#cheesehistory

[antakyali-5]

"Yemek" desinler yeter.. antakyali-5.tumblr.com #kitchen #kitchenismylove #feast #foodbook #artcook #artfood #foodhistory #vegan #cheese #cheesehistory #readingday (Nail Kitabevi)

[krystalinparis]

30 jours - le fromage

30 days.

And what could be more traditional about France than their CHEESE?!

Now cheese is literally an entire college course in itself. There's a reason why culinary schools are around. French Cuisine is an ART in itself!

Sooooo I will try my best to make this as thorough and brief while bringing justice and accuracy to such a dense topic.

Le fromage - Cheese

Did you know there are 350 - 400 TYPES OF CHEESE?! Oh mon dieu!

In 1962, French President Charles de Gaulle famously said,

"Comment voulez-vous gouverner un pays qui a deux cent quarante-six variétés de fromage?" "How can you govern a country which has two hundred and forty-six varieties of cheese?"

Dunno, but France seems to be doing a pretty good job at it. 

-France has the Appellation d'origine contrôlée (AOC), meaning "controlled destination of origin." It basically serves to protect the authenticity of cheese, labeling cheese by it's origin, quality, type, etc.

-The AOC labels under four categories:

Fermier - farmhouse cheese (little house on the prairie style)

Artisanal - some milk from their farm, some milk from other farms

Coopérative - A dairy with multiple milk producers - cheeses unite! 

Industriel - factory made cheese with milk sourced locally and all over France ('merica style)

Different regions of France create different cheeses. 

The top ten most popular cheeses :)

1) Camembert – Normandy. 2) Brie de Meaux – Ile-de-France. 3) Roquefort – Midi-Pyrénées. 4) Boursin – Normandy. 5) Reblochon – Savoie. 6) Munster – Alsace and Vosges in Lorraine. 7) Pont l’Évêque – Normandy 8) Époisses – Bourgogne 9) Chèvre 10)Tomme de Savoie – Savoie

If you're interested in how cheese is made, here are some brief videos:

(only need to see like the first 5 minutes BUT IT'S SUPER FUNNY)

(more technical)

Now when it comes to the quality of cheese, the characteristics you should look for are:

Style

Soft

Semi-Soft

Hard

Blue

Flavor

Mild

Medium

Strong

Bold

Milk type

Cow

Goat

Sheep

If now you're like "OH KRYSTAL YOU'VE INSPIRED ME TO BE A CHEESE EXPERT TELL ME MORE!" this Cheese wheel (visual pun ahead!) literally has every cheese broken down:

http://thumbnails.visually.netdna-cdn.com/the-charted-cheese-wheel_51ae17314abed.jpg

And more thorough articles about cheese!

http://about-france.com/cheese.htm

http://www.cheese-france.com/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_French_cheeses

http://paris-wise.com/journal/a-brief-guide-to-french-cheese.html

Was this blog too...cheesy? ;p

Now... I'm going to eat some cheese.

bon appétit!