Camembert: A National Myth

California Studies in Food and Culture #4

by Pierre Boisard, Richard Miller (Translator)

Camembert―delectably fragrant, creamy-centered, neatly boxed―is the most popular and most famous French cheese. Originally made by hand in the Norman countryside, it is now mass-produced internationally, yet Camembert remains a national symbol for France, emblematic of its cultural identity. In this witty and entertaining book, Pierre Boisard investigates the history of Camembert and its legend. He considers the transformation of France's cheese-making industry and along the way gives a highly selective, yet richly detailed history of France―from the Revolution to the European Union. A National Myth weaves together culinary and social history in a fascinating tale about the changing nature of food with implications for every modern consumer.

As the legend goes, by coincidence, grand design, or clever marketing, the birth of Camembert corresponds almost exactly in time with the birth of the French republic. In this book, republicans and Bonapartists, revolutionaries and priests are reconciled over the contents of a little round box, originating a great myth and a great nation. The story of the cheese's growing fame features Napoleon, Louis Pasteur, the soldiers of the First World War, and many others.

Beneath this intriguing story, however, runs a grittier tale about the history of food production. We learn, for example, how Camembert became white―a topic that becomes a metaphor for the sanitation of the countryside―and how Americans discovered the secrets of its production. As he describes the transformation of the Camembert industry and the changing quality of the cheese itself, Boisard reveals what we stand to lose from industrialization, the hallmark of the past century.

Today, small producers of raw-milk, ladle-molded Camembert are fighting to keep their tradition alive. Boisard brings us to a new appreciation of the sensual appeal of a lovely cheese and whets the appetite for a taste of the authentic product.

Genres: Food, Nonfiction, History

257 pages, Hardcover

First published June 1, 2003

Reviews

[Gordon · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you really are interested in cheese, this book is one of the best ever written. Now, I have been a cheesemonger for 20+ years and have written two books on cheese so I am not really representative of a general audience, but I really feel like no one gives this book enough credit. It has history, technical info, great descriptions and -- the best part -- really engages with the cultural effect of cheese and society.

This is more of a deep examination of food and culture that a "beach read" or "coffee table" book. It demands concentration and engagement of the reader and that's probably not for everyone. Put, as a cheese professional and a cheese lover, I find this book well worth the effort.

[Elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a comprehensive take on the creation myths and realities that surround a cheese whose popularity in France is almost hard to explain. I think I would have liked it better if Boisard had spent less time detailing the elements of the cheese making and spent more time discussing how the myths that circulate around it were formed. That said, as books that take a single object and look into how it stands in for an entire culture go, this is a good one, particularly for us cheese lovers out there!

[Emily Monaco]

Pierre Boisard always impresses me with his research-driven yet highly readable books about French culinary history. This one, about the country's most emblematic cheese, deftly divides myth from the truth, tracing the history, rife with symbolism and legend, of a product at the intersection of terroir and human intervention, of country tradition and science-driven innovation. Above all, it showcases how this relatively young cheese became so emblematic of not just Norman but French identity.

[David]

I felt like a snob reading an in depth book about the history of a French cheese but the real reason I read the book was to learn about a tradition of cheese-making. Camembert was translated from French and had a convincing air of authority since it was written by a proud Frenchman. Although, I ended up skimming through the book focused mostly on production I learned a great deal about Camembert and to that effect some interesting issues that developed as Camembert went from being a local homemade product, to a regional artisan product, to a national industrial product, and finally to an international industrial product.

What I learned about Camembert:
-It was invented by a woman from Normandy and a priest
-French Cheese was traditionally made by women
-To make Camembert milk is first coagulated with rennet, then ladled into molds that strain out the whey, and then left to age in a structure that has adjustable vents (adjusted to provide optimum humidity or dryness)
-Traditional Camembert contains milk from the Auge region of Normandy that is not pasteurized
-The recipe for Camembert is so generic that it cannot be patented or restricted the way Champagne is restricted to regional production
-Roquefort is the only French cheese that has a regional restrictive label and certification
-Camembert is sold in small round wooden boxes
-Traditional Camembert had a reddish or bluish rind, the rind became white because it gets coated in penicillin
-Pasteurization neutralizes natural variety in regional milk flavors
-All Camembert made with pasteurized milk tastes the same- and is bland compared to the Camembert made with unpasteurized milk

Boisard frequently discussed the dynamic in developing from artisan to industry. He described the struggle of French artisans, like the Syndicate des Frabricants du Veritable Camembert de Normandie, trying to maintain their authentic regional character grappling with industrial production and health impositions like pasteurization. "In imposing on Camembert its whiteness, evocative of hygiene and asepsis, Pasteur's disciples were telling the cheese maker that the era of empiricism had arrived and that the cheese, the product of peasant know-how, could become a product of mass consumption only if it were 'cleansed' under laboratory control" (page 80). In the final chapter of Camembert Boisard rallies for tradition by sensually describing the delight of a Camembert made with unpasteurized milk from Normandy. Now I too can be a Camembert snob.

[Ross · Rating 4 out of 5]

Maybe you have to be French to fully appreciate this book; and maybe something is lost in translation. I certainly was not raised on any myths about camembert, but I always enjoy seeing myths debunked and this book certainly debunks some myths about camembert cheese.

Eschewing any bad puns about spoilers and cheese, I will simply say that we cannot possibly appreciate the authors view if all we have tasted is the camembert sold in the United States. The cheese at the heart of this story is made with unpasteurized milk and comes from small farms. It is apparently gooey and smelly beyond anything we would ever know from the commercialized and processed camembert sold in this country. And largely in France for that matter.

I am fascinated with regulatory issues and this book is filled with them. There has been fraud in cheese markets for centuries, there have long been political battles between producers, and there are labeling issues galore.

[Jonathan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Way too much information about one type of cheese. You do learn quite a bit about the evolution of cheese from farm product to commodity.