cendré a French term used to describe cheese coated with ashes, ideally of vine roots (sarments), but now more usually with industrially powdered charcoal mixed with salt. It gives the surface of the cheese a bluish or greyish hue, with a speckled effect.
© the Estate of Alan Davidson 1999, 2006, 2014 © in the Editor’s contribution to the second and third editions, Oxford University Press 2006, 2014.