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All About French Cheese

French have always regarded their cheese as essential, whether they buy it at a farms or in grocery store. People have milked thousand of cows, sheep and goats since someone in the past decided to curdle milk. But what should make us decide on which type of French cheese to buy? Any what does the word cheese mean anyhow? It is a dairy product for sure which is fermented or not fermented, matured or not matured, it is more or less skimmed, or cream or dasher. It can be coagulated, before it is drained or just partly drained or not drained at all. It should keep at least 23% of dry matter. The kind of milk used has to be labeled when it is not made of cow milk.

The 400 sorts of French cheese recorded can be made with milk or with pasteurised milk. The milk label refers to the milk not heated over 37 degrees Celsius. When heated at this degree it keeps all its properties, and it loses certain pathogenic bacteria which can be dangerous for human digestive system. According to officials real farm French cheese is made by hand and with the milk each day. Small scale production has the same importance nowadays as it used to be made and it is proved by the high price of cheese products.

You have to heat up the milk used to pasteurise cheese to 72 degrees Celsius for about twenty to thirty seconds and this procedure annihilates the pathogenic germ within the milk. Then you should seed the milk again with lactic bacteria to restore its flora which is indispensable for maturing the paste. it is considered a crime to take the important bacteria out of milk and to replace them by any others especially those selected and standardised in laboratories.

Besides the original cheese, mass-produced one can not be really called as cheese although it ranks first in any household consumption. On one hand, you find mass production and low costs, and on the other small scale production, high quality and the prices differ mainly. Similar kinds of cheese can have a different price according to their fame and to the price of milk. There is a segmentation when considering brands : Lanquedoc, Lepetit, Gillot, Cooperative d’Isigny are made of milk. Their prices are more expensive, and they are chosen by only 15% of people. The pasteurised camembert branded as President, Bridel / Coeur de Lion are the market leaders with a 85% of market share. They are sold under the prices of cheese made of milk. The cause of this difference is moulding itself. For Lanquedoc camembert, the mould is filled with five layers of curdled milk, which takes a space of 40mm, so as to allow a slow draining and a different taste. So it takes longer time to produce this type.

The difference between cheese made of pasteurised milk or milk only is a bit ambiguous. Always think before you make a choice! If you read Normandy camembert on a label of a cheese product it means that it is a ladle-moulded camembert made of milk and the origin is guaranteed. Camembert which are made in Normandy are pasteurised. For cheese lovers to know this is not full flavoured cheese. The ordinary label “Camembert” can be used anywhere in the world not just in the French region but for instance in China. The major difference is its low price.

So how can you tell the difference between a pasteurised and a milk camembert? Uneven rind of various colours appear on non-pasteurised cheese, in the meantime it is even and white when cheese is pasteurised and its ripening process is stopped at that time. The side of a ripen cheese is softer when touched and it goes on ripening stores. Cheese lovers enjoy milk cheese as there is a guarantee it its origin. But 85% consumers prefer milder pastes, enjoyed by everyone in the family.

Where should anyone purchase real French cheese? Let’s consider supermarkets first which you should really avoid as they are a load of rubbish as cheese suppliers have to pay to get a good place at the self-service supermarket; so they overvalue their products so as to recoup the expenses. Secondly traditional cheese shops are good markets as a professional cheesemonger, thanks to his knowledge and to his presence in the shop can sell any fresh product while standing apart from mass distribution systems. Finally cheese farms are the best choices as there are veterinarian inspections. The ticketing of cheese is also submitted to strict rules, such as sales designation, animal species, minimal fats content, manufacturing place and additives.

Looking to find more information on French cheese, then visit www.world-of-cheese.com to find plus informationcheese topics.