Camembert is dead

[naf]

I guess most in the eGullet forum don't buy industrial or supermarket cheese. Anyway, I found this news sad. Starting from April 1, two leading French cheese makers Lactalis and Isigny-Sainte-Mère which represent 90% of the market, are giving up a centuries old recipe for making Camembert cheese.

"We decided the risk of using raw milk was too high for us given the quantities we produce and our position in the market," said Luc Morelon, a spokesman for Lactalis, a family-run group based in Normandy.

In English

In French (by François Simon)

Edited April 25, 2007 by naf (log)

[docsconz]

This is sad. The bureaucrats have won.

[John Talbott]

I guess most in the eGullet forum don't buy industrial or supermarket cheese. Anyway, I found this news sad. Starting from April 1, two leading French cheese makers Lactalis and Isigny-Sainte-Mère which represent 90% of the market, are giving up a centuries old recipe for making Camembert cheese.

"We decided the risk of using raw milk was too high for us given the quantities we produce and our position in the market," said Luc Morelon, a spokesman for Lactalis, a family-run group based in Normandy.

In English

In French (by François Simon)

←

Just so folks don't think I'm asleep at the wheel, this was reported in the Digest of April 2nd but I guess it was buried in the rest of the copy.

[naf]

Of course no, John!

I have a quick check in my local supermarket, I can only find "Gillot" still doing "Au lait cru" AOC.

Edited April 25, 2007 by naf (log)

[Hendricks Farms]

Thank God a few stalwarts remain….namely, Hendricks Farms & Dairy in Telford, PA.....

Our Cow Pie is loosely based on Camembert and is totally raw, grassfed, farmstead and quite tasty too.

[TarteTatin]

Funny, we just had your Cow's pie Camembert for lunch today!!!

And, we had a French women here for lunch, and she went crazy for it!

Just delicious-yes, tasty, it actually had flavor, yes, tasted of grass, and just delicious strong-ish wonderful cheese!

I love your cheese. We have the Bavarian Swiss at home, just finished off your Gruyere- and are getting some of the Telford tomorrow from Winter Harvest/Farm to City.

Thank you so much for making cheese that has flavor, instead of plastic cheese...

[Hendricks Farms]

WOW!!!!

You are too kind. You are also exactly why we do this. Thanks!

Come out and see us some time, the weather is great for a visit to the farm. See our new totally voluntary robotic milking system that lets the cows milk themselves. They love it!

[Felice]

I guess most in the eGullet forum don't buy industrial or supermarket cheese. Anyway, I found this news sad. Starting from April 1, two leading French cheese makers Lactalis and Isigny-Sainte-Mère which represent 90% of the market, are giving up a centuries old recipe for making Camembert cheese.

"We decided the risk of using raw milk was too high for us given the quantities we produce and our position in the market," said Luc Morelon, a spokesman for Lactalis, a family-run group based in Normandy.

←

I think this is all the more reason to support small producers and to buy cheese from your local fromagerie rather than the supermarket. Thankfully most neighborhoods in Paris still have butchers, cheese shops, fish mongers and the like, but it seems that more and more of these shops are disappearing and who knows how many will be left in years to come as people become more and more accustomed to the convenience of having everything in the same shop.

[madziast]

This is sad. The bureaucrats have won.

←

or, rather, the corporation. every time a big company says they are doing something for the good of the customer, you know, for "me," somehow it always benefits them more, doesn't it?

it's sad and we'll be hearing more of such news. count me in the small producer supporter camp.

i think i should start investigating Hendricks Farms - i don't believe i've ever tried your cheese! must find out more - off to check your website

[cdh]

Thank God a few stalwarts remain….namely, Hendricks Farms & Dairy in Telford, PA.....

Our Cow Pie is loosely based on Camembert and is totally raw, grassfed, farmstead and quite tasty too.

←

And it is delicious, particularly when it gets properly ripe and runny.

It is quite interesting that while the French are discarding their traditional methods of production, they're being picked up by artisan farmers in the US. I imagine that a lot of little secrets and tricks to producing traditional cheeses will be lost when places that have generations of experience in making them "modernize", and new and different ones will emerge from the new experimentation.

Edited April 26, 2007 by cdh (log)

[Christopher Haatuft]

disheartning

[John Talbott]

I guess most in the eGullet forum don't buy industrial or supermarket cheese. Anyway, I found this news sad. Starting from April 1, two leading French cheese makers Lactalis and Isigny-Sainte-Mère which represent 90% of the market, are giving up a centuries old recipe for making Camembert cheese.

"We decided the risk of using raw milk was too high for us given the quantities we produce and our position in the market," said Luc Morelon, a spokesman for Lactalis, a family-run group based in Normandy.

←

I think this is all the more reason to support small producers and to buy cheese from your local fromagerie rather than the supermarket.

←

Well, as some predicted, there's now a food fight on between the small and big guys. This AM's MatinPlus says the small folk are blockading the roads from the big ones. To be continued I suspect.

[robert brown]

How long is the Cow Pie aged for? Are we talking about any producer in Normandie who makes Camembert fermier and ages it less than 60 days? The Camembert I bought in Alsace was as good as it gets especially coming at the best time of year for this cheese. Seasonality still exists for what I imagine will be the foreseeable future, even if in a diminishing capacity.

[Hendricks Farms]

How long is the Cow Pie aged for?

←

60 Days, as per the law.

[Felice]

A very interesting documentary on Arte this week called La Guerre du Camembert and Lactalis's efforts to change the AOC to include non-raw milk cheese. For now, happily they have not succeeded. I was shocked to learn that there are only 5 small producers of Camembert left and that Lactalis has bought most of the raw milk producers.

You can watch it here for now

http://plus7.arte.tv/fr/detailPage/1697660...Id=1728420.html

I think I'm going to go buy a nice raw milk Camembert for dinner!

[Dianabanana]

Did anyone else watch the video of the cow-milking robot? Incredible!

[fresh_a]

I don't understand what Pennsylvania cheesemakers have to do in this story....