What s the difference between brie and camembert?
Richard Cornish
Photo: Steven Siewert
What is the difference between brie and camembert? V. Sutherland
To answer this question, I knocked on the door of French cheesemaker and educator Ivan Larcher. He recently opened The Cheese School and Long Paddock Cheese in Castlemaine, Victoria. The difference between brie and camembert is like asking the difference between Peugeot and Citroen, he says. They have many different models and styles.
Both have what s known as a bloomy rind, the distinctive soft white surface mould, and must made of cow s milk in France to bear those names. Both are traditionally farmhouse cheeses, but [are] now normally made in larger artisanal cheeseries or on an industrial scale. Brie is traditionally from east of Paris and camembert from Normandy. Camembert is smaller, around 250g, and brie is larger, the smallest being 400g and the largest being 1.2 kilograms. Camembert was made centuries after bri