Le Brie

In my local Publix supermarket in South Miami, in the new Village of Dadeland complex, you can find an abundant supply of fresh French cheese. From a commercial site, I can extract this excerpt "Below a downy white rind, Ile de France Le Brie offers a deliciously creamy texture and hazelnut aftertaste for a true French flair. Ile de France Le Brie makes a fresh baguette extraordinary. It also serves as a party staple served with fresh fruits, nuts or pistachios."

How do the French make their cheese, you may ask? Ask no more...

Starting from milk, after deaerating, it is sampled and pumped to silos. Raw milk is pasteurized and concentrated to triple its total solid content, then blended with whole milk and cream before being pasteurized again. Cheese milk from the pasteurizer flows directly to maturation (preincubation) tanks. When the acidity in a tank reaches the proper level, which takes 0.5 to two hours, the milk is pumped to the cheese vats. Fermentation in the vats is carefully monitored and when the pH reaches a certain level, an operator manually cuts it into 1.5-in cubes. This is when some particulates like bacon, onion and/or herbs are added for variety. When the specified final pH is reached, a vat is pushed to a dumper where 20-30% of the whey is removed from the top of the vat by vacuum, then the remaining curds and whey are dumped to a parallel conveyor.

The next morning, the cheese are lowered into brine tanks, where product remains for up to two hours then stored overnight at a slight angle to drain the brine, drying the cheese. Cheese remains in the curing room for seven to ten days. The packaged cheese is stored in a 37 degrees Fahreinheit cooler prior to shipment to the distribution center and to your home.

Yummy... Should I look up village Camembert's cheese or le Fromage?