Slate’s rules for entertaining: never bring brie cheese to a party, it’s clich, bland, and fake.
Seeing I haven't eaten American brie, I don't know how much truth there is in this article. But given that it appears that America has the same cheese making rules as Australia (pasteurised milk only) one suspects that its brie might be the same as ours, and the writer reckons its bland and should be completely avoided.
Yet how different is French brie, really? In the comments that follow the article (where a heated back and forth about whether the article is just food snobbery) someone says they didn't find the French cheese all that different.
One thing I do know for sure - if you want funky, overpowering cheese in Australia, all you have to do is buy some Blue Castello*, eat half of it, forget about the other half for a fortnight or so in the fridge, and try it again. It's always a matter of curiosity to me whether the yellowish, somewhat slimy looking patches that develop (and which taste very strong indeed) could actually put one's health at risk. (I usually try to cut off the worst looking bits, but the taste still lingers.)
* My goodness - the company has a very fancy shmancy website
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ReplyDeleteDear Anonymous,
ReplyDeleteYour comment is reproduced here, with the word causing a breach of the Opinion Dominion Protocols deleted:
"All cheese should be brought up to room temp before eating. It sweats out the fat and matures the flavor a bit. Give it a go"
My reponse:
Well, of course I know cheeses are best at room temperature. Just because I talked about putting the Blue Castello back in the fridge doesn't mean I eat soft cheeses cold. (Blue Castello left on a bench for two weeks might be able to escape the house on its own legs, though.)