The most famous story about Camembert’s history and invention is that is was first created by Marie Harley, a farmer’s wife, in 1791. She offered a priest on the run during the French Revolution, shelter and help, and he, in exchange taught her the recipe for a soft bloomy cheese. Whilst it makes for an interesting story, there are much earlier references to Camembert so it’s extremely unlikely she was the first creator.
Camembert really came into its own after the invention of the small wooden box used to carry the cheese in 1890.
Only ‘Camembert de Normandie’ has PDO protection, meaning it must be made in the Normandy region, with raw cow’s milk, and that 50% of those cows must be the Normande breed. Normande cows are the third most commonly used in France for cheese production and produce a protein and butterfat rich milk, which is well suited to the manufacture of Camembert.
Camembert production is unique in that the curds are cut vertically and then ladled into moulds in five scoops, each scoop forty minutes after the previous one. They then drain for 18 hours and are turned once.
Research underway.
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