French cheese: Camembert cheese

Camembert is a soft and creamy type of French cheese made with cow milk and its surface is ripened. Camembert was first made towards the end of the 17th century in Normandy in northern France.
The history of camembert
In 1791 by Marie Harel is said to have invented this type of cheese who was a farmer from Normandy. The idea came from a from a priest who was from the town of Brie famous for its cheeses. The abbey who was called Bonvoust supposedly sought refuge with Marie at her farm. In return for the shelter she offered him, he gave to Marie the secret of making Camembert cheese.
However, the origin of Camembert has probably begun with the beginnings of the industrialization of the cheese making towards the end of the 1900s thanks to the railroad in about 1850, Camembert cheeses conquered the markets of Paris and France in 1890. M. Ridel who was an engineer invented a wooden box which was used at that time to transport the cheese for longer distances, for instance to America where it became a very popular type. These boxes are still in use today. The colour of Camembert rind used to be a matter of chance, most commonly bluish grey with brown spots as funghi were not known properly at the beginnings. From the early 1900s the rind has become pure white, but it was not until the mid-1970s that the pure white colour became standard. Camembert become the part of French culture especially camembert normandie when it was issued to French troops during World War I. It is now known all over the world with many varieties.
How to make camembert cheese
The cheese is made by inoculating warmed milk with mesophilic bacteria. Then rennet is added and it allows the mixture to coagulate. The curd is then cut into roughly 1 cm cubes and some salt is also added to the mixture. Finally it is transferred to Camembert moulds. The moulds are turned every six to twelve hours to allow the whey to drain from the cut curds; after about 48 hours, each mould contains a flat, cylindrical, solid cheese mass weighing approximately 350 grams. At this point the fresh cheese is hard and crumbly. The surface of each of them is then sprayed with an aqueous suspension of the moulds Penicillium candidum and Penicillium camemberti and the cheese is left to ripen for about three-four weeks. The ripening process produces the distinctive rind and creamy interior texture characteristic of the cheese. Once the cheeses are ripe enough, they are wrapped in paper and may be placed in wooden boxes for transport.

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Camembert cheese - Camembert cheese