How have I never written a post about Camembert?

Camembert is the #1 best selling cheese in France. There is no cheese shop or grocery store that sells cheese where you won’t find Camembert on its shelves.

Traditionally camembert is a medium sized round cheese and sold in a box made from a light wood (usually poplar).

Camembert has been around since the late 1700s and hails from Normandie. Only raw milk camembert that is from Normandie can be designated AOP (L’Appellation d’origine protégée). This means that the products were produced with a methods and ingredients specific for the region, which gives them their unique flavor and characteristics.

Of course there are many camemberts that are not AOP. They can be from Normandie but not using raw milk. Here is a very basic (and VERY inexpensive – like 2 euros!) grocery store camembert. It is not made from raw milk and not labelled AOP.

Camembert cheese can be from anywhere – the name is freely used, in fact, camembert is so well known that it is made all over the world.

Raw milk or pasturized camembert? I did an earlier post on this topic – raw milk cheese – where I came down squarely in the camp of raw milk. The flavor is so much deeper and complex. Yesterday, I was at a wine and cheese event and took a pasturized and a raw milk camembert. Consensus was that, yes indeed, the flavor of the raw milk cheese was preferred! (Though to be fair the raw milk cheese was also more aged — which does give it an advantage!)