Thursday, June 21, 2007

cheesed off

a bit of a cheese war is looming in france sez the ny times.

on the one hand we have the french artisan: “Camembert that is not made with raw milk may be cheese, but it’s not real Camembert,” said Mr. Durand, who took over the family farm when he was only 19 and has run it for 26 years. “To not know a real raw milk Camembert — what a loss that would be. The variety, the diversity, the flavor of cheese — the very heritage of our country — will disappear.”"

on the other hand there is the american expert: "In New York, Steven Jenkins, a cheese expert and senior manager of the Fairway markets, praises the Lactalis Camembert made with treated milk, and sold at Fairway under the label Le Châtelain, as “something awfully darned good.”"

the thing is - the big dairy producers in france treat the milk, for health reasons they say. that is not the problem, though. the issue is that the big dairy producers want the rules to be changed so that their faux camembert may be certified as authentic.

the full story is here. this is a big deal in france. really it is. and my aunt lives in wisconsin, so naturally i was drawn to this story ...

No comments:

Post a Comment