A Cheesy Story.

Soft cheese is not for everyone, and not even all French (or Swiss or anyone coming from regions famous with cheese) like it. Being raised in a country where we didn't have soft cheese, with exception of those mozarella-like, I could only read about that strange, often smelly, product. Until I went to France in mid-90s. This was when I tasted onion soup, and French cheese. One evening, at our hotel restaurant, I started with brie, roquefort and some kind of goat cheese, fromage du chevre, and bought those three kinds plus camembert, to bring home. Since then I brought soft cheese whenever I went on trips, and then we moved to live in Germany we could not do without it already.

We are obviously not gourmands, but just have some experience and can therefore share some tips and stories.

Starting points.

The best to start with should be one with light smell. I suggest you get a full fat brie. Beginners should not wait till it gets fully ripen (see the section about the right moment below) as even for such a mild cheese as brie, the smell can become little bit strong. Cheese should have room temperature when eaten, which means you have to take it out of refrigerator at least half an hour before.

Another good start is blue cheese, particularly roquefort. Roquefort, unless it gets old, has very strong taste that can, however, be accepted by majority of inexperienced people. Roquefort normally doesn't have any mould crust, its blue mould is all inside, bringing its typical spicy taste.

Many manufacturers, seeking the attention of customers that are on a diet, are offering "light" low fat cheese. While some can be actually good, I would think twice before trying to limit calories intake eating light cheese. You can't consume such big amounts of cheese that calories will run over the top. It's most likely sweet stuff or junk food like cheaps that puts you in danger, therefore, the best is to avoid the junk with artificial taste than reducing on the real things like cheese.

Buying cheese - the right moment.

Smaller cheese merchants will most likely offer a selected variety of locally produced cheese. To get something special you will probably have to visit some specialty shop in a big city. For "normal" needs that we have every day, supermarkets are enough. The cheese there is packed and its quality and taste remains the same for the same brand. Unlike it is for other food, you don't have to buy the most fresh cheese, judged by its production or the shelf life date. Just like any fruit or vegetable, cheese has to ripen. Cheese factories have to pack their cheese well before the best consumption date, accounting the distribution time, and it's quite common to see the cheese on a shelf that has to wait a couple of months to develop its full taste. From our experience, cheese is most "cheesy" about two weeks before the date stated on its packaging. Good sign of that is becoming softer inside. This period is about three weeks long, after which the cheese develops smell and taste that may be too strong for most of people.

You can buy cheese and put it to ripe in your refrigerator. When we are on vacation and are buying cheese on our way home, we carefully check the packaging so that all pieces we have do not have to be eaten on the same day. The supplies then last for several weeks. But if buying shortly before the end of "official" shelf life, you can find that because everyone is obsessed with "fresh", you can get a discount for the cheese in its best shape.

Visiting cheese factories.

If you travel in France or Switzerland, you will see a lot of signs inviting you to taste and buy cheese directly from factory. We did not tried small farmer factories yet, but visited a bigger factory in Lapoutroie, Alsace, in 2006. You can see a couple of pictures on my site here and have a look at the factory Web site too.

Roucoulons.

My colleague suggested I have to buy this one, some time in 1997. Since then, it remains our most loved soft cheese. It is produced by Fromagerie Milleret in Franche-Comte region of France. When we were visiting Vosges region, Franche-Comte being about 100 km to the west, I wanted to visit the factory but it seems they do not allow visitors.

Roucoulons is relatively high-fat cheese, to be eaten one or two weeks before the date on its packaging. Earlier start will be just a waste of product!

Fromagerie Milleret has other kinds of cheese of course. L'Ortolan is especially respected by my wife because of its very fine (or mild) taste.

Tete de Moine.

This is a hard Swiss cheese. We made the discovery in our hotel in Grindelwald, Switzerland, when we spent there four days in August 2007. They had it for breakfast and I asked its name, to buy it on our way home. The cheese has a strong taste and it doesn't smell too unusually, as so many cheeses can. It's cut with a special blade, "girolle", being rotated around the cheese center, to produce those little cheese "roses" that you can see on the picture below.

Because of this special way of serving it, it's unlikely that you can see this cheese sold ready to eat. But it can be normally found in specialized cheese departments of a supermarket. Or, if you reside in countries where mass market is less friendly to good food (North America), you should be able to find it in specialized shops, or on the Internet. You can buy the girolle as well, and shipping hard cheese won't be a problem. The only problem is that the piece may be too big for you.