It is believed that Camembert cheese was first made in 1791 by a Normandy peasant, Marie Areles. During the French Revolution, she hid a monk from the province of Brie from persecution, and in gratitude for her salvation, he taught her to cook cheese according to the secret recipe of her homeland – soft, creamy, covered with a dense mold crust. Since the “terroir” is very important for cheese – the climate, the composition of the soil and the varieties of grasses that cows eat, a Norman peasant woman living far from the central region of France has got a new type of cheese: not the ancient Brie cheese, but its younger brother, which is still had no name of its own and was simply called Norman cheese. For almost a century, Marie’s descendants have been producing cheese according to this recipe, improving it and adapting it to local conditions.
In 1863, this cheese was introduced to Napoleon III as a product of the Norman village of Camembert. The emperor loved him very much and assigned the name of the place of origin to him. Thanks to Napoleon, the whole of Paris was carried away by cheese from Normandy, and the Arel family’s cheese dairy had to urgently expand production. The cheeses were sent to Paris by train, which by that time connected the capital and the province.
For a long time, Camembert cheese could only be tasted in France, since long-term transportation of such a delicate product was impossible. Thanks to the railway to Paris, he reached in 6 hours wrapped in straw, and this was the limit of his capabilities. It wasn’t until 1890 that the engineer Riedel developed wooden boxes in which Camembert could be transported over long distances. Cheese immediately conquered America, and wooden boxes are still used to transport the real French Camembert.
Interestingly, originally Camembert cheese had any kind of crust, but not white. Usually, a blue-gray mold with brown spots formed on it. Only at the beginning of the 20th century, this process was taken under control, and cheese makers began to use a special type of specially bred mold – Penicillium camemberti – which gives a beautiful snow-white crust. At the same time, at the beginning of the 20th century, doctors noticed that thanks to these fungi, Norman cheese can be successfully used to treat gastrointestinal diseases. However, it wasn’t until the 1970s that the white crust became the official standard for Camembert.
During World War I, camembert cheese circles in tin boxes were included in the ration of French soldiers. So he received popular love and became widely known throughout the world. In the 20th century, local varieties of soft cheese with mold, prepared according to the Camembert recipe, appeared in many countries. Although they have different names, their appearance and taste are very close to the classic Norman camumber.
In 1928, a monument to Marie Arel was erected in the village of Camembert, without whom there would not have been its own famous cheese. In 1983, Camembert of Normandy received the AOC (Authenticity of Origin) certificate, which guarantees that the product is produced in a specific area in accordance with traditional technology.