COLD DARK ROOM

Lyn W

Well-Known Member
5 Year Member
Joined
Jul 22, 2014
Messages
23,497
Location (City and/or State)
UK
ADAM ! Say it's not so !


One of the World’s Great Cheeses Might Be Going Extinct
Bloomberg

Non-stop business knowledge
Get more on The Bloomberg App
On the face of it, Camembert doesn't seem like an endangered species.
In fact, the soft-ripened cheese seems like the opposite: Three hundred and sixty million wheels are produced annually in France. It’s ubiquitous in the U.S. with the cheese and crackers set, and the second-most-popular fromage sold in French markets. Trader Joe’s even hawks “Camembert Cheeese & Cranberry Sauce Fillo Bites” (the three e’s in cheese are purposeful). But if you're a connoisseur of the cheese spelled with just two e’s, then you’re looking for a wheel made to the exacting specifications that allow it to be stamped PDO—the French label that signifies provenance from a specific region in France, made in an historically accurate way. That cheese is called Camembert de Normandie, and its increasing scarcity means we’re keeping our eyes glued to its curd. You should, too.
Like its even better-known relative, Brie, Camembert is a soft cheese. When you see it on a fancy cheese platter, you’ll recognize its thick, creamy center. If your party hosts have left it out long enough, it will be squeezable. (Brie, on the other hand, will be runny.) The rind, which you must eat, should appear to have a little brown mottling. Too brilliantly white and you’re eating an industrial version. (Of course, too much brown and it’s past its prime.) Cheese experts get a bit swoony when you bring up Camembert and the descriptors are as funky as the culture: “mushroom,” “butter,” “cream,” “truffle,” and “stewed cabbage.” Believe it or not, stewed cabbage is a good thing.
A PDO Camembert de Normandie must be made with unfiltered raw milk with a fat content of at least 38 percent that comes from cows from France’s northern Normandy province, fed under strict conditions—grass and hay from local pastures. The milk must be hand-ladled in four or more layers into specific molds. Milk is transported no farther than the distance that cows can slowly dawdle in search of a fresh blade of grass.
If this is the cheese you’re seeking, particularly outside of France, then good luck. Today, only four million of the 360 million wheels produced annually—just a little over 1 percent—are the real deal, and, as small farms are scooped up by the big guys, the number is rapidly dwindling.
Today you can count on just a few fingers the farmstead operators (cheesemakers who also tend to the animals that supply the milk) who are making Camembert to the exacting nature of the PDO stamp. A decade ago, that number was greater. All three—La Ferme du Champsecret, Domaine de Saint Loup, and Fromagerie Durand—are in Normandy. They are the gold standard of Camembert. And they exist for as long as the fickle laws governing raw milk cheese sales allow them to.
Why aren't there more small, farmstead Camembert makers? Because in 2007 there was a cheese war. Several large-scale Camembert producers (names some people might recognize: Lactalis and Isigny-Sainte-Mere) pushed to cut corners. They went to court to change the rules. Instead of raw milk, they asked, could they use pasteurized milk? Pasteurized cheese is cheaper to make because producers can use multiple milk sources and make the cheese in larger batches, creating a cheese with less variability that's easier to handle. Small producers, who wanted to stick to the old way, wound up on the opposite side of the battle.
After a year long "Camembert war," the small guy came out on top: The French government ruled that only raw milk could be used for an official PDO Camembert. The bigger producers dropped out of the true Camembert race. They still make a version, but it’s a poor substitute—the kind with the impenetrable rind and soft, rubbery plastic center. This cheese is Camembert fabrique en Normandie, which isn't the same thing.
Do we really care whether it’s raw milk or pasteurized? Yes and no. Industrial cheese isn't just cheaper to make, it’s cheaper to buy. (There are also industrial versions of raw milk cheeses, but they too are uniform, without the variation between wheels that connoisseurs treasure.)
On the raw milk side, your cheese is all about your milk. When milk is heated, it loses all the lovely microorganisms that imbue cheese with a sense of place and unique funk. Raw milk cheesemakers live and breathe by the health of their animals, the quality of their grass, the care with which they ladle their milk. Industrial producers deliberately bulk and standardize the milk they use. “They are treating it as a blank canvas for cheesemaking rather than trying to reveal its potential,” says Francis Percival, co-author of Reinventing the Wheel, a book on single-farm cheeses. Even Prince Charles has weighed in on the debate, advocating for the raw milk stuff at a 2015 climate conference.
Camembert is complicated if you live in the U.S. Raw milk PDO Camembert isn't imported domestically, not even through Amazon Prime. Since 1949, the FDA has regulated all raw milk cheeses. Anything aged less than 60 days—the length of time that the government agency reasons any harmful pathogens will be killed—can't legally be exported into the U.S. Because Camembert is aged for only half that time, typically one month, it’s blocked. Some people talk of a black market for cheese darlings like this, but other than smuggling it home in your suitcase, your best bet is to go the legal route and buy a pasteurized version in America.
Finding a cheese made like the original farmer did in 1791, the date when many say Camembert was created, is increasingly impossible, even in France. But Percival champions a solution in his book: “To help a rare breed survive, you have to eat it." So before it goes extinct, do your best to enjoy it back to life. If you live in the U.S., there are makers that can send you a wheel worthy of your baguette: Murray’s Cheese sells a pasteurized version under its own name, or you can try Bent River from Alemar Cheese Co. in Minnesota. And then, when you have the time and resources, head to France and find a truly authentic Camembert to devour.

Cowboy Ken
Maybe that will lure him back, Ken!
 

Lyn W

Well-Known Member
5 Year Member
Joined
Jul 22, 2014
Messages
23,497
Location (City and/or State)
UK
Good morning all.

Horrible sticky night here. It was still 25C/77F at 11pm here :(

All upstairs windows open and a fan in our bedroom, we did manage to sleep and now it's 23C already (8.30am) Another hot, sunny day down south.
Same here Linda - I can't stand it - I like it nice and cool.
The kids in school are either sleepy or grumpy or both and I'm not talking seven dwarfs here.;)
It's an impossible week! We have to packed up by Friday and won't be allowed back in after then.
So all resources are boxed and can't find anything.
The school is shut next week though for unpacking but they shouldn't be in this week either.
Our kids can't cope with all these changes in routine.
We're body boarding in the sea on Weds though and we're looking forward to a cold dip!!!
 

JoesMum

Well-Known Member
10 Year Member!
Joined
Oct 26, 2011
Messages
21,610
Location (City and/or State)
Kent, South East England
Good morning CDR

It is a little cooler here this morning thank goodness. I was up early and got the ironing done straight away and still broke out in a sweat though :(

Son is back in the UK from his trip to Hong Kong ... he should be home this evening. We haven't heard much from him on his travels - I suspect a young lady may be the cause. :)

good mornooning world, lets see what today has for us. jades away on holiday for 2weeks with her family so i'm on my jack jones :(.
Take care John. Use the time to have some fun as well as work hard :)
 

JoesMum

Well-Known Member
10 Year Member!
Joined
Oct 26, 2011
Messages
21,610
Location (City and/or State)
Kent, South East England
Tropical Storm Bret is headed our way. Despite the overly excitable weather casters on TV, we're not that excited or impressed. Tropical storms just means LOTS of rain and a bit of wind!:p.
Sounds like high humidity and lots of wetness and wind :(

No sign of a tropical storm here. Apparently the five day "heatwave" we've had so far here is the longest for over 20 years! We really aren't used to temperatures over 30C/90F for any length of time in the UK
 

Moozillion

Well-Known Member
10 Year Member!
Platinum Tortoise Club
Joined
Apr 26, 2012
Messages
10,744
Location (City and/or State)
Louisiana, USA
Sounds like high humidity and lots of wetness and wind :(

No sign of a tropical storm here. Apparently the five day "heatwave" we've had so far here is the longest for over 20 years! We really aren't used to temperatures over 30C/90F for any length of time in the UK
WOW!!! :(
 

ZEROPILOT

REDFOOT WRANGLER
Moderator
Tortoise Club
5 Year Member
Platinum Tortoise Club
Joined
Jul 16, 2014
Messages
28,938
Location (City and/or State)
South Eastern Florida (U.S.A.)/Rock Hill S.C.
Tropical Storm Bret is headed our way. Despite the overly excitable weather casters on TV, we're not that excited or impressed. Tropical storms just means LOTS of rain and a bit of wind!:p.
It's rained 20 days in a row.
Any wind at all will knock trees over.
 

johnandjade

Well-Known Member
5 Year Member
Joined
Oct 26, 2014
Messages
15,918
Location (City and/or State)
scotland
so this just rolled outside at home!!ImageUploadedByTortoise Forum1497981281.222690.jpg

i pointed out the nasty paint defects, chrome pics best ImageUploadedByTortoise Forum1497981330.017794.jpg

educated and offered advice, pointed chap in direction of websites to get tips as i knew he would benefit and enjoy it... then gave him my card, pointed out the truck in garage im restoring and said if he needed any work advice to call :D
 

Lyn W

Well-Known Member
5 Year Member
Joined
Jul 22, 2014
Messages
23,497
Location (City and/or State)
UK
A very late (or early) hello.
I can't sleep because of the heat.
Went shopping earlier in a lovely air conditioned Sainsbury store, just to spend some time in the fridge section.
It was very tempting to just lie in the aisle between them and let everyone step over me.
I think many others had the same idea - it was the busiest part of the shop!
I've had to swap my body boarding day with another teacher as I still have such a lot of packing to do.
I was doing quite well today - loaded the car up and set off to new site to drop it off, but the caretaker took so long coming to unlock our doors that after 20 mins I had to leave to get back to old school.
So had to take it all back and unload car again - very frustrating and hot!!!:mad:
Anyway hope its not too hot where you are and I'll see you tomorrow
Nos Da!
 
Top