🧀 Brillat-Savarin

Brillat-Savarin is a French soft cheese made from lactic curd, produced from cow's milk and cow's milk cream, and protected as a PGI (registered on 19 January 2017). The name pays tribute to the jurist and gastronome Anthelme Brillat-Savarin; it was given to the cheese in the early 1930s by the Parisian maturer Henry Androuët. ³

How it is made. Only whole cow's milk is used, collected within two days and never frozen, together with cream skimmed from whole cow's milk; the cream may not be homogenised or frozen. Before renneting the milk is matured for a long time at a restricted temperature. The resulting curd is very fragile and is drained and dried with great care. Production and maturing must take place in the defined area. ³

Look and taste. The cheese is a regular cylinder with a straight or slightly concave heel and flat sides. Small cheeses weigh 100 to 250 g (diameter 60 to 100 mm); large ones at least 500 g (diameter 110 to 140 mm). Dry extract is at least 40%, fat at least 72% of the dry matter and salt below 2%. The paste is soft and smooth and melts in the mouth; fresh cream or butter flavours predominate, with a slightly acidic, slightly salty taste. It is first sold no sooner than three days after renneting. Cheese described as matured is aged for at least five days (small) or eight days (large) from renneting; it has a white-to-ivory rind with Penicillium candidum and/or Geotrichum, and aromas of mushrooms, undergrowth, fruit and nuts. ³

Area. The area covers listed cantons and communes in the departments of Aube, Côte-d'Or, Saône-et-Loire, Seine-et-Marne and Yonne. ³

Labelling. Every label shows the name Brillat-Savarin and the name and address of the last producer in the area. The word matured must appear in the same field of vision, in characters at least half the size of the name. ³

Why cream. Lactic curd has been made here since the Middle Ages, when the method suited the pace of Cistercian abbeys, and it later passed to farms. In the 19th century makers began enriching milk with cream: in Brie it was surplus from making the local cheeses, while Burgundy bought it from neighbours. Added fat holds water, so the curd is very fragile and hard to make on a large scale. ³

What 72 % means. The figure is fat in dry matter, not in the whole cheese. With at least 40 % dry extract, the minimum works out at about 29 g of fat per 100 g of cheese. By INAO's account, Henri Androuët renamed it in 1930 after Jean-Anthelme Brillat-Savarin, author of a famous book on taste. ³⁴

Why it matters to you. The PGI name guarantees that the cheese was made and matured in the defined area to the specification. The word matured means a rind and aromas of mushroom and nuts; without it you get a fresh, creamy cheese. The NHS advises pregnant women to avoid mould-ripened soft cheese unless cooked. ³⁵