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Fermentation Atlas

Bloomy-rind cheeses

White Penicillium camemberti rinds that ripen the cheese from the outside in.

36 entries listed here.

How these cheeses are made

The shared make of bloomy-rind soft cheese family (camembert de normandie as template). Each cheese below says what it does differently.

  1. Mature the milk with starterup to 24 h · up to 22 °C
  2. Set with rennetup to 37 °C
  3. Ladle into moulds
  4. Drain and turnat least 18 h
  5. Dry-salt
  6. Ripen in the hâloir as the white rind growsat least 13 days · 10–18 °C
  7. Box and finish ripeningat least 22 days

Compare them

CheeseRegionMilkRipeningRind
Altenburger Ziegenkäse PDOGermany, the border area of Thuringia, Saxony and Saxony-AnhaltCow milk with at least 15 % goat milk, both pasteurisedWhite mould ripening for 8–10 days; minimum age 14 days
Bonchester Cheese PDOScotland and England, the Border lands within 90 km of Peel Fell in the Cheviot HillsUnpasteurised whole milk of Jersey cows grazing the Border lands6–12 days
Brie de Meaux PDOFrance, the eastern Paris basinRaw cow milk, pre-matured under 48 h at 22 °C or less; thermophilic cultures are bannedAt least 4 weeks: under 21 days in the ripening room at 8–16 °C, then caves at 4–14 °C; ripe to the core at 6–8 weeks
Brie de Melun PDOFrance, the Brie country east of ParisRaw cow milk only, partly skimmedAt least 5 weeks from renneting; ripe to the core at 8–10 weeks
Brillat-Savarin PGIFrance, parts of the departments of Côte-d'Or, Saône-et-Loire, Yonne, Seine-et-Marne and AubeWhole cow milk enriched with cow creamSold from day 3; "affiné" at least 5 days (small) or 8 days (large)
Cadolet di capraItaly, Lombardia30 days
Camel-milk soft cheeseMauritaniaCamel milk, low in casein; its κ-casein to β-casein ratio is about 0.05, against about 0.33 in cow milk15–45 days
Camembert de Normandie PDOFrance, NormandyRaw milk from herds with at least 50% Normande cows, stored no more than 72 h; cold maturation under 24 h at 22 °C or less; never heated above 40 °CRipening room at 10–18 °C; not packed before day 13, delivered no earlier than day 22 after renneting
Carré de l'EstFrance, LorraineCow's whole milk, pasteurised or not (1953 USDA handbook); today mostly pasteurised or thermised and made in dairies (French dairy sector)About four weeks in the 1967 study, when the paste had reached pH 6.85
Chaource PDOChampagne humide, FranceWhole cow milk with unchanged fat and proteinAt least 14 days from renneting
CoulommiersFrance, Seine-et-Marne7–14 days
Formaggella della Val SabbiaItaly, Lombardia30–60 daysThin, edible, white or light straw from the white mould
NeufchâtelFrance, NormandyCow milk; raw on farms, may be pasteurised or thermised in dairiesAt least 10 days from moulding at 10–14 °C and 90–100 % RH
ObatzdaGermany, Bavaria
PaglierinaItaly, Piemonte7–30 daysThin, soft, bloomy white with grid marks
PratolinaItaly, Toscanaup to 2 monthsVery thin, snow-white, edible white mould
Tomino di SaronsellaItaly, Piemonte4–7 daysVery thin, straw-yellow, covered with edible white mould
Tomme de La Chaux-d'AbelSwitzerland, Bernese JuraCow milk; raw according to the inventory, thermised according to a 2024 distributor sheet7–14 daysBrown-white, with a fine white mould
Tomme vaudoise (tomme neuchâteloise, de Rougemont, de la Vallée)Switzerland, Vaud and Neuchâtel7–14 daysThin white downy bloom, grid marks
Toumin dal MelItaly, Piemonte4–30 daysThin, edible, porcelain-white with a fine white mould
Valtellina ScimudinItaly, Lombardia10–30 daysThin, dry, edible, covered with white-grey mould
HermelínCzechia, chiefly Sedlčany in Central Bohemiacow milk
Pierre-RobertFrance, Seine-et-Marne
Saint-AndréFranceCow milk with added cream (outline only)About 30 days according to one outline source
Baron BigodEngland, Suffolk, Fen Farm Dairy at Bungay on the River WaveneyCow milk from the farm's Montbéliarde herd, gently heat-treatedUp to 8 weeks
Bavaria Blu / CambozolaBavaria, GermanyCow milk with cream~4–6 wk
ExplorateurFrance, Île-de-FranceCow milk
FrinaultFrance, Loiretcow milk, whole, pasteurisedP. candidum; about 2 wk at 12 °C in a humid cellar
GaperonFrance, Auvergne21–28 daysBloomy
HarbisonUnited States, VermontFive weeks at the Cellars, as described in a 2012 visit
Olivet (incl. Olivet cendré)France, Loiretcow milk; current versions pasteurisedP. candidum, 15 d in very humid rooms at 12 °C, then by type
Pithiviers au foin (Bondaroy au foin)France, LoiretCow milk; one source says pasteurisedIn hay, 3–5 weeks by one source and 3 weeks by anotherWhite-yellow bloom, sprinkled with hay
Red HawkUSA, California, Point Reyes StationOrganic cow milk with added cream (triple-cream)About two weeks before washing, then washed with salt waterOrange-red washed rind
Riopelle de l'IsleCanada, Québec, Île aux Gruesat least 2 months
Robiola BosinaItaly, Piedmont, Alta Langaat least 15 days
TunworthEnglandPasteurised whole cow milkAverage age 6 weeks at sale

Bold names have a full page with the animated steps. Blank cells: no sourced value yet.

Short entries

What the sources record about each of these so far.

Baron BigodEngland, Suffolk, Fen Farm Dairy at Bungay on the River Waveney

Baron Bigod is a large Brie de Meaux-style bloomy-rind cheese made on Fen Farm in Suffolk from the milk of the farm's own Montbéliarde cows. The warm morning milk is lightly heat-treated, soured with lactic cultures and renneted, and the curd is hand-ladled with a pelle à brie into large hoops. Salted on day two, the cheeses grow a white Penicillium candidum rind and ripen for up to eight weeks.

Milk
Cow milk from the farm's Montbéliarde herd, gently heat-treated
Ripening
Up to 8 weeks
  1. Heat-treat and sour the milk
  2. Rennet, set and cut
  3. Hand-ladle into hoops
  4. Unmould and salt
  5. Grow the white rind
  6. Ripen in paper and poplar boxesup to 56 days
Bavaria Blu / CambozolaBavaria, Germany

Bavaria Blu is a soft cow-milk cheese with a white mould rind outside and blue veins inside. Its maker, Bergader in Waging am See, says its cheesemakers invented this mix of a white-rinded soft cheese and a blue cheese. Cambozola is a similar German white-and-blue cheese.

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

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

ExplorateurFrance, Île-de-France

A French triple-crème cow cheese with a squat cylindrical shape and a white bloomy rind, created in the 1950s and named after Explorer, the first US satellite. Its fat is about 75 % of the dry matter, and its texture is smooth, soft and unpressed.

Milk
Cow milk
Fat
About 75 % fat in dry matter, as a triple-crème
  1. Grow a bloomy rind

Safety: The NHS says mould-ripened soft cheeses with a white coating, such as brie and camembert, can carry listeria whether or not they are pasteurised. Pregnant women should eat them only when thoroughly cooked.

FrinaultFrance, Loiret

Frinault is a small soft cow-milk cheese from near Orléans, first made by the Frinault family in 1872 and now ripened at Châteauneuf-sur-Loire. It is made much like camembert from pasteurised whole milk; the plain disc ripens about two weeks under a white Penicillium rind, and the cendré version is packed in charcoal ash.

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

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

GaperonFrance, Auvergne

A dome-shaped soft cow milk cheese of the Limagne plain in Auvergne, its curd mixed with garlic and pepper and traditionally made with 'gape', the buttermilk or whey. The curd was tied in a cloth, which gives the dome, and the cheese ripened about 3–4 weeks hung from a kitchen beam near the fire.

Rind
Bloomy
Size
250–500 g; 5–11 cm diameter, 5–10 cm high; dome
  1. Prepare the milk
  2. Mix and shape the curd
  3. Ripen21–28 days

Safety: The traditional cheese is made from raw milk and ripens for 3–4 weeks. CDC says raw milk can carry Campylobacter, Cryptosporidium, E. coli, Listeria, Brucella and Salmonella. It says children under 5, adults over 65, pregnant women and people with weak immunity are at higher risk of serious illness. CDC says pregnant women, newborns, adults over 65 and people with weak immunity should avoid any cheese made from raw milk unless it is heated to 165 °F (74 °C) or until steaming hot. The industrial form uses pasteurised milk.

HarbisonUnited States, Vermont

Pasteurised cow milk gets a bacterial culture and calf rennet, sets in about 40 minutes and is cut into 1-inch cubes. The curd is moulded, brined the next day and wrapped in a strip of boiled spruce cambium. The wheels then age for five weeks at the Cellars while a fuzzy white mould grows on the rind, in the style of Vacherin Mont d'Or.

Ripening
Five weeks at the Cellars, as described in a 2012 visit
Style
Wrapped in bark in the manner of Vacherin Mont d'Or
  1. Pasteurise and add the culture
  2. Add rennet and wait for the set40 min
  3. Cut the curd
  4. Mould and turn overnight
  5. Brine the next day
  6. Wrap in spruce bark
  7. Age at the Cellars35 days

Safety: Made from pasteurised milk; the cambium strips are boiled to sanitise them before they are wrapped round the cheeses.

Olivet (incl. Olivet cendré)France, Loiret

Olivet was a spring farm cheese of cow milk from the Olivet area near Orléans, dusted with vine-shoot charcoal so the cheeses did not stick together. Farm making has stopped; the name is now used for pasteurised bloomy-rind discs ripened about 15 days in a humid room at 12 °C and then finished blue, ash-coated, in hay or with pepper.

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

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

Pithiviers au foin (Bondaroy au foin)France, Loiret

A soft cow-milk cheese with a white bloomy rind, made as a flat disc and ripened in hay, which dries it so it keeps longer and gives it a slightly fruity taste. It was once made in summer and kept wrapped in straw into the autumn; today it is mostly made by one dairy outside the Loiret.

Milk
Cow milk; one source says pasteurised
Curd
Uncooked and unpressed
Ripening
In hay, 3–5 weeks by one source and 3 weeks by another
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)

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

Red HawkUSA, California, Point Reyes Station

Also called Red Hawk, Cowgirl Creamery Red Hawk.

A triple-cream cow cheese made like Cowgirl Creamery's Mt Tam, from organic cow milk. After about two weeks the white yeast bloom is scrubbed off and the cheese is washed with salt water, and Brevibacterium linens from the West Marin air turns the rind orange-red. It began as an accident when summer batches of Mt Tam picked up the local bacteria.

Milk
Organic cow milk with added cream (triple-cream)
Ripening
About two weeks before washing, then washed with salt water
Rind
Orange-red washed rind
Size
About 4 inches across, 2 inches high, 12 oz
  1. Make a triple-cream curd
  2. Grow a white bloom14 days
  3. Scrub and wash with salt water
  4. Let the local smear bacteria take over

Safety: Red Hawk is a soft, washed-rind cheese. In a report on sampling raw-milk cheese, the US FDA says the high moisture of soft cheeses makes them susceptible to the growth of Listeria monocytogenes, if present.

Riopelle de l'IsleCanada, Québec, Île aux Grues

Also called Le Riopelle de l'Isle, Riopelle.

Unpasteurised cow milk enriched with cream is soured with bacterial cultures and set with rennet, then moulded into a soft triple-cream cheese with a bloomy white rind. As a raw-milk cheese it must be stored 60 days at 2 °C or more before it can be sold. It is soft, buttery and creamy, with a hint of mushroom.

Type
Soft, triple-cream, bloomy rind, from unpasteurised milk
Format
About 1.3 kg
  1. Enrich raw milk with cream
  2. Sour with cultures and set with rennet
  3. Mould, drain and salt
  4. Grow the bloomy rind and ripenat least 2 months · at least 2 °C

Safety: Canada's federal Food and Drug Regulations bar selling cheese from unpasteurised milk to shoppers until it has been stored at 2 °C or more for at least 60 days from the start of making. That is a sale rule, not a safety guarantee. ANSES names soft bloomy-rind cheeses among the main raw-milk sources of Listeria, Salmonella and enterohaemorrhagic E. coli. Health Canada tells people who are pregnant, aged 60 or over, aged 5 or under, or who have a weak immune system to avoid all uncooked cheese from unpasteurised milk.

Robiola BosinaItaly, Piedmont, Alta Langa

A branded square robiola of the Caseificio dell'Alta Langa, made from heat-treated cow and sheep milk with added cow cream, set with calf rennet. It is a soft cheese with an edible bloomy rind, ripened at least 15 days, and by about 20 days the rind turns slightly reddish and sticky and the paste creamy.

Fat
Fat 55 % of dry matter; 28 g fat and 0.9 g salt per 100 g
Size
About 300 g (product sheet) or 8 oz and 3 inches square (Culture)
  1. Heat-treat the mixed milk
  2. Set with calf rennet
  3. Form square cheeses
  4. Ripen with a bloomy rindat least 15 days

Safety: Made from heat-treated milk; the product sheet sets Listeria monocytogenes and Salmonella absent in 25 g.

TunworthEngland

Tunworth is an English Camembert-style cheese made by hand from pasteurised whole cow milk. The curd is ladled into moulds, salted and ripened under a thin, wrinkled white rind grown with Geotrichum candidum, for about six weeks on average. The 250 g cheeses are packed in poplar boxes.

Milk
Pasteurised whole cow milk
Ripening
Average age 6 weeks at sale
Weight
About 250 g
  1. Set the whole milk
  2. Ladle into moulds
  3. Salt
  4. Grow the rind
  5. Ripen and box42 days

Numbers come from cited sources and carry a label that says how each is known. How this atlas is made