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CHEESE TYPE BOARDS (for Cheese Lovers and Cheese Makers) => ADJUNCT - Rennet Surface White Mold (Penicillium candidum) Ripened => Topic started by: Cheese Head on April 19, 2009, 03:26:49 PM
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Bought a small 1 lb/0.45 kg double cream brie wheel from large US wholesale club store here in Houston called SamsClub for USD7 ~ 3 weeks ago primarily to see how they wrapped it, unwrapping records here (http://cheeseforum.org/forum/index.php/topic,1434.0.html).
It's Brand name is Délice de France and packaging says it is made in USA and distributed by BC-USA Inc (http://www.alouettecheese.com/aboutAlouette/BCUSA.php), which after googling appears to be the American arm of large French Bongrain company that also markets more popular Alouette cheese label. From that web page and otherwise almost no useful data on the web that I could find, I can only deduce that it is made by a small cheese maker somewhere in US and sold via Bongrain's US BC-USA division.
The cheese came in a round cardboard box with a sell by (best by?) date of tomorrow and measured 5.5" / 14 cm diameter which is small for a brie but larger than my standard Camembert hoops which are 4.25" / 11 cm diameter. It is also 1.6 in / 4.0 cm tall, which is taller than I've seen most brie's or Camemberts that at least I have seen.
Wrapper is thin white plastic with wax coating on inside, about as thick as CheeseMaking.com's wraps (quite thick) but single, not dual layered.
Appearance wise, there was still good fluffy mold growth in areas on the bottom as wrapping layers were not squished down flat, thus had room to flourish. Colour was normal white except for some light brown areas which I think were marks from it's making? On sides the light brown blended into light grey, not highly appetizing. Also, I didn't notice until end, that cheese's side's, not top or bottom had an impregnated pattern, see last photo. I've never seen this before and checked wrapper, and interestingly, it's similarly impregnated but only on smooth top and sides and not on layers folded over on bottom. Thus it must have been impregnated on top and side after wrapping! Once warmed to temperature on patio @ 18C / 60F, the pate had melted a little, not a lot.
Aroma and taste wise, very nice, normal rind Camembert taste and inner normal flavour with bit of mushoomy almost nutty flavour. Double cream made it a bit heavy, couldn't eat too much before overdosing.
In summary, wish could ask the artisan maker for advice on how made . . . would buy again!
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Picture #2 . . .
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Just ate the rest of this cheese last night, only 5 days after OP. Little softer but no big change, was great!
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Small world, I just happened to find this cheese in my girlfriends fridge. I loved it myself, wish I could make something like this!