Brie
de Meaux
Name of Group of Producers
13, rue des Fossés
77000 Melun
Qualité France SA
Immeuble le Guillaumet 60
avenue du Général de Gaulle 92 046 LA DEFENSE Cedex
Tel: (33 1) 41.97.00.74
Fax: (33 1) 41.97.08.32
A soft cheese made from raw cow's milk with a crust covered in a fine coating of white down, Brie de Meaux is produced in the form of a flat cylinder with an average weight of 2-6 kilogrammes.
Geographical area: the eastern Parisian basin, which derives its geological unity from the limestone formations of the secondary and tertiary eras.
The cheese from the "Brie country" seems to have been known since the time of Charlemagne. It was enjoyed by kings and nobility as well as by the cornmon people. In 1793 the revolutionary Lavallée noted that "the cheese of Brie, loved by rich and poor, was preaching equality before it was ever imagined to be possible". Nevertheless, in 1814, at the Congress of Vienna, Brie de Meaux celebrated its greatest triumph, thereby earning its nickname of "king of cheeses and cheese of kings".
The curds obtained after the addition of rennet to the raw milk, which has been heated to a temperature below 370C, is then put into a mould. In accordance with the traditional technique, moulding is done manually with the aid of a "Brie shovel", around 20 centimetres in diameter, the mould being filled with a succession of fine layers. After draining for around 18 hours, the cheeses are removed from the moulds, dry-salted, treated with mould spores and put into cellars, where they ripen slowly for a minimum of four weeks.
