Camembert

What is Camembert Cheese?

Camembert comes from the village of Camembert in Normandy, northwest France, where it was first made in the late 18th century. Marie Harel, a Normandy farmer, reportedly made it in 1791 after advice from Abbot Charles-Jean Bonvoust, who came from Alençon. She refined a cheese recipe that already existed in the Pays d'Auge. Her daughter's husband, Victor Paynel, presented one of his wife's best cheeses to Napoleon III, who gave it his royal seal of approval.

The cheese sold today owes more to the industrialization of cheesemaking at the end of the 19th century. In 1890 an engineer, M. Ridel, devised the wooden box that carried it over long distances, including to America, and that box is still in use. French troops were issued Camembert during World War I. Camembert de Normandie took the AOC in 1983 and a protected designation of origin in 1992, and it can only be made from raw milk from Normandes cows.

Warmed cow milk is inoculated with mesophilic bacteria, then set with rennet. The curd is cut into cubes of roughly 1 cm (1/2 inch), salted, and transferred to low cylindrical molds. Those molds are turned every six to twelve hours so the whey drains evenly, and after 48 hours each holds a flat cheese of about 250 grams (9 oz) that is still hard, crumbly and bland. The surface is then sprayed with an aqueous suspension of Penicillium camemberti and left to ripen for a legally required minimum of three weeks.

That affinage builds the bloomy edible rind and the creamy interior. A finished round measures 10.2 cm (4 in) across by 3.2 cm (1.26 in) thick and is covered by rind on every side. Rind color was once a matter of chance, most often blue-grey with brown spots; pure white did not become standard until the mid-1970s. The flavor is stronger, slightly sour and sometimes chalky, and the paste is softer than brie. An overripe wheel carries a harsh amount of ammonia, produced by the same microorganisms that ripen it.

Camembert is usually sold whole in a thin round container of poplar wood, with cartons and ring-pull tin cans as modern alternatives; cardboard is reserved for the cheap ones. Warmed, it turns creamier, while brie holds more of its structure. Similar cheeses are made elsewhere: Hungary uses the same name, the Czech Republic calls it Hermelín, Slovakia encián or plesnivec, Cornwall sells Cornish Camembert, and Fonterra in New Zealand makes a 1 kg (2 lb) Camembert Log.