Claudia Romeo: Sweet and
creamy, Camembert holds a special place in the
heart of cheese lovers. Today we're in Normandy, France, and we are in the village of Bermonville. We are visiting Le 5 Frรจres,
which is a local farm, to see how traditional farmhouse
Camembert cheese is made. To be called Camembert,
a cheese has to weigh at least 250 grams, be 10
centimeters in diameter, and have about 22% fat content. And it has to come from Normandy. This region in Northern
France is, in fact, where the cheese was born. Legend has it that it
was first made in 1791 in the village of
Camembert by Marie Harel, a farmer from Normandy,
after a priest from Brie shared cheesemaking tips with her. Although Marie really
existed, it's probable that the cheese originated
a few centuries earlier, in the 12th century. But thanks to Marie and
her family after her, Camembert started to be
produced on a larger scale and gained popularity. Fast forward a few hundred years. The Normands still take great pride in it. Claudia: Le 5 Frรจres is a
family-run farm that grows wheat, rapeseed, barley, and other cereals. It makes 400 wheels of
Camembert every day. Claudia: It takes 2 liters of milk to make one wheel of Camembert. Before being transformed into cheese, the milk has to mature for a day. This allows microorganisms to flourish and to acidify the milk,
so when rennet is added, the curd develops faster. Then the milk is ladled by
hand five times every hour. Claudia: After ladling,
the cheese is salted and left to dry for one day. Claudia: Camembert ages
for four to five weeks. This allows a fungus to
grow all around the cheese and age it. Claudia: Traditionally,
Camembert is packaged in paraffin paper and
placed in a wooden box. Claudia: You may associate Camembert with a strong, stinky cheese smell. It's actually because of the milk used. Claudia: So, this is the Camembert that Charles just cut for us. Let's give it a try. Oh, it's nice. It's nice. I mean, to be honest, I'm not sure how you could wait two more weeks. It's really good. Biting into the outside
part of the cheese, you start to get those
typical flavors of Camembert. You get the gooeyness, you get
a bit of a sour aftertaste. You can taste more of the milk in here, and you can taste that it's raw milk. Maybe it's not as, like, creamy as, you know, the one that I'm
used to, that is, like, just the standard one I
buy at the supermarket, but, again, the flavors here are stronger. Like, the flavors here are
more robust, and actually, if you can see, there is some
creaminess going on in here. Just by far, by far, the
best one I've ever had, regardless of how much time
it has been on the shelves. The popularity of the soft, creamy cheese has led Camembert-style cheeses to be made all over the world. France alone makes 360 million wheels of Camembert each year, and the cheese has become
a symbol of French culture. It was used to feed French
soldiers during World War I and even gave its name to the pie chart, which in French is called
"un diagramme en Camembert." More and more dairies have
started to pasteurize their milk for health and safety reasons, leaving only a few farmers
in France still making it the traditional way, using raw milk, which is permitted in Europe
but forbidden in the US.
[VINCENT] You know what they call a Pie Chart in Paris?
[JULES] They don't call it a Pie Chart?
[VINCENT] No, they got the cheese system there, they wouldn't know what the fuck a Pie Chart is.
[JULES] What'd they call it?
[VINCENT] They call it Un Diagramme en Camembert
[JULES] Un Diagramme en Camembert. What'd they call a Bar Graph?
[VINCENT] Bar Graph's a Bar Graph, but they call it Le Bar Graph.
Good god that looks like a fantastic cheese
That looks like a...