Brie de Meaux

Did You Know?

• The cheese has a soft, delicate white rind and a straw-yellow, creamy interior.
• The average weight of Brie de Meaux is 2.8 kg.

History

A modern legend traces Brie de Meaux to a seventh-century cheese described as rich and creamy with an edible white rind. In 774 AD, Frankish Emperor Charlemagne is said to have first tasted it in the company of a bishop and approved, ordering two cartloads sent annually to Aachen. The site of this event has become associated with the monastery traditionally founded by Rado in Reuil-en-Brie, though the anecdote is not found in the unreliable ninth-century life of Charlemagne by Notker the Stammerer. In 1815, Talleyrand named this cheese the 'king of cheeses' at the Congress of Vienna.

Manufacturing

Brie de Meaux falls under European Union Protected Designation of Origin regulations. Production is limited to the departments of Seine-et-Marne, Loiret, Meuse, Aube, Marne, Haute-Marne and the Yonne, though there is no production close to Meaux and little celebration of the cheese in the town. It is made with raw cow's milk; approximately 25 litres of milk yield a cheese 35 cm in diameter and 1 cm tall. The fermented milk is placed in a tank for 16 hours, then put in a bowl for curdling lasting one hour.

It is cut into small cubes with a slice-curd and moulded by hand into thin layers with a brie shovel. The casting room temperature is raised to 33 °C for four hours to evacuate whey, then to 24 °C for six hours, and finally to 19 °C. The cheese is drained on reed mats, salted the next day, and kept in a curing room for two days. It then moves to a room at 12 °C where the characteristic white rind begins to appear. After one week, it is placed in another refrigerator at 7 °C. The cheese must wait at least three weeks, typically six to eight weeks, to reach full maturity; throughout ripening, cheeses are turned by hand. The total manufacturing time is two months.