un peu... Speaker 1 (2:08) Why are you an expert? Because my family comes from that part of France, from Franche-Comté, where Conquayote is from. So we perfectly know how to pronounce Conquayote. So Speaker 3 (2:21) Dominique is an expert because of that and because she's my mother-in-law. Oh, fine. Speaker 1 (2:26) So Speaker 3 (2:26) she had to correct me. She was right. And it's embarrassing because we really talked about pronouncing it. and how hard it is, and then we pronounced it incorrectly. So, con-quay-ote. Yes, fine. Con-quay-ote. Con-quay-ote. Sorry, apologies to everyone from the Franche-Comté, and apologies because we will have it incorrect for the rest of the episode, but we do know the correct pronunciation. Thanks to Dominique. Thank you. Merci, Dom. Speaker 2 (2:55) So before we get into this one, let me just, for anyone who's just tuning in for the first time, first of all, where have you been? And second of all, my fabulous co-host, Caroline Fazzelli, née Connor, a Cordon Bleu-trained chef, a former chalet chef, and a current wine teacher and influencer with 160,000 followers and counting. I Speaker 3 (3:22) mean, by the time... People listen to this. Hopefully it'll be more. And thank you, Emily, for the introduction. Well, you are Emily Monaco, a naturalized French citizen. So you're actually French. You are a holder of a master's degree in comparative literature from the Sorbonne, a well-respected and widely published culinary journalist, food tour guide, and international cheese judge. Speaker 2 (3:46) That's me. And today we are going to talk about a pretty weird cheese. This Speaker 3 (3:51) is right up your alley. Speaker 2 (3:52) It is, but it's also right up your alley because if I understand correctly, you and the French love a thing. Well, Speaker 3 (4:02) I actually find a thing very annoying. But I think what's – so what's annoying about the thing in France – and we're going to talk about what this means a lot. But basically there is a myth-making in French food and culture that we see all the time, that we talk about all the time on this podcast. And there is this idea of like that something has always been. So the example that I always use, and we need to do an episode on this, is the praline rose, you know, the like pink praline from Lyon. People are like, why is it pink? It's pink because once someone made it pink and then it became a thing. And so I think what's so interesting about Concoyote, I still can't fucking do it, about Concoyote, Concoyote, Concoyote, is that we are watching. the creation of a thing in real time. So just before we get into it, let's just explain what is concaiote. It is a loose, stretchy, gloopy cheese from the Franche-Comté region, which is the Jura. It's very smelly, but it's quite mild. And this is something that basically doesn't exist in the States. I'm not sure if it's being imported at all. As far Speaker 2 (5:16) as I can tell, it's not. Speaker 3 (5:18) It's not. It is available in the UK, I think. Yeah, and I think Speaker 2 (5:22) a little bit in Canada. Speaker 3 (5:24) But it's pretty rare. Here Speaker 2 (5:27) it's... It's not rare, but it's random. Speaker 3 (5:31) And it's something that I had never heard of until I moved here, of course, and you probably had never heard of it until you listened to this podcast. But it's something that I have been here for nine years, Emily. I've been in three relationships with dudes. One of them I married. All three of these dudes love this shit. So this is something that my interactions with it are because a man is like, oh, yeah, I love Speaker 2 (5:54) Conkerhood. Speaker 3 (5:54) And then I'm like, OK. It's not my favorite. I mean, I don't know. I'm not that into cheese, which is a grave sin of mine. I don't know why we're Speaker 2 (6:02) friends. I Speaker 3 (6:03) know. I know. I'm sorry. It's just not my jam. Like, I don't know. Like, I'll eat it, but I'm not going to, like, buy a bunch of cheese all the time for no reason. But basically, this stuff, I'm going to show you. So if you're listening, I'm going to try to describe it. But it comes in a pot. This says La Traditionnelle Concoyote IGP Nature. And so this is unflavored. We're going to get into that as well. This says sans polyphosphate. Wow. Which leads me to believe that some of them probably do have that in them. So you pull off the top. And this is the kind of like almost like a yogurt pot. It has foil covering it. And then it really is, I mean, snot and ectoplasm is truly the best way to describe it. Like glue almost. I feel like Elmer's glue. It's thicker than that, actually. It's thicker than Elmer's glue. It's also cold. This is fresh from the fridge. This would have an Elmer's glue texture if it was room temp. It's gloopy. It's like slime. And it does like the stretch does break the pull. But if it were warmer, I think it would have a really, really long pull. It's a delightful snotty color. That's for sure. You know, slightly yellow. And then it stinks. This is an important thing to know about it. It is a smelly smelling tin. What does it Speaker 2 (7:28) stink of? Feet? Armpit? Yeah. I'd say it's a... Speaker 3 (7:36) No, it's... Speaker 3 (7:39) It is feet, but it's got an acidic stink. Speaker 2 (7:43) You know, it's a sour Speaker 3 (7:45) foot. Speaker 2 (7:47) So like, I don't know. Speaker 3 (7:48) I don't know when your foot, how a foot would become sour. It's a pickled foot. Speaker 2 (7:54) Okay. Okay. Pickled feet. I'm with you. Pickled feet. It tastes. Speaker 3 (7:58) Mm. Speaker 3 (8:00) It tastes really mild. Like it still has Some funk? But it tastes really mild and it does have quite a nice texture. It's very creamy. It's very moorish, salty. I think I like it more than I realized, actually. Speaker 2 (8:20) That's good news. Yeah, Speaker 3 (8:21) it's not a good desk snack because it is quite messy. Speaker 2 (8:25) And smelly. Speaker 3 (8:26) Yeah, it's messy and smelly. And what's funny is my husband went out this morning to buy it because I forgot to get it yesterday. And he also bought me a baguette to go with it because he thought I was going to actually just like eat it all. I just, I mean, a baguette is also a terrible desk snack. I don't want crumbs in my office. Speaker 2 (8:40) No. Well, the French don't believe in desk snacks at all. One should not be eating at one's desk in France. I've been scolded for this. Speaker 3 (8:49) I think that's wise. But so, you know, back to why we're talking about this. This has just really blown up and become a thing. And we're going to go into a lot more detail about the process of that. But it really is because of TikTok. Speaker 2 (9:00) Right. And why is it all over TikTok right now? Speaker 3 (9:03) Because this product, ConcoYote, is being touted as a health food for fitness freaks because it's low in fat and high in protein. Speaker 2 (9:15) Exactly. So if you're in the States right now. you can think about concouillette as kind of the French version of cottage cheese. The sort of cottage cheese mania that is taking over the United States is currently taking over France. And this is particularly weird because typically the idea of like food as fuel or like breaking food down into its like nutritional components is not an argument for the popularity of a food in France. Speaker 3 (9:47) They're all about moderation, right? Like they love fatty, rich, delicious, sweet, salty things. You just don't have a lot of them. So it is an interesting cultural shift that I think is obviously influenced by the States and by the fitness culture in the States. Speaker 2 (10:05) Yeah. So, I mean, when you were talking about things becoming a thing in France, things do become a thing and historically have become a thing. over time, but typically it goes a specific way. It's usually based on French values and the values around French food are more about culture, history, terroir than they are about this sort of macro nutrient vibe that we have in the US. We have a couple of turning point moments. in the history of French food, the most prominent of which is the 19th century with the rise of train travel and industrialization. And so we're going to retcon all sorts of bucolic sort of historical origins for things that might be loosely based on reality, but really, I mean, are quite mythologically founded. There is longstanding proof that historically in France, the value of food was not for it to be fuel. So I found this article written in 2019 by Pascal Ebal, who was a representative or who is a representative of the Crédoc, which is a major French research center. And she drew this distinction saying that until the 1980s. Speaker 2 (11:26) alimentation was not a talking point in France. And I voluntarily kept the word alimentation because alimentation and nourriture are two different ways about talking about food that don't really mean the same thing. Speaker 3 (11:39) I feel like alimentation would be like, would you feed your dog? Totally. Like, yeah, like you're a mom, you're