Brie Cheese

It is impossible for me to think about Brie cheese without also thinking about my family. For as long as I can remember, Brie has been served in our home at all of the major holidays, namely Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter. When our family gets together for a holiday, we can be sure that my mother will have a hunk of Brie in the fridge, awaiting it’s tasty demise. I rarely, if ever, eat Brie outside of the holidays with my family. We take it out to warm to room temperature (the appropriate way to serve it) at mid-day, typically when we begin preparing the antipasto dishes for dinner. Consumption of said Brie will continue throughout the evening, and it is certainly not frowned upon to eat Brie for/with breakfast the following morning. As a whole, we prefer to eat our Brie on crackers, sometimes with cured meats or figs, but usually smeared thickly all by itself. I chose to learn more about this food due to its sentimental value and its seemingly addictive qualities, and I learned some interesting facts along the way.

      The process of making Brie starts by mixing raw cow’s milk with rennet, and then heating the mixture to 37°, which produces the curds. The cheese is then placed into molds where it is kept for approximately 18 hours, then salted, and subsequently aged for at least four weeks  (cheese.com). The cheese develops a thin rind, which for the longest time I did not believe could be eaten, but over the years my mother has convinced me to try it. In my opinion, the smooth, creamy, pale-colored cheese within the white rind cannot be beat, but many people do enjoy the rind as well. This cheese is high in fat but also in protein; in 1 oz. of Brie there are 100 calories, 10g total fat with 5g of that being of the saturated type, and 6g of protein (nutrientfacts.com).

The exact year of Brie’s origin in unknown, but it was named for the region in France from which it originated, most likely a few hundred years ago. There are some accounts of the Emperor Charlemagne having tried Brie in 774 AD and instantly falling in love with it. Brie was also mentioned in the 19^th Century during the Congress of Vienna, where the Prince de Talleyrand decided to organize a ‘cheese tournament,’ where Brie was voted “the king of cheeses” (thenibble.com). It began as a food made for Kings and royalty then spread to the masses over time, in a pattern similar to the rise and spread of sugar, which was described in Sydney Mintz’s article and also in our class discussions. Brie became very popular in the United States during the 1970’s and 1980’s, but a dangerous E. coli bacterial outbreak that occurred in September 1983 (MacDonald 716) lead to permanent changes in the Brie we find in America today. By 1985 the FDA was requiring that all cheeses be either pasteurized or aged for 60 days. Since true Brie is unpasteurized and could not be aged for that long without going bad, no Brie that we have consumed here legally in the U.S. since that time has been authentic. There are two authentic varieties of Brie, Brie de Meaux and Brie de Melun, which are certified in France to be made according to strict guidelines and traditional methods, both of which require the use of raw milk, which was banned with the FDA’s 1985 decision. Traditional Brie is thought to be more flavorful than the bland, buttery cheese we find here in the United States (thenibble.com).

 Regardless of its authenticity, my appreciation for what I know to be “Brie” is nonetheless strong and long-lasting. For me, the feeling I get when sharing this creamy cheese with family is better than the cheese itself could ever be.

Sources:

http://www.cheese.com/brie/

http://www.slate.com/blogs/entertaining/2013/09/12/_slate_s_rules_for_entertaining_never_bring_brie_cheese_to_a_party_it_s.html

http://www.thenibble.com/reviews/main/cheese/cheese2/whey/brie-and-camembert.asp

http://www.nutrientfacts.com/FoodPages/nutritionfacts/nutritionfacts_Brie_Cheese.htm

MacDonald, Kristine L., et al. “A Multistate Outbreak of Gastrointestinal Illness  Caused by Enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli in Imported Semisoft Cheese.” The Journal of Infectious Diseases 151.4 (April 1985): 716-720.

Mintz, Sydney. “Time, Sugar, and Sweetness.” (1979)