PrintSomething About a New Kind of Camembert Stinks (And It's Not the Cheese)
In this morning's New York Times, Elaine Sciolino reports that certain French Camembert makers want to change the rules to allow the formerly unpasteurized raw milk used to make traditional Camembert to be treated and yet still receive the authenticating AOC designation from the government. A couple of years ago, Jeffrey Steingarten and I sat down at Artisanal with one of its young fromagers for a taste test to find out if one could tell the difference between treated and untreated Camembert.
Cheese gendarmes, please note that the untreated, raw-milk cheese had been smuggled in by a third party unrelated to either me, Steingarten, or the fellow from Artisanal.
If my memory serves me well, the cheeses we tried were treated and untreated Canadian Camemberts. The untreated, raw-milk cheese had been smuggled in by an unknown amateur cheese smuggling tourist. Both cheeses were perfectly ripe, and I would have been happy with either of them with a crusty piece of bread and a glass of wine, but the untreated Camembert had a little more depth of flavor, a little more tang, and a little more soul. I wouldn't have kicked either of them off a cheese plate.
Though the French Camembert makers requesting the rule change claim it is for safety reasons (six children fell ill in 2005 after eating raw-milk Camembert), they are also going to continue making raw-milk, untreated Camembert "on a small scale with tight controls."
So, they want to have their raw-milk Camembert and the treated stuff as well. It seems as if something really stinks about this state of affairs, and it's not the cheese.
[photograph taken by jovike]
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4 Comments:
One of the great joys about travelling abroad is the opportunity to eat cheese as it was meant to be eaten. I'm amazed the French aren't rioting in the streets over this potential change!
I'm sorry about the children who died, but several people died last year as a result of tainted spinach and no one's changing the way spinach is being grown. There are merely closer controls. I'm sure the raw-milk Camembert could benefit from the same examination, and not have to change its essential nature.
klg19 at 11:25AM on 06/20/07
For the record: I don't know if any children died. The article Ed cites states that six kids "fell ill."
Adam Kuban at 11:27AM on 06/20/07
What's sad about this is that this desire for change in the A.O.C. rules is truly motivated by money and not taste. Like many other businesses, cheesemakers benefit from economies of scale; the more cheese you make, the greater your gross margins. The problem is that when cheese is produced on an industrial scale, there is almost no way to control for bacterial contamination. All it takes is one sick cow out of many to taint huge amounts of cheese. On the flip-side, farmstead producers can exercise a great deal of control over their own (small) herds, making tainted cheese that much more unlikely.
curdnerd at 2:51PM on 06/20/07
Tainted milk (listeria, etc) comes from handling, not from the cow itself. Typically -though not always-you'll see listeria originating from small farmstead producers who don't have the funds or time to maintain strict cleanliness/control practices.
vagabonder at 10:48AM on 06/21/07