The History of Camembert Cheese

According to legend, a dairymaid or farmer in Northern France sheltered a priest who was running from the guillotine during the French Revolution in1791. The priest was reportedly from Brie and showed her how to make Brie cheese, but the woman did something different, creating Camembert cheese. Some sources note that her name may have been Marie Hamel. There is no way to know whether this story is true or just a legend, but there is some evidence that Camembert may have already existed in the region as early as the 1680s. Scientists have since discovered that Camembert is the result of a special kind of mold, Penicillium camemberti, which only grows in the caves of Northern France. We do know that the cheese became a local favorite around the turn of the 19th century, but it didn’t travel well due to its soft, runny nature, so it remained a local delicacy for some time. Eventually, a man named Ridel invented a box that made transporting the cheese possible, and it spread throughout France, particularly in the wake of World War I, as soldiers stationed in the Normandy region had become fond of it and sought it out after returning to their own towns. The name Camembert was reportedly bestowed by Napoleon, who was a fan of the cheese, or possibly his namesake, Napoleon III. Camembert — specifically, Camembert de Normandie — received AOC status in 1983. Recently, scientists have been working on ways to create Camembert in other parts of the world by introducing similar molds to the strain found naturally in France, but these versions do not have AOC status. Today, Camembert is popular in many parts of the world, but is still less well-known than its close cousin, Brie cheese.