Brie de Melun

Appearance & taste

Brie de Melun has the shape of a flat, round cake (“galette”) with protruding or rounded edges. It is made in moulds with an inner diameter of 27 to 28 cm and weighs 1.5 to 2.2 kg after five weeks of ripening. The fine, white mould rind is covered with streaks or red or brown spots. The paste is slightly salty and contains at least 45 % fat in dry matter.

After five weeks the cheese is covered with white mould; its paste is crumbly and slightly runny under the rind. It first tastes of milk, then of yeast and slightly sour. From the 5th to the 8th week it slowly ripens from the rind towards the core, becomes more supple and develops its aroma. After 8 to 10 weeks it is ripened through to the core: the paste is even and supple to slightly runny, with a slightly bitter note, a taste of milk and a lingering aroma. In the smell, animal and vegetal notes are in balance.

Only after the minimum ripening period may the cheese be halved or cut into wedges from the centre to the edge. It is packed in paper or film, with or without a straw base, so that it can be handled without breaking.

Production

The basic ration of the dairy cows is varied: on every day of the year it consists of at least three components, including at least 4 kg of dry matter of grass, fresh or stored, of which at least 2 kg are forage legumes, and at least 2 kg of dry matter of beet pulp or fodder beet. If grass makes up more than 60 % of the basic ration, this requirement does not apply. Concentrates are limited to 25 % of the total ration on an annual average. At least 80 % of the dry matter of the total ration comes from the area; on an annual average at least 50 % comes from the area and the farm itself.

Only raw milk is used, with the help of lactic acid bacteria. The milk is first matured, followed by a long coagulation of at least 16 hours. The lactic curd is broken up and stirred so that it starts to drain in the vat, and it is filled into moulds of small diameter because the cheese is crumbly. From dry salting onwards, the cheese is tended throughout ripening. Milk production, cheesemaking and ripening take place in the area.

Origin & history

The area corresponds to the natural region of Brie in the east of Île-de-France: extensive plateaus between the lower Marne valley and the middle Seine valley. Because the subsoil does not let water through, numerous valleys have formed. Cereals have been grown on the fertile, loess-covered plateaus since ancient times; the clayey slopes of the small valleys and the valley floors, where Melun also lies, were used as pasture.

In the 18th century, agricultural scientists recommended replacing fallow with legumes. This produced a lot of feed, and some cereal farms switched to mixed farming with livestock, without Brie becoming a purely livestock region. Cereal straw was used as bedding, by-products of cereals and sugar beet as feed. Brie was made on farms, and the size of the moulds depended on the amount of milk the farm produced. At the end of the 19th century two types emerged: the small Brie de Melun from lactic coagulation and larger cheeses from rennet coagulation. According to the specification, feed from by-products gives a relatively low-fat but protein-rich milk that is well suited to cheesemaking.