Cheese has and will always be a risky dish to bring to the table. You probably have remarked this yourself too. Not everyone is a big fan of soft, wrinkled, moist, and funny-smelling cheeses. Cheese is a typical dish where the ‘hate it or love it’ quote is applicable. For our Dutch readers: We’re talking about the special cheeses, not the cheese you have on your sandwich like Belegen, Oude Kaas, Jonge Kaas etc.
First of all, let’s get rid of an ever-recurring problem of when to serve cheese. Is cheese a starter, entree, dessert, or a pairing for your typical Friday afternoon drink? Since cheese is quite heavy in calories and rich in flavors, it can ruin one’s appetite when served as a starter. And so, cheese is traditionally served after the main course and before the dessert. This is the traditional French way of serving cheese and thus, the only way.
This week we will focus on the history of one specific type of cheese that is perhaps the most famous one and also my personal favorite: Camembert. This famous moist, soft, creamy, and French cheese is made from cow’s milk and has a crust made of ripened cow’s milk. Camembert is often mistaken for brie and vice versa.
Fun Fact 1: Salvador Dali gave the camembert an architectural dimension:
“New York is a gothic Roquefort,
San-Francisco reminds me of a romanesqueue camembert”
Camembert vs Brie
It’s a very logical mistake since both kinds of cheese look very familiar to each other as each is produced in France and has a white crust with a soft inside. The biggest difference is in taste, because for the brie a thick cream is added in order to give the brie a slightly ‘softer’ taste. Camembert is often spicier and stronger in flavor.
In addition to that, the French cheeses both come from different regions. Brie originates from the province Ile-de-France which was formerly known as the region Brie. Camembert originates from Normandy. However, in order to know the difference one only has to use its eye. Camembert comes most often in a round shape while brie is made in a long triangular shape.
History of Camembert
The very first records of the production of Camembert cheese lead to Normandy in 1791, the same year when the United States of America ratified the Bill of Rights. The Camembert records show that a farmer named Marie Harel started producing a cheese that became locally famous because of its uniqueness.
Marie Harel created a new recipe to make cheese based on a story she heard from a priest who came from Brie. I hear you thinking and yes, you are right. The recipe the priest from Brie was talking about was indeed the recipe of brie cheese. Brie had been existing at that time for already 1000 years. The first records of Brie date back to 774.
Brie’s Influence
Even though Normandy and the province of Brie are not that far away from each other, the existence of Brie cheese was very unknown in Normandy. It wasn’t until the 19th century that Brie cheese became popular. How Brie became popular is quite a brilliant story:
At one of history’s most superior banquets, the Congress of Vienna, the 19th-century French diplomat Talleyrand reportedly called for a break from divvying up the nations, following the fall of the French Empire, in order to stage a cheese contest. More than sixty varieties of cheese were brought together, which were all tasted with great attention. Lord Castlereagh represented the English with Stilton, Dutch minister Baron de Falck nominated Limberger, Italy presented Stracchino and Switzerland put forward Gruyere to name but a few.
Duke de Talleyrand remained quiet until the end when the Brie was brought in. After a vote, they all praised French gastronomy and maintained that there was no other cheese that matched up to the Brie de Meaux and declared a new king ‘Le Roi des Fromages’ (King Of Cheeses).
Marie Harel’s Legacy
Back to the farm of Marie Harel in Normandy. As I said, the cheese produced by her became very popular in Normandy. The 100 years that followed were fairly uneventful next to the fact that Marie Harel passed away in 1844.
Marie Harel produced her cheese according to local customs, which was to produce everything by hand with her own resources. She initiated a dynasty of entrepreneurial cheesemakers who produced Camembert cheese on a large scale since she didn’t have a patent on the recipe. Of all cheese entrepreneurs, her grandson Cyrille Paynel, born in 1817, opened one of the first cheese factories in Calvados, Normandy.
With the arrival of industrial processing and multiple cheese factories, the expansion of the popularity of Camembert also happened. Especially after the invention of the wooden box by M. Ridel in 1890 that allowed cheese makers to transport soft cheeses worldwide. These wooden boxes are still seen today.
Fun fact 2: Did you know that Salvador Dali had the idea of the soft watches that appear in the famous ‘Persistence of memory” after having eaten a camembert cheese for dinner? Well, he did.
Camembert and World Wars
The largest popularization of Camembert cheese happened during World War I when Camembert became one of the components of the iron rations that were given to the French soldiers. The soldiers created an expression to define the behavior of unexploded shells, they said that they “foirer dans le camembert” or “made a balls-up in Camembert.”
In 1919 George Clèmenceau, nicknamed ‘the Tiger’ who served in the army of France during the First World War described Camembert as the following:
“Cet autre ami des hommes aux heures difficiles” or “This other friend of men during the hard times.”
After the First World War, an American citizen named Joseph Knirim visited Normandy and claimed that the camembert of that region had cured him of his stomachaches. He decided to pay homage to this cheese by raising a fund for the erection of the statue. Shortly after, a statue of Marie Harel was made and placed in Vimoutiers.
Camembert also had a feature in the Second World War. The statue of Marie Harel was damaged during a bombing in 1944 when the allies landed in Normandy. At the end of the war, a new fund was started in the USA to rebuild a statue, and soon a new statue was inaugurated.
Today
From the birth of Camembert cheese until the 1970s, cheesemakers never really understood the way the bacteria worked. The cheese is made by inoculating warmed cow milk with mesophilic bacteria, then adding rennet and allowing the mixture to coagulate. It is then placed in a mold where the cheese is turned every six to twelve hours. After 48 hours each mold contains a flat cylindrical solid cheese. After a ripening process of almost three weeks, the Camembert is ready to be transported.
This is the production process of Camembert today. However as said before, fungi were very misunderstood before the 1970s. This resulted in the Camembert rind/crust having multiple colors. The most common was white, but it could also be blue-grey with brown spots or slightly yellowish color.
I have to say, I’m quite satisfied with the fact that most Camembert cheeses are made in a consistent appearance. However, if you do wish to see and eat a Camembert cheese with odd colors you should look into natural cheeses.
Camembert, poetry,
Bouquet of our meals,
What would become life,
If you did not exist?Brillat-Savarin