My wife sent me to the Ardmore Farmer’s Market with instructions to come home with a "delicious, creamy, goat cheese that can be spread on crusty French bread." With mission in hand I immediately checked in with my my favorite cheesemonger, Jack who turned me onto Chabichou du Poitou, a soft, unpasteurized goat’s milk cheese made in the Poitou-Charentes region of France.

This is a delightful cheese that you may be able to find if you have a great cheese shop near you but if not, I’ve listed a couple of online sources at the end of the post.

The Short Story

Type: Goat’s milk
Origin: Poitou-Charentes region, France
Process: Barely ripened (10 days to three weeks)
Texture: Firm and creamy
Shape: Cylindrical to slightly conical
Color: Bright white
Rind: Thin and white with some yellow and blue mold
Flavor: Sweet, goaty, salty, slightly acidic

The Rest of the Story

Chabichou du Poitou, like many other famous cheeses, is only produced in specific regions. In the case of this cheese, it is made in the Poitou-Charentes region. For those of you who, like me, aren’t very familiar with French geography, the Poitou-Charentes region is located about 100 miles north of the city of Bordeaux and about 30 miles inland from the west coast. It is halfway between Paris and Bordeaux.

About the size of a wine tumbler, it is made from whole goats’ milk, and as such, has the characteristic “bright white” color in its interior. What makes this cheese so special is that it not only has an edible rind, but right beneath the rind is a thin buttery layer before you slice down into the firm, creamy, white center. It’s these three flavors and textures that give this cheese such complexity. It is very “goaty,” but in the best way possible. It also tastes somewhat sweet with a bit of a salty/tangy edge at the end when you swallow.

You can eat Chabichou du Poitou when it is young (up to 3 weeks) with a white paste that may be a little chewy, ripe (up to 6 weeks) with a spreadable texture and sweet flavor or dry (2 months) with a nutty flavor. Each will offer you a slightly different taste. The Chabichou I tasted was perfectly ripe, spreadable, mild and melts in your mouth.

A Little History

I was surprised to find out that the first goats were introduced to France by the Romans. Much later, the Saracens continued the practice of raising goats in and around the Loire Valley until they were eventually pushed out during the Battle of Poitiers. When they left, they left behind their goats along with the recipes they used to make goat cheese. So, the Chabichou du Poitou, named for the Arabic word for “goat,” has a history that begins back in the 8th century!

How It Is Made

While there is some industrialized production of Chabichou du Poitou, the best are still made using traditional methods. The process starts with whole, unpasteurized goat’s milk. It is slightly pressurized for a brief period, and then the curd is left to set up for a day or two at a specific temperature.

Afterwards, the curd is packed into molds that are perforated. The perforations allow the whey to drain and for the curd to become more solid. After a period of draining and turning, they are turned out of their molds and packed either in brine or with crystalline salt. Then, it is further drained, dried and then aged for at least ten days or up to three weeks. Some of the cheeses are even aged up to three months for a much more pronounced flavor and firmer end product.

Food & Wine Pairings

Like many goat cheeses, Chabichou pairs nicely with white wines. It is particularly nice to have with a chilled Sauvignon Blanc. If you can find a wine from the Loire region in France, that would be ideal. I like to enjoy Chabichou du Poitou just spread on a crusty baguette, but you could even serve it as a light end to a springtime meal.

I would not, however, sprinkle it on a salad. It is much too wonderful and complex on its own, and a “lesser” goat cheese would work just as well, and perhaps even better because it would be milder and would pair better with a vinaigrette. For the same reasons, I would never melt it into a sauce.

I did find one classic preparation that reminds me a little of a Caprese salad: put alternating slices of Chabichou du Poitou, cornichon (pickle) and tomato on a bed of cooked rice in a small baking dish. Sprinkle with a little oregano, thyme, salt and pepper and then drizzle with olive oil. Bake at 350° F for half an hour and serve warm.

Where to Buy Chabichou du Poitou Online

Gourmet Food Store	Artisanal Premium Cheese

Romantic Cheeses and Brie en Croute for Valentine’s Day

I thought cheese might be a great way to start off you home cooked romantic Valentine’s dinner for two. It can be simple, elegant, rich and a great way to start off the night.

There is cheese, and there is cheese. The first kind of cheese is the kind you find at the regular grocery store - mass produced, cut into blocks and vacuum sealed. Perfectly fine for making a sandwich or grating and sprinkling on tacos or chili, but not what we’re looking for when it comes to a romantic Valentine’s Day dinner.

When I asked my wife and a couple of her friends what kind of cheese they think of when they think of a romantic dinner, they all immediately said “Brie.” Brie is a soft French cheese named for the area in which it is made. Another similar soft cheese to consider is Camembert. Both of these cheeses can be found pretty easily in the gourmet cheese section at the regular grocery store. They are rich, so a couple of ounces per person will be more than enough. And there will be more courses to come, so don’t gorge yourselves on cheese.

While my wife and her friends I spoke to were partial to Brie, I am a big fan of French double and triple crème cheeses. By French law, double crème cheese must have a minimum butterfat content of 60% per gram, and triple crème cheese must contain at least 75% butterfat per gram. As you can imagine, these cheeses are all very buttery, rich and very spreadable when ripe.

One of my favorites is a French cheese called Excelsior - it has about 72% butterfat, so it is just shy of a triple crème. Another fine triple crème is Brillat-Saverin. If you’re wondering where you’ve heard that name, he is quoted at the beginning of the original Iron Chef: “Show me what you eat, and I’ll show you what you are.” While these cheeses are very expensive, since they are so very rich, a little goes a very long way. It is well worth your time to go to your local gourmet shop or cheese shop and hunt down some double or triple crème cheese.

For a simple presentation, serve small wedges of soft cheese with some sturdy crackers, such as Triscuits, or toasted slices of baguette. Add a few small bunches of grapes (no more than 8 grapes per bunch - you don’t want to slam a whole pound of grapes down on the plate) or slices of apple (mix the juice of one lemon into a cup of ice water. Dip the apple slices into the lemon water to prevent browning), and you have a lovely fruit and cheese course for two!

Important - cheese is best served at room temperature, so make sure that you get your cheese out of the refrigerator well before serving so that it has a chance to warm up. Serve the fruit straight from the refrigerator, and use freshly toasted baguettes and you will impress your Valentine not only with your simple and beautiful presentation, but also with the three temperatures on one plate - cold fruit, room temperature cheese and warm bread will elevate your cheese plate from good to great.

Let’s get back to the Brie

If you feel comfortable and want to offer your Valentine a baked cheese dish, you can make Brie en croute. This is a fancy name for Brie wrapped up in puff pastry, and it is very easy to make.

Brie en Croute

Ingredients

1 small wheel of Brie
1 sheet of puff pastry (found in the frozen food section near the piecrusts—It comes in boxes of two pieces. Take one piece out and thaw it for at least 12 and up to 24 hours in the refrigerator before using. Leave the other piece frozen for later use)
1 small jar of apricot preserves
A pinch or two of salt
Egg wash (1 egg whisked together with one teaspoon of water)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees, F.

Flatten your piece of puff pastry, and then roll it so it is about 1/8”- 3/16” thick. Set the small wheel of brie on the pastry just for reference, and then cut a circle of puff pastry large enough to wrap all the cheese entirely. Reserve the extra dough because you’ll be using some of it later.

Brie rind is edible, so just leave it on. Mix a pinch or two of salt into the apricot preserves and spread it in a thick layer on top of the wheel of cheese.

Place the center of the circle of pastry over the center of the cheese, right on top of the jam. Gently press the pastry down the sides of the wheel of cheese. Turn the whole thing upside down and pleat and seal the pastry. Just press all the edges firmly together, but don’t press straight down, or you’ll mess up your layer of jam.

Turn the pastry covered wheel right-side up again. Put it on a parchment-lined baking sheet, and press down from the sides, just to make sure the cheese is sitting fairly level on the sheet. Cut a couple of heart shapes out of the extra pastry - or you could cut out your Valentine’s initials or just some leaf or flower shapes. Use a little of the egg wash to “glue” these cut outs to the top of your wheel. Now, brush the entire wheel with a thin coat of egg wash. This will help it to get shiny and brown in the oven.

Bake for 20 minutes or so, until the pastry is a nice golden brown. Remove from the oven and let cool for a few minutes. Serve with crackers, toasted slices of baguette and maybe some fresh fruit.

And to drink? A good French Champagne, an Italian prosecco or another sparkling wine. For a non-alcoholic alternative, serve sparkling cider or grape juice. Bubbles and creamy cheese make for a great combination.

Tomorrow we’ll look at the second course of our romantic Valentine’s Day meal - Soup

Can You Eat Brie Crust Even Though It Is Mold?

Bill Overton asked on my blog posting Learning About Cheese, "Can you really eat the mold on Brie? I’m always afraid to eat it, but I have a friend who knows a lot about food, who says it’s okay to eat. "

I’m not sure if Bill was referring to the outside rind (skin, crust) on Brie which is a mold in itself or if a mold develops on the outside skin. Let’s start by looking more closely at Brie.

Brie is a soft-ripened cow’s mild cheese that is said to have a bloomy rind. It gets its name from the town it originated in France. The outside casing is a white mold that often has an ammonia smell to it that makes it unappealing to some.

Brie is made much like other cheeses, that is rennet is added to raw milk, heated to the right temperature and then cast into molds and allowed to drain for hours. It is then removed from the molds, salted and sprayed with a "good" mold like Penicillium candidum. It is then aged in a cellar for four to five weeks.

It is during this time the cheese ripens from the outside in because of the mold that has been introduced to the surface of the cheese. As Steven Jenkins’ Cheese Primer says, "The bacteria slowly penetrate the interior, turning it from a chalky, crumbly, bland cheese into a soft, nearly liquid wonder."

So Is It Edible

Absolutely! That is of course you don’t have any mold allergies. Most doctors would advise you to stay away from soft cheeses like Brie, Roquefort, Gorgonzola, Camembert or any other mold-ripened cheese if you have a mold allergy.

Some people ask, "How can you eat mold? Isn’t it bad for you?" Well it turns out there are good molds and bad molds. The mold used to make Brie and Gorgonzola will not hurt you unless you are allergic to mold. Other species of mold may produce mycotoxins that can be dangerous and make you quite sick. It’s why you don’t want to be eating moldy bread. You just don’t know what type of mold it is so it is better to get rid of it.

The other thing to consider is if you like the flavor of the crust. Some people think the white moldy crust on Brie has the most flavor. Others don’t like it at all and go right for the soft center. When I serve brie at a party, I leave the crust on and let my guests decide for themselves.

I asked Cheeseman Jack about eating the crust on Brie and here is what he had to say, " It is really a matter of taste. There are those people who would never eat it and others who enjoy the texture and strong flavoring rind may supply. Washed rinds, natural rinds, should never be eaten."

What About Moldy Mold Brie Cheese?

So let’s say you have some leftover Brie in the refrigerator that has not been rewrapped very well and it starts growing some green fuzz on it. Do you eat it?
Cut the fuzz off and eat the rest? Or throw it away?

Me, I’m throwing it out. I’m not taking any chances that the tiny little microscopic mold organisms with roots that burrow into the cheese are the "good" ones. I’ll get mad at myself for not properly wrapping the cheese up in plastic wrap or better yet in my vacuum sealer that is perfect for cheese but I’ll get over it.

With harder cheeses like cheddar or Parmesan or even semi soft cheeses like Swiss, Muenster or Asiago, I don’t have a problem cutting of at least one inch around the moldy area to save the rest of the cheese but I don’t mess around with soft cheeses.

When I asked Cheeseman Jack (who has forgotten more about cheese than I will ever know) about this situation, he had a completely different take on this. He says,

"Most molds that grow out on soft-ripened cheeses are edible. Normally on most available brie type cheeses you will not see any mold outside of the expected penicillin molds. On Brie de Melun you should expect red and greenish molds but this cheese is quite rare and your readers will not come across it. If they do, it is from a shop that knows what they are doing. So in conclusion either ignore the mold and eat it, remove the mold, or don’t buy it."

Interesting but I’m still not eating it.

A Little Brie History

I just picked up a used book called An Illustrated History of French Cuisine published back in 1962 and in it they talk about Charlemagne’s (King of the Franks from 768 AD until his death in 814 and one of the first gourmands) first experience with Brie when he stopped by the monastery of Reuil-en-Brie to rest while returning home from a tiring day of battle with his Knights.

Here is what the author writes,

"The abbot ordered up from the cellars some of those marvelous cheeses the fame of which in later years was to spread far beyond the borders of Brie. Charlemagne and his knights feasted well. At the first mouthfuls, however, every one of them made the mistake of removing the crust. One of the monks respectfully called their attention to their error; whereupon the gentlemen abstained and willingly agreed that the advice was excellent.

"I thought I knew everything that could be eaten, ‘ exclaimed Charlemagne before the end of the meal. ‘It was only vanity on my part… I have just discovered in this cheese one of the most delectable foods imaginable. ‘ And he added; ‘I desire that twice a year a goodly quantity of these cheeses of Brie be brought to my palace at Aix-la-Chapelle… And I pray you to see to it especially that they have a good consistency and also a good crust!’ "