Mailing food from France to N. America

[bleudauvergne]

Zoe is going to Cahors, Montpellier, and Dijon in October. She brought up an interesting question as a sidenote to her request for restaurant recommendations. She wants to know:

Oh...also...does anyone know anything about the logistics of mailing back foodstuffs from France to North America? (Only pasteurized cheese, of course )

What do you think?

I have never mailed cheese to the States, although when we were in L.A. we ordered it from Fromages.com and it came to us quickly, it was not pasturized, and in good condition (it was fedexed).

What wacky things have people done to get food back home? How have you packed it to carry or to mail? Are there certain things you can recommend are better to send by post than to carry yourself? Any stories? What's allowed? What's not?

[Schneier]

I've done it repeatedly. Pack things well, as you would for any mailing process. Declare what you've got, but not too detailed. And hope for the best.

Bruce

[artisanbaker]

i would say that it is likely to arrive, regardless the contents unless it smells strong enough to attract the dogs (ie foujou from provence!)

[TarteTatin]

Whacky things?

Well, last Christmas we packed almost 150 euros worth of chocolate into a suitcase and hoped it wouldn't melt! I'm in love with Bernard Castelain's chocolate right outside of Chateau-neuf-de-pape. His dark chocolate covered almonds and chocolate covered ginger are incroyable!

(They didn't melt!)

Also, the Lavender museum outside of Gordes. We bought a similar amount (125 euros) of lavender items (soap, bath stuff, oils) and carried it back in a big suitcase.

...and we ALWAYS carry as much wine, eau de vie, marc- as we can in our carry on! Sometimes we fill the hard carry on suitcase with it, and like an earlier person says, just hope for the best!

[Mayhaw Man]

Lucy,

I think that for the good of eGullet we had better test this out. I would hate to see this fail for someone who was mailing back alot of stuff.

So here's the plan.

I will pm you my address. You pack a large box with cheese, chocolate, and whatever else looks good and can be mailed. When I get the box of loot (I mean test items, just a little joke), I will report back about what kind of condition it was in upon arrival.

This is important. It must be done in the most scientific manner.

Brooks

I think that you had better send a wide variety of cheeses as we don't know what kind that they plan to ship and some may travel better than others-I will need to report on that.

[bleudauvergne]

Brooks, you're right. I've been to the butcher and am getting a package ready. As you see up thread, people have already sucessfully sent cheese and chocolate, so we have to forge on ahead and get to testing some some of the more difficult things. I think the first thing we can test would be andouille. The real kind. I'll send one fedex and one regular post, for contrast and comparison. How does that sound?

[Mayhaw Man]

Well, if you insist on Andouille I will have to mail you some as I don't know if you can get the real stuff in France , or at least have the nice folks at Jacob's Andouille in Laplace send you some, I could get them to throw in some of their deliciously spicy hogshead cheese as well.

[bleudauvergne]

It would be worth it to test out some tasso as well while your getting the package ready. Yes?

[lalala]

FYI, based on a recent flyertalk.com thread on chocolate, this unfortunate bit of state department info was revealed:

Mailing food stuffs to the US from abroad

I have never mailed cheese to myself, I often bring home kilos of it from France or London. We always mail home chocolate. Thank goodness for La Postes new fit anything in the box for 35 Euros box!

lalala