The French connection

“What does she think she’s doing? thats like 5 bucks worth of cheese she just shoved down her throat in one go!” I vented to the wife at the time.

“She needs to keep her opinion’s about what I feed my dogs to herself too, it’s Christmas and if we wanna give ’em turkey and she don’t like it, write a book or piss off!”

I always had plenty of time for my mother in law, but shoving at least 50 grams of d’Affinois brie down her gullet in one go was not cool. I got that for the whole party to enjoy, at $70 a kilo. I sorta wondered if it was her brain having some sorta melt down as she seemed highly offended just beforehand that I would give my dogs turkey for Christmas, in my own house! I should have given her the good news then and there, but glad I didn’t, I did actually liked the lady!

Fromager d’Affinous is a brie like cheese made from cows milk, which is produced in France. This gear looks like brie, tastes like brie, for the most part is brie, yet goes through a process called ultrafiltration and is top notch goodness!

Ultrafiltration removes excess water and concentrates all the goodness for one to be tantilized by, like I have on many Christmas’s and whenever I feel the need and the bank account let’s me! The ultrafiltration process also speeds up production as ripening time is about a quarter of that of a standard brie cheese. Normal brie takes around 8 weeks to ripen, where as d’Affinois is only a two week turn around from the day it’s made.

Brie cheese in France originates from a place called Seine-et-Marne and it’s sister and cousin products are widely consumed over most of the planet. We Aussies must pasteurize our cheeses, which is a process of heating the milk to remove and kill off all dodgy bacteria so we don’t get crook or dead when we consume it.

Most cheeses go through a ripening period, where they are stored in temperature controlled environments until they reach their desired taste!

Those cheddars you see on the supermarket shelf, normal and aged, are basically the same thing. The only differance is that the aged one has sat in its rippenimg environment a little or long time longer than the standard stuff, pun intended!

Ricotta and mozzarella can be made in a few hours! You just add some rennet to your milk, wait for it to split, follow your given recipe, a bit of a strain and your pretty well there!

Luckily for most of us, our friends over in France don’t pasturize most of their cheeses, so when you’ve got the cash to splurge out and want to try and impress a lady, be sure to get into a delicatessen and get hold of some nice Brie or something similar from the region’s of France! I picked up this batch from the Trevallyn Grocer in Trevallyn.

I regularly cruise past The Trevalyn Grocer on my trek home most days and this lovely little supermarket stocks a great variety of French cheese, cured meats and a whole heap of great little Tasmanian owned and grown products. As well as all the usual suspects you can pick up at any standard supermarket. They’re a little more expensive than your standard supermarket. Yet you get what you pay for in this world and these guys are packed with quality goods from reputable suppliers.

Enjoying cheese with cured meat, crackers, pickles and any kink of anti pasto type goodness is what good food is all about. All I needed was a lovely lady and nice bottle of Moet and I would’ve been in heaven!