Camembert

So, I was away for 2 weeks, out of blog circulation, getting up at 6:30 am
and working 8 hours a day in the vineyards of the Chateau Vieux Chevrol, where
we were cleaning the grapevines. While I was there, I slept in the old house and
got to eat very well. The meals were supervised by Madame Champseix and she made sure we had great food everyday!
I try to present a cheese once and a while on this blog and I haven't written about
Camembert yet. Camembert is a soft creamy cheese named after the village of Camembert in the Orne departement in Normandy. Supposedly, it was first made in 1791, but the technique is probably much older. Until the beginning of the 20th Century, it was greyish and the color was unpredictable, but the production and the knowlege of the fungi which influences it color and flavor became much better understood. Since 1970, the pure white color has become standard.
The cheese is made from unpasturized cows milk which is inoculated with penicillium candida and penicillium camemberti and aged for at least 3 weeks in small round molds. It is then wrapped in waxed paper and put into the familiar wooden boxes.
Wooden camembert boxes are a familiar part of French life and the labels have always been collectible.
When it is fresh, it is firm and crumbly with a mild flavor and aroma but as it ages, it becomes creamy and the flavor becomes intense and the aroma becomes very apparant. Usually it is eaten fresh with bread and wine. Interestingly, the same organisms which influence the taste of wine are the same as the cheese which lead to speculation as to why wine and cheese complement each other so perfectly.
Though to fully enjoy a ripe camembert, it should be eaten fresh, there are a few ways to eat it incorporated into cooking. One evening, after a particularly delicious meal, Madame Champseix offered us this version instead of the usual cheese selection.
In a small dish that can be heated in the oven, place a portion of camembert. Cover the cheese with a coating of breadcrumbs and bake for a few minutes until the cheese has mented and the crumb topping is toasted.
Serve the individual dishes of warm cheese to your guests with slices of good toasted bread and fresh garlic cloves. The garlic is rubbed on the warm toast and then you put the eat the melted camembert with the garlicky toast. You need to have a good strong red wine to accompany this. The night we ate it, we had a hearty Spanish Rioja and it was perfect!