🧀 Brie de Meaux

Brie de Meaux is a French soft cheese with a bloomy rind, made from raw cow's milk and protected as a PDO (registered on 21 June 1996, file PDO-FR-9110). It takes its name from the town of Meaux, in the natural region of Brie. ³

How it is made. According to the single document, only raw cow's milk is used. A high dose of rennet makes the curd form quickly; the curd is sliced and put into the moulds with the traditional perforated ladle. The moulds are cylindrical with an internal diameter of 36 to 37 cm, so the cheese is a flat, pancake-shaped cylinder. At least 85% of the dry matter in the herd's ration must come from the production area. ³

Ripening and look. Ripening lasts at least four weeks from renneting. The crust is fine and white with red patches or streaks, and the paste is uniform. At four weeks the taste is lactic, slightly salty with a hint of bitterness; between four and six weeks the cheese turns from brittle to supple; after six to eight weeks it is fully mature, with a subtle aroma of cream, butter and hazelnut. A full wheel weighs 2.6 to 3.3 kg and contains at least 45 g of fat per 100 g of dry matter. After the four weeks it may be sold in halves or triangular portions cut from centre to rind. ³

Area. The milk is produced, and the cheese made and matured, in a defined area centred on the upper and middle Seine basin: all of Seine-et-Marne, Paris and its inner suburbs, and listed communes of Aisne, Aube, Loiret, Marne, Haute-Marne, Meuse and Yonne. ³

Packing and labelling. The cheese is packed only after four weeks from renneting, wrapped in paper or plastic film, and leaves the workshop within 10 days of packaging. The name must appear in characters at least two thirds the size of the largest on the label. ³

Why cheese in wheat country. The Brie region was cereal land, with cows kept to the valley slopes. In the 18th century agronomists advised sowing legumes instead of leaving land fallow, which gave fodder, and some farms began combining crops with cows: straw for bedding, chaff, bran and beet for feed. Surplus milk became cheese, with Paris close by as a market. ³

Why so large. The mould size matched the milk a farm had. Late in the 19th century the large wheels settled on rennet methods, and in 1897 Duclaux and Roger first isolated Penicillium candidum from a brie, which allowed seeding with a known culture. In 2020, 6,227 tonnes were sold, from 208 milk producers. ³⁴

Why it matters to you. The name Brie de Meaux has been protected in the EU since 1996: it means raw cow's milk, a made-and-matured-in-the-area origin and at least four weeks of ripening. It is fully mature at six to eight weeks, so check the age if you want the creamy, hazelnut taste. The NHS advises pregnant women to avoid mould-ripened soft cheese unless cooked, and this one is also made from raw milk. ³⁵