Brie de Meaux, named after the town of Meaux, is a French cheese produced in the region of Brie, located 50kms to the east of Paris. Evidence in the chronicles of Charlemagne suggests the cheese was tasted by the Emperor in 774; an historic cheese! It is also said that Louis XVI last wish was a tasting of Brie de Meaux cheese. In 1814, the European Tournament at Congress of Vienna, awarded Brie de Meaux the “Le Roi des Fromages” (The King of Cheeses) for its unarguable flavour and texture.
Brie de Meaux, an AOC (Appellation d’Origine Controllee) cheese should be matured in the regions of Seine-et-Marne, Loiret, Aube, Marne, Haut-Marne, Meuse and Yonne. The difference between production and maturation places is a typical Brie tradition.
Each cheese is dry salted and allowed to mature or “Affinage” on reed mats, in cool, but not cold conditions, with the greatest care being taken to ensure that the fragile cheeses are brought up to peak condition. Granted AOC status in 1980, Brie de Meaux AOC can only come from a tightly defined area in the Ile-de-France near Paris, a region that has maintained its rural traditions and hand-crafted production
This is a raw, soft unpasteurised cheese made with milk form Montebeliarde cattle. It is covered with a bloomy rind, which is the result the cheese being inoculated with Penicillium Candidum mould. As the cheese ages, the rind develops red or brown patches. It is ripe when approximately half of the straw coloured pate is ripe and soft.
Brie de Meaux has a milky and rich taste underlined by sweet and buttery flavours of mushrooms or truffles and almonds.
