Alexander Gushchin
I can’t vouch for the taste, but it will be hot :)
Mar 6 2017
Content
This product highly appreciated by gourmets from different parts of the world. True connoisseurs eat the delicacy, washed down with neutral varieties of wine, which do not overwhelm the complex taste of the cheese, but somewhat soften its sharpness. Camembert is included in many French cuisine recipes: it complements desserts, soups, various sauces.
The product comes from France, but has won the love of millions of people from around the world. Camembert is a soft, high-fat cheese made from high-quality cow's milk (to obtain delicate taste product, livestock are grazed on special pastures). The finished delicacy can have a color from snow-white or light beige to dark brick, and its aroma resembles the smell of dampness, while the more mature the cheese, the brighter the smell. The heads weighing approximately 300 grams are covered with a white crust, which is formed by a special type of mold.
Not everyone likes the aroma of the Normandy delicacy: it resembles the smell of rottenness, and the harshness depends on the degree of aging of the product. If you feel that the smell of Camembert is ammonia-like or too pungent, this indicates that the product has gone bad. Real French cheese only comes with a creamy taste. Other types, with additives such as mushrooms, bacon, garlic, cannot be called Camembert. The taste of the delicacy is spicy and spicy, with a subtle aftertaste of cream. At the same time, the middle of the product is soft, and the mold crust is dense.
Externally, both types of product are similar - there is white mold on their surface. What is the difference between brie and camembert? The main feature of Camembert is its higher fat content and soft consistency. Yes, even with room temperature the delicacy begins to quickly melt inside. Brie and Camembert cheese also differ in shape: the first is triangular, and the second is round. The Camembert crust has a sharper taste and a bright egg-mushroom aroma. The smells of the cheeses also differ: the aroma of brie is more like ammonia, and the moldy surface is almost tasteless.
The beneficial properties of the product are explained by its composition: cheese contains a lot of vitamins, amino acids, and microelements. Nutritionists advise including the variety even in the diet of those people who are lactose intolerant, since Camembert contains extremely little of it. To improve health and prevent the development of various diseases, a person should eat only 20-50 grams of the product per day. What other benefits of Camembert cheese are there:
Among the mass of varieties of products that are produced with mold, Camembert stands out. In the process of making this type of cheese, porcini mushrooms of the genus Penicillium candidum and Penicillium camemberti are used. The calorie content of blue cheese is approximately 300-340 kcal per 100 grams of the delicacy. However, the nutritional value and calorie content of a dish may vary depending on the cooking technology and ingredients used.
Since the cheese has a high fat content, at low temperatures it hardens, becoming as hard as butter. If the treat is served in this state, the taste and smell of the treat will be indistinguishable. How to eat Camembert? You need to eat the cheese in its thawed form, taking it out of the refrigerator in advance and cutting it not into thin pieces, but into portions (like a cake). Before eating Camembert cheese, you need to give the delicacy time to reach room temperature. What do you eat Camembert with? The table is served with nuts, fruits, and fresh baguette. It is appropriate to add fresh herbs and rose wine to the treat.
The product is easier to prepare than hard varieties, which require long-term processing of the granular mass, a long process of oxidation and squeezing under high pressure. To make Camembert at home, you only need milk, mesophilic starter culture, salt and rennet. In this case, it is better to purchase the base from farmers who graze cows in the meadows. Cheese made from such milk will be much tastier and healthier. For the delicacy to ripen, the refrigerator should be about 11-13 degrees Celsius and air humidity 85-95%. How to prepare Camembert cheese with white mold:
The authentic product is produced in the provinces of France, so it is worth purchasing cheese that has this country on the label. To ensure the authenticity of Camembert, check for the characteristic stripes that are imprinted on the cheese when it ripens on the racks. Experts recommend choosing young varieties that are covered with light-colored mold and have a delicate aroma. The approximate price of Camembert cheese sold in Moscow is (per head):
Gourmets love to eat the delicacy with light wine, then they can feel the whole bouquet of cheese flavors. Camembert is especially revered in France, where it is served with fresh bread and used to cook different salads, sauces, first courses, desserts. Often recipes with Camembert cheese involve baking the product, which makes it slightly viscous and softens the taste and aroma. An excellent option for using cheese is to prepare all kinds of pies, casseroles, pizza, sandwiches, etc.
The fried camembert cheese turns out soft on the inside and dense, crispy on the outside. The dish attracts many with its delicious crust and incomparable aroma. The appetizer can be served with different sauces, but it is ideally complemented by sweet and sour refreshing cranberry sauce. This sauce highlights the delicate creamy taste well. Preparation takes a minimum of time, and it turns out gourmet dish French cuisine, which you can treat to unexpected guests.
Ingredients:
Cooking method:
Thanks to its complex taste, French Camembert cheese has long gained an army of loyal fans. This special variety is a kind of small work of gastronomic art, which they work on for 6 whole weeks. But in order to appreciate all the flavor subtleties of cheese, it is necessary to consume it correctly. Let's tell you how and with what to eat Camembert to highlight his bouquet savory flavors and aromas.
Today you can treat yourself to the delicious Camembert in two versions: Alti Camembert in the form of a small puck and Alti Camembert Creme de Cheese - a specially created creamy form for lovers of soft cheeses.
Camembert is a high-fat cheese, so if you serve it straight from the refrigerator, it will be hard and tasteless. Remove the Camembert from the cold in advance, giving it time to thaw a little (about 30 minutes). Please note that Camembert is not cut into thin slices like regular cheese - it is cut into portions like a cake or pie.
In terms of its taste, Camembert is almost unique - it can harmoniously combine with various shades of taste: from sour and salty to fruity and sweet. And it will always be different, and always special.
So, under what “accompaniment” does Camembert cheese reveal all its flavor delights:
As you can see, Camembert cheese is a small holiday, rich in taste, unique tart aromas, and also with a special French charm. You are worthy of such an elite treat, aren’t you?
Camembert is a French soft cheese with white mold, distinguished by a very delicate, even runny consistency and a sweetish-creamy taste with a hint of mushroom. The cheese rind is edible, white, dense, sometimes with brown streaks. Despite the fact that it is a relatively young variety of cheese (it was invented in 1791), Camembert is now one of the most famous and best-selling French cheeses. The head of Camembert has the shape of a low cylinder with a diameter of 11 cm and a height of 3.5 cm. Traditionally, this cheese is supplied in round wooden boxes, which allows it to be preserved intact tender crust and don't mash the cheese. Norman Camembert ( Camembert Normandie) is made from unpasteurized milk and is protected by region of origin (AOC). However, other regions of France produce Camembert of excellent quality and from pasteurized milk, e.g. Camembert Le Châtelain. The production of Camembert is not limited to France alone: this cheese is now made in Germany, Italy, the USA, Brazil, Japan and other countries.
Camembert, like other white mold cheeses, ripens from the rind to the center. At the same time, a high-quality ripe Camembert should have a fairly uniform consistency, softer and more fluid in the center and dense around the edges. If the core of the cheese is hard and the edges are runny, this indicates that it has not ripened properly. According to modern standards, Camembert's crust should be an even white color, but previously a gray-blue tint of the crust with red-brown veins was allowed. The smell of Camembert is mushroomy and creamy. Overripe Camembert smells distinctly of ammonia and is not recommended for consumption.There is a legend that during the French Revolution, the Catholic priest Charles Jean Bonvoust from the province of Brie, like many others, did not accept church reform and fled, trying to hide on the outskirts of France, in Normandy. The abbot's path ran through the village of Camembert, one of whose residents, an ordinary peasant woman Marie Harel, was so kind that she sheltered the fugitive priest in her house, thus saving his life. Marie's family was a cheese maker, and in gratitude for their kindness, Charles Bonvoust shared with them a recipe for a surprisingly soft blue cheese crusted with mold. In 1791, Marie, under the leadership of Charles, first prepared cheese according to this recipe for sale, and it was very much to the taste of local residents. The daughter of our heroine, Marie Paynel, continued her mother’s work. Soon, word of the cheese from the village of Camembert spread throughout France, and this happened thanks to Marie’s grandson Victor Paynel in 1863. When the French Emperor Napoleon III arrived in the town of Vimoutiers (5 km from the village of Camembert) for the opening of the railway connecting Paris and Granville, Victor presented him with a basket of these soft cheeses. To the emperor’s question, he replied that such cheeses were produced in the village of Camembert nearby, after which Napoleon III assigned the name to this cheese: “From now on it will be called Camembert.”
Camembert gained worldwide fame after 1890, when engineer Eugene Riedel invented a special round box made of birch bark for its transportation (usually poplar bark was used). During the First World War (1914-1918), Gruyère and Cantal cheeses were purchased en masse for the needs of the French army, but they were constantly in short supply, so it was decided to supplement the soldiers’ rations with Camembert cheese, which was already supplied in tin boxes. Carried around the world by French soldiers, these delicious cheeses won many fans outside of France.
At the beginning of the 20th century, Camembert took on the form it is known today: it was made using the mold Penicillium camemberti, which gave the cheese its famous white rind with a mushroom flavor.
The authenticity of the legend about Marie and the fugitive abbot is now perhaps impossible to verify. It is known that the mayor of Vimoutier and the American doctor Joseph Neerim, who erected a monument to Marie Harel in 1928, found mention of her in local archives, so Marie herself is quite real. Physician Joseph Knierim researched beneficial properties this cheese and came to the conclusion that its consumption can help with various stomach disorders. Nirim prescribed Camembert to his patients as a cure for gastritis, and the medicine really helped.
Now Camembert is considered one of the symbols of France, along with the Eiffel Tower and baguette.
Camembert is one of the most popular dessert cheeses. Here are some tips to help you truly enjoy its great taste.
Despite their apparent similarity, these two cheeses have the following differences:
Camembert
Material provided by "BEREG" magazine
According to legend, Camembert was invented by a certain Marie Harel, one of the residents of the village of Camembert, after which the cheese was named. They say that a priest gave the secret of its manufacture to Marie. In France, during the French Revolution of 1789, all Catholic priests were required to prove and demonstrate their loyalty to the new Republic. Those who refused faced execution or exile. Some priests decided to go to the outback and hide, waiting for better times. They say that in October 1790, the disgraced Abbot Charles-Jean Bonvoust asked for shelter from Marie Harel, who lived on her Beaumoncel farm. The priest was a native of Brie, a region located near Paris and famous for its cheeses. In gratitude for her hospitality, the Abbot shared with Marie the "secret" of making Camembert cheese.
Camembert village
Truly a beautiful legend! However, in fairness, we note that the region was already famous for its cheeses long before the birth of Marie Harel - on April 28, 1761! Back in 1569 Brugerin de Champier, in his essay “De Re Ciberia”, mentions cheeses from the Pays d’Auge region, as does another writer - Charles Estienne- in 1554. Thomas Corneille, brother of Pierre Corneille (author of the famous "Cid"), spoke of "cheeses ... from Camembert" in 1708, in his treatise on geography. In the 19th century, thanks to the advent of the railway (1850), Camembert cheeses conquered the markets of Paris and throughout France.
In 1890, engineer Riedel came up with a brilliant idea - to start packaging cheese in a wooden box. This decision allowed Camembert to travel without problems and significantly expanded the geography of its distribution. But in those days trademarks were not protected, and the secret of Camembert production spread beyond Normandy. They began to make it, that is, practically copy it, both throughout France and beyond its borders.
In 1926, the Court of Orleans officially recognized that the name "Camember» is a name that has received wide public use, as a result of which it is impossible to assign it only to Camembert from Normandy.
Since 1983, Normandy Camembert, made from unpasteurized, whole milk and molded by hand - with a special ladle, received the insignia - AOC (Authentic Name Controlled), which became a very modest revenge, a kind of “consolation prize” for manufacturers who defend the quality of their products.
Strict rules have been established to guide consumer choice: Article 2 of the Decree of December 26, 1986 regarding the Original Name"Camembert de Normandie » :
...Cheese under its original name "Camembert from Normandy"» is a cheese with a soft, delicate, slightly salted mass, white to creamy yellow in color, with a soft surface mold layer of white color with reddish inclusions, made from sour, whole milk, flat, cylindrical in shape, with a diameter of 10.5 to 11 cm . Made only from fermented cow's milk. 100 g of completely dehydrated product contains at least 45 g of fat. The total mass of dry matter should not exceed 115 g per product. The minimum weight of cheese must be at least 250 g...
Camembert
So, exactly quality criteria allow the consumer to be sure that this is real Camembert.
The secret is simple: it takes time. Cheese needs time"mature" And the technology is known to all Camembert producers:to 1000 l heated to 32° With milk is added rennet starter. After an hour, the sour milk is poured into a ladle into cylindrical molds with a diameter of 13 cm(1 form = 5 buckets). Within 1 day cheese"resting"and is freed from excess liquid. Then it is salted in exact proportions and spores are added penicilium candidum. Next, the cheeses are sent to the dryer for 2 weeks (constant temperature 12°C and ventilation). It is during this period that peniilium candidum develops and forms a crust. This is followed by the ripening stage, when the taste characteristics of the cheese are revealed. For production 450 cheeses need to 1000 liters of milk, that is 2.10 l per cheese.
Although process Always maintained with strict precision, the quality is never always the same. After all, the nutrition of the cows (in winter - hay, in the rest of the year - grass) and weather conditions (God forbid, heat, cold or thunderstorms!) are important factors for obtaining both the best Camembert and ordinary cheeses of good quality.
Farmer's Camembert And Camembert A.O.C. (Genuine Controlled Name), such as the famous "Jort» from dairies Bernier, have long constituted only a small fraction of all production. Some large food companies and concerns, with their technologies and capabilities, naturally occupy a major place in the market and fully satisfy the needs of many consumers. Although their products cannot compare with cheeses made by small, private farms, the food industry giants manage to convince and “bribe” consumers with old-style packaging and recipes from Normandy. Camembert became known far beyond the borders of France. Now it can be found on the tables of gourmets all over the world. And even in Russia, where its commercialization is carried out by the Lactalis group, which owns cheese factories in Germany and Poland. Lactalis has been operating in Russia since 1995. At first it was just a sales office. Then, in 1997, a branch appeared that was supposed to promote the Président brand - its oils and camemberts. The brand's products enjoyed great success and soon took a place among the most prestigious. In 2006, 80 tons of products were sold using these items alone. The Bongrain group has also successfully conquered foreign markets with its signature Camembert Cœur de Lion.
It is not for nothing that Camembert has become, along with baguette and wine, one of the most famous products. He managed to become necessary. It is tasted in its pure form, on small canapes, as an appetizer, baked in the oven, and served with fish. It can steal the crown from a slice of foie gras or allow itself to be caramelized into a delicious dessert. In the green expanses of Normandy there is a restaurant famous for its art of transforming Camembert. It's called La Camembertière. This is a wonderful, welcoming place in a traditional style with a warm atmosphere. Here you will be offered an original, creative cuisine where Cheese reigns supreme. Everything is not good enough for him, everything is allowed to him: apples, vegetables, accompanied, of course, cider - another main asset of Normandy. More recently, this most famous drink of Normandy (even Calvados takes only second place) began to allow itself the most incredible combinations.
At first, the Camembert-Cider Union appeared as a kind of challenge, a provocation, to protect and support local products in their integrity and in order to resist the invasion of red wine from other regions. And, as if by magic, their chance meeting turned into real story love. Many people, without hesitation or hesitation, are already opening a second bottle of brut cider, preferably from the farm! If you look closely, the tasting takes on the contours of a sacred sacrament for initiates: Camembert should be soft at the core, but firm around the edges; he should be dressed in marble-golden, but not dark yellow, clothing. The cider should be cool, but in no case cold; Before drinking, the drink must stand for several minutes in a special glass that expands towards the top, and more demanding customers prefer to drink it from the famous Breton clay bowls. The cider should be brut, but sweetened enough to achieve a flavor climax when paired with Camembert. Bread, like a witness at a wedding, should not stand out and impose its taste. It is best to opt for rustic campagnard bread with a crispy crust.
Camembert
Do not think that this gastronomic ritual is the property of selected specialists. He is winning more and more new supporters, and soon you won’t be able to resist either! These are the words that fit when we talk about Camembert. He knows how to awaken feelings. And even to such an extent that some are starting to make it a collector's item. First of all, the packaging is collectible. Labels remain the most prestigious objects of collecting passion, some of which collectors are willing to pay a tidy sum of euros for!
There is already a name for a new, fashionable hobby - tyrosemiophilia, and a person who passionately collects Camembert boxes now bears the proud and beautiful title of tyrosemiophile!
So Camembert is the real star. Everyone wants it, on advertising signs in cities they shamelessly strip it of clothes, they jealously enjoy it in the kitchen, without sharing it with anyone. Both on weekdays and on holidays - Camembert is always with us. And on festive table, and in the dark kitchen after a late performance - he is always ready to please those who are not indifferent to him! He is destined to have a long life, because not all the secrets of taste stored under the lid of his box have been solved!
Sauces, desserts and soups are prepared based on this delicacy. For its production we use only high quality cow's milk. The cattle's daily routine is strictly observed. He grazes on certain pastures far from cities and eats the best French herbs. This allows you to get a delicate and fatty product with unique taste. Its shade depends on the degree of ripeness. It ranges from beige to brown. The smell of a ripe delicacy is more pronounced and resembles the dampness of the earth.
Tips on how to eat Camembert will be useful for properly serving the delicacy
The cheese wheels are covered with a dense crust - a product of the vital activity of mold fungi. They give the delicacy a characteristic musty smell, which not everyone likes. If there are notes of ammonia in the aroma, the delicacy has gone bad. The taste differs in sharp notes and tenderness of cream. This unusual combination adds piquancy. In the middle, the texture of the head is liquid and viscous, hidden under a thick crust.
It’s easy to confuse this dish with another masterpiece of French cuisine – brie. However, they are only similar in appearance. Camembert has a fattier texture, a rich mushroom aroma and a spicy aftertaste. The brie crust is neutral in taste and smells of ammonia. The core is more dense and loose.
It is important to maintain the correct temperature. The room should be warm enough. At low temperatures, the fatty product will harden and its core will lose its cheesy flavor. The liquid consistency will become similar to butter.
Before serving the dish, it is removed from the refrigerator. At room temperature the product will melt quickly. Then it can be cut into portions. These should not be thin slices, but large slices. The presentation resembles slices of cake. There are always nuts on the table, a crispy fresh baguette, herbs and fruits. Among the drinks, it would be appropriate to choose rose wine.
