Cheese type Flowered rind cheese
	Milk Whole milk
Description Cylinder (11 cm diameter, 3 cm thick) 250 gr 45% of fat Thin white downy rind that may be covered with very little red dots.	Region & Country Normandy - France
	known areas of production Camembert - Vimoutiers - Auge country

Camembert is one of the stars of a cheese board. You will rarely see a French family without a Camembert in their fridge.

History of Camemberet Cheese:

The legend explains that Marie Harel created Camembert in 1791 during the French Revolution, helped by apriest from the Brie countryside. It soon became the most famous cheese of Normandy and made the fortune of many dairies in the Auge region . Sponsored by Napoleon III, camembert was packaged in a poplar wood box at the end of the XIX century and adorned with a famous label. The cheese was sent to Paris, as well as eastern of France and all over Europe where it was soon copied. Camembert has also often been associated with the beret and the baguette as one of the supposed symbols of the French people. This is in part due to the fact that the Camembert cheese once again made history during World War I (1914-18) when it was one of the components of the iron rations given to French soldiers.

Fabrication process of the Camembert cheese:

• First, whole milk is poured into large containers called "bassines normandes" (Norman bowls). The aim of that stage is to make the milk coagulate/curdle. In conditions that are different in every dairy, the rennet (Rennet is an enzyme that reduces the time necessary to separate the liquids from the solids) is added to the milk, and 1h30 minutes is allowed to pass before the beginning of the next step. At the end of that period, the milk will have formed into curds.
• Then comes the molding. This is particular to Camembert, because the curdled milk should be put into the mould with a special ladle, in at least four phases (that operation often lasts more than four hours!). Extreme caution should be taken to prevent the curds from being shaken.

• The next step is rather easy in comparison: the curds are perfectly leveled in the mould.
• To drain off whey, the future Camembert is put on shelves, for four to five hours and then turned over.
• The next morning, the Camembert, which now has its final shape, is taken out of its mould, and set on a tray in a salting room. There, it is covered on both sides with a thin layer of salt and finally with a precious fungus "penicillium candidum".
• The active part of the making is now over. Never the less, the Camembert is not yet ready for consumption. It still needs to be placed on special shelves called "les haloirs" for approximately twelve days.
• Finally, it is packed into its famous wooden box, and sent to the consumers.
  After 21 days, it is said to be "affiné" (refined) and "