Normandy may be best known for the D-Day Invasion during World War II, but gastronomes are more likely to think of apples, Calvados and Camembert.
Salvador Dali claimed that the inspiration for his melting watches came while he was eating Camembert.
The cheese that put the tiny Norman town of Camembert on the world map, is a soft, easily melted white cheese, similar to Brie, but with its own distinct flavor. Part of the flavor difference is a matter of terroir, the minerals in the grasses and local vegetation on which Norman cows graze. The other factor is the addition of penicillium camemberti which also gives the surface it’s dusty white edible mold. Size is another difference, Camembert rounds are much smaller than Brie, usually about 4.5 inches in diameter, and sold in a thin wooden box.
Genuine Camembert is AOC designated, but it has many immitators in other regions of France as well as other countries, some using pasteurized milk. Part of the reason, as JoAnn Brennan points out in her article on Unpasteurized Camembert, is that raw milk cheeses like true Camembert are prevented from being imported into the United States.
History
Like many great cheeses, the history of Camembert cheese is clouded in legend and folklore, dominant among them is this: The forces of the French Revolution demanded that Roman Catholic priests swear allegiance to the newly forming republic. The clergy who refused were either executed or exiled. One who chose instead to hide out in the countryside was the Abbé Charles-Jean Bonvoust, from the town of Brie, near Paris.
Marie Harel sheltered the priest in her farm near Camembert. In return for her kindness, he shared with her the secret of turning her simple farmhouse cheese into what we know as Camembert. The name stuck after Marie Harel’s daughter, in 1851, presented some of their cheese as a gift to Napolean, telling him it was from her village, Camembert. Napolean praised it as the finest cheese he had ever tasted and the name of her village became the name of the cheese.
Camembert en Boîte
- 1 round Camembert with its box
- 1 clove garlic
- 2 Tbsp white wine
- Preheat the oven to 400° F.
- Remove the cheese from its box, reserving the box.
- Cut the garlic clove in half. Unwrap the box and rub the cheese’s surface all over with the cut face of the garlic.
- Return the cheese to the box. Put the box on a pie plate or small baking sheet.
- Use an ice pick or a toothpick to poke six or eight holes in the top of the cheese.
- Sprinkle the surface with white wine.
- Replace the lid.
- Bake for about 25 minutes.
Crazy for cheese? Get some more great ideas in If You Like it Easy and Cheesy.
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