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Cheese from France

Bloomy-rind soft cheese family (Camembert de Normandie as template)Camembert de Normandie

Soured cow milk is set with rennet and the soft curd is ladled into moulds, where it drains by its own weight. After dry salting, a white felt of Penicillium camemberti and Geotrichum candidum grows over the cheese and ripens it from the rind inward in a few weeks.

Fully documentedCheese37 days

Recipe

Amounts from a sourceFamily template, so the ingredients are the ones bloomy-rind cheeses share. The only amount is the rennet limit of the Camembert de Normandie PDO rules.
Cow milkRaw, never heated above 40 °C, for Camembert de Normandie PDO; pasteurised for many others[camembert-cdc]
Starter bacteriaSour the milk before renneting; the Camembert de Normandie rules allow harmless cultures of bacteria, yeasts and moulds[lessard2012][camembert-cdc]
Ripening culturesPenicillium camemberti, Geotrichum candidum and yeasts[lessard2012]
Animal rennetUp to 23 ml per 100 L milkCamembert de Normandie PDO limit, at a strength of 520 mg chymosin per litre[camembert-cdc]
Dry salt[camembert-cdc][fao-ramet2001]
Calcium chlorideAllowed by the Camembert de Normandie rules[camembert-cdc]
Starteradded starter bacteria plus Penicillium camemberti, Geotrichum candidum and yeasts

Total time across the recorded steps: 37 days

Start
Drag the bar or press Play
shapes, not to countLactic acid bacteriaYeastsMouldsup to 22 °CMilk sugarLactic acid

What changes: Starter bacteria start turning milk sugar into lactic acid

Step 1 of 7
Mature the milk with starter
Time
up to 24 h
Set
Temperature
up to 22 °C
Set
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Lactic acid bacteria
Yeasts
Moulds

Camembert de Normandie milk may be stored at most 72 h from the oldest milking. An optional second maturing of up to 2 h at no more than 38 °C may follow the cold one. Output: matured milk.

Flavour
Not documented
Texture
liquid
Colour
white

Microbes at work in this step

starter bacteria begin to turn milk sugar into lactic acid

Method

Measured measured in a studySet fixed by a specification or tested recipeReported one source reports itTypical a general value, not sourced for this fermentUnconfirmed not yet checked against a source

At a glance

Soured cow milk is set with rennet and the soft curd is ladled into moulds, where it drains by its own weight. After dry salting, a white felt of Penicillium camemberti and Geotrichum candidum grows over the cheese and ripens it from the rind inward in a few weeks. Made in 7 steps over 37 days. The longest step, box and finish ripening, takes at least 22 days (Ministère de l'agriculture 2013). Penicillium camemberti and Geotrichum candidum do most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main stepat least 22 daysSet[camembert-cdc]Box and finish ripening
Temperatureup to 22 °CSet[camembert-cdc]Mature the milk with starter
AciditypH 5.8Measured[bittante2022]Box and finish ripening

What makes this one different

The rind is a white felt of Penicillium camemberti and Geotrichum candidum grown in a humid room. The moulds eat lactic acid and raise the surface pH, so the paste softens from the outside in. Washed-rind cheeses grow an orange bacterial smear instead, and lactic goat cheeses start from a slower, mostly acid-set curd.

Related ferments

Variants

  • Brie de Meaux PDOLarge flat disc of 2.6–3.3 kg from raw milk; at least 4 weeks of ripening.
  • Brie de Melun PDOSet mainly by acid over at least 16 hours in a smaller mould, dry-salted only, slightly acid, ripened at least 5 weeks.
  • Brillat-Savarin PGICream-enriched lactic curd with at least 72 % fat in dry matter, sold fresh or ripened.

Made the bloomy-rind soft cheese family way

Other bloomy-rind soft cheese family kinds

Made the same way, each with what its own sources record.

Baron Bigod

Cheese from England, Suffolk, Fen Farm Dairy at Bungay on the River Waveney

Baron Bigod follows a Brie de Meaux recipe but is made on the farm where the milk is produced, from a single herd of Montbéliarde cows, with the milk gravity-fed to the vats. Unlike Brie de Meaux, which must be raw milk, its milk is gently heat-treated.

Milk
Cow milk from the farm's Montbéliarde herd, gently heat-treated
Ripening
up to 8 weeksReported

Sources: Fen Farm Dairy; Neal's Yard Dairy

Bavaria Blu / Cambozola

Cheese from Bavaria, Germany

Bavaria Blu combines two families in one cheese. It has the white Penicillium rind of a Camembert-type cheese and the blue veins of a blue cheese.

Milk
Cow milk with cream
Moulds
White mould on the rind and blue mould inside
Ripening
~4–6 wkTypical

Explorateur

Cheese from France, Île-de-France

A triple-crème created in the 1950s, not an old regional cheese.

Milk
Cow milk
Fat
the fat content of its dry matter is about 75%Reported

Sources: cheese.com; Wikipedia; NHS (UK)

Frinault

Cheese from France, Loiret

Frinault is a 120 g disc 2 cm thick, made by a technique close to camembert's, and ripens about two weeks. Its cendré form is boxed in grey charcoal ash for 15 days, which gives a darker, firmer rind and a taste closer to Olivet cendré.

Milk
cow milk, whole, pasteurised
Ripening
P. candidum; about 2 wk at 12 °C in a humid cellarReported
Size
disc 10 cm × 2 cm, 120 g

Sources: Wikipédia (fr)

Harbison

Cheese from United States, Vermont

Harbison takes the bark wrap of Vacherin Mont d'Or, a European cheese, and gives it to an American pasteurised-milk soft cheese. Its cheeses are brined the day after making, and the spruce cambium comes from the farm's own woodlands.

Ripening
five weeksReported
Style
Wrapped in bark in the manner of Vacherin Mont d'Or

Sources: Spira S. 2012; Pollak S. 2018; Di Bruno Bros.; Jasper Hill Farm

Olivet (incl. Olivet cendré)

Cheese from France, Loiret

The old farm Olivet was dusted with vine-shoot charcoal against sticking and insects. Today's industrial Olivets share the name but not the farm tradition; they are 230–240 g bloomy discs sold in blue, cendré, hay and pepper forms.

Milk
cow milk; current versions pasteurised
Ripening
P. candidum, 15 d in very humid rooms at 12 °C, then by typeReported
Size
current: 12 cm diameter, 2.5 cm high, 230–240 g; 1905: disc about 15 cm × 4 cm

Sources: Wikipédia (fr)

Pithiviers au foin (Bondaroy au foin)

Cheese from France, Loiret

It is ripened under hay, which dries the cheese so it keeps longer and adds a fruity note. A version with peppercorns instead of hay also exists.

Milk
Cow milk; one source says pasteurised
Curd
Uncooked and unpressed
Ripening
Ripened dry in hay for 3 to 5 weeksReported
Rind
White-yellow bloom, sprinkled with hay
Size
Disc about 12 cm across and 2.5–3 cm thick, about 300 g
Fat
45 % fat (basis not stated)

Sources: Wikipédia (fr); CooksInfo

Red Hawk

Cheese from USA, California, Point Reyes Station

Red Hawk is a triple-cream cheese, normally a bloomy-rind style, turned into a washed-rind cheese. KQED's tasting report says it depends on the Brevibacterium linens in the West Marin air and cannot be made in Petaluma.

Milk
Organic cow milk with added cream (triple-cream)
Ripening
about 2 weeks before washingReported
Rind
Orange-red washed rind
Size
About 4 inches across, 2 inches high, 12 oz

Sources: KQED Bay Area Bites; culture; Wikipedia; US Food and Drug Administration 2016

Robiola Bosina

Cheese from Italy, Piedmont, Alta Langa

A dairy's branded robiola, square and made from mixed cow and sheep milk with cream, unlike the goat-milk Robiola di Roccaverano PDO.

Fat
Fat on dry matter (%) 55Reported
Size
About 300 g (product sheet) or 8 oz and 3 inches square (Culture)

Sources: Zanetti S.p.A.; Culture

Tunworth

Cheese from England

An English Camembert-style cheese from pasteurised whole cow milk, with a thin wrinkly rind rather than the thick flat white coat of most British soft cheeses.

Milk
Pasteurised whole cow milk
Ripening
average age 6 weeksReported
Weight
About 250 g

Sources: Neal's Yard Dairy; Butlers Farmhouse Cheeses; Pipers Farm; The Cheese Atlas

Safety

Camembert de Normandie and Brie de Meaux are made from raw milk, and the rind loses its acid barrier as it ripens (from pH 4.5 to about 8 in a lab Camembert). The UK NHS advises pregnant women to eat mould-ripened soft cheeses such as brie and camembert only when cooked until steaming hot, because of Listeria.

Hazards the sources name: Listeria monocytogenes, the reason soft mould-ripened cheeses carry pregnancy advice.

History and sources

Every number is labelled with how it is known. How this atlas is made

Camembert is linked to Marie Harel of Camembert, Orne, at the end of the 18th century (1995 EU registration summary).

  1. [camembert-cdc] Ministère de l'agriculture, Cahier des charges de l'appellation d'origine « Camembert de Normandie », homologated by decree 2013-1059 of 22 November 2013, JORF of 24 November 2013 (BO-Agri n° 48-2013)spec
  2. [camembert-eu1995] EU registration summary, Camembert de Normandie PDO (1995), eAmbrosia attachment 71553archive
  3. [brie-cdc] Ministère de l'agriculture, Avis relatif à l'approbation par la Commission européenne de la modification du cahier des charges de l'AOP « Brie de Meaux », with the specification approved by Implementing Regulation (EU) 2020/914 as corrected by 2020/1390 (BO-Agri, 8 October 2020)spec
  4. [cdc-melun2020] Ministère de l'agriculture et de l'alimentation, Cahier des charges de l'appellation d'origine protégée « Brie de Melun », annexed to the notice in BO-Agri n° 2020-32 following Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2020/1103spec
  5. [bs-cdc-2025] Ministère de l'agriculture, Cahier des charges de l'indication géographique protégée « Brillat-Savarin », homologated by the arrêté of 7 July 2025, BO-Agri n° 2025-29spec
  6. [fao-ramet2001] Ramet J.P. 2001, The technology of making cheese from camel milk (Camelus dromedarius), FAO Animal Production and Health Paper 113, chapter on soft and mould-ripened cheese methodsbook
  7. [lessard2012] Lessard M.H., Bélanger G., St-Gelais D., Labrie S. 2012, The composition of Camembert cheese-ripening cultures modulates both mycelial growth and appearance, Applied and Environmental Microbiology 78:1813–1819paper
  8. [bittante2022] Bittante G., Amalfitano N., Cipolat-Gotet C. et al. 2022, Major causes of variation of external appearance, chemical composition, texture, and color traits of 37 categories of cheeses, Foods 11:4041paper
  9. [nhs-preg] NHS (UK), Foods to avoid in pregnancy (cheese section)gov