Illegal Cheese? Illegal Cheese!

I've got illegal cheese! Where and how I acquired it, I cannot say. Because seriously, it's illegal...

I've never seen a pasteurized Brie run like this raw version.

Brie de Meaux (pronounced mowe) is also known as Le Roi de Fromages, the King of Cheeses. From the Ile-de-France region, this is the one that started it all for those soft, creamy dairy lovers out there. The illustrious foreign delicacy from France that spurred a thousand imitations. Everyone's favorite. But you won't ever see real Brie in the States. Unless it was smuggled. Or was sent to you by mistake.

Brie de Meaux is a protected cheese under the AOC, or Appellation d’Origine Contrôlée, like Champagne is to wine. In addition to it's geographical location, part of what makes Brie Brie is that it is made with unpasteurized milk. Tisk-tisk says the US Federal government. Apparently raw milk products aged less than 60 days (such as Brie and most other soft-ripened cheeses) are teaming with evil bacteria just waiting to wreak havoc on the American public. That's the law. Allegedly after that two month period all the bad bacteria magically disappears. It's a lovely notion to make us feel a little better, a little safer, since we as a nation are so disconnected from our food to begin with. Detect a hint of cynicism? This is also all highly debatable, so I won't get into it any further.

Because of the nature of most high-moisture, young cheese the proteins begin to break down and are nearly at the end of their life come 60 days. So herein lies the dilemma: Do we consume real, unpasteurized cheese that's past its prime? Or do we eat pasteurized Brie-style cheese that while lovely, truly lacks the complexity and flavor of the raw milk version? It's a toss up between rancid and bland. We (or rather the FDA) picked the latter.

 Unlike a lot of people, Brie is actually at the low end of my favorite cheeses list. Still I was insanely giddy. Because, did I mention, it's illegal?

I often hear from my customers that washed rind cheeses, otherwise known as the really stinky cheeses (Epoisse, Taleggio, Livarot) smell like dirty gym socks. I have to correct them by letting them know what they are smelling is more akin to a dirty diaper, not dirty feet. (Or I'm wrong and just haven't been to the gym in a really long time...) Mostly I'll do this in my head, but sometimes when I've had a lot of caffeine and am feeling saucy I'll say it aloud. But this Brie de Meaux smelled like a pair of well-loved sneakers just taken out for a run in July, something I have never experienced from a bloomy rind cheese. To the contrary the flavor was sublime. It tasted like a nicely seasoned cream of broccoli soup, and the consistency was oozy, smooth and mouth coating-ly creamy, the rind thin with just the right amount of chew. The lucky few who tasted it had to fight each other for the spreader. In addition to a few harmless scrapes and bruises, we all took away a whole new impression of what Brie can be.

I'll be driving through France this June, and while I plan to taste as much cheese as my short time will allow, Brie wasn't on my list until now. Perhaps I'll even be the bold one to smuggle some raw cheese back this time. Worth the risk? Absolutely.