What Does Brie Taste Like?

What does brie taste like? How can this type of cheese become so popular that cheese lovers have to try it at least once in their life? Trust me; you will be amazed by all the information that I am about to give you.

Through reading this post, you will have a clear picture of this spectacular cheese and understand how to use it in different dishes. Also, I will illustrate the best way to reserve the cheese to maintain its best quality.

Follow me; let’s explore the savory secrets of this brie cheese.

The Original Taste Of Brie

Brie is a tender and white cheese, and it is usually made of cow’s milk. It has a lovely white rind covering the excellent runny texture inside.

Brie cheese has many variants worldwide; each region adds a unique and authentic flavor to this wonderful cheese.  However, the typical brie cheese has an earthy and salty butter flavor.

The soft texture is a perfect match with the rich and creamy taste from a slice of brie cheese. For a sharp-witted person, you will also find a robust mushroom scent from the ripen cheese. Imagine you are eating the white truffle fried egg with a touch of garlic. Fantastic!

Brie Cheese 101 – Let’s Take A Quick Class About Brie

It is time to take a closer look at brie cheese to comprehend its natural features and where the outstanding flavor comes from? Well, you don’t have to wait any longer, just keep reading!

The Story Of Brie Cheese

The name brie comes from a historic region of France – the Seine-et-Marne; this region is near to Paris and is one of the most famous places to create authentic cheese. Brie cheese was a common dish in the 8th century.

Brie is considered the royal dish with the name “King of cheese” or “Queen of cheese”. This is true because the cheese has a dense history served in a royal family like Henry VI and his Queen, The great Charlemagne or Charles of Orléans.

In modern days, you can find various versions of brie cheese in almost every supermarket.

In my case, brie cheese has become an indispensable ingredient in my family’s daily meals.

Brie Nutrition Info –  A Rich Package of Calcium

Brie cheese on the market is mostly made from pasteurized milk, and it is a fat-rich cheese. Depending on which manufacturer produces the cheese, its nutrition content varies slightly.

Brie cheese is a great source of protein, fat, vitamins, and some vital minerals. Here I will show you an example of nutritions provided inside one package of MURRAY’S brie cheese.

100g of brie cheese supplies ⁽¹⁾:

• Calories: 357 kcal
• Fat: 32.14 g
• Protein: 17.86 g
• Calcium, Ca: 350000 mg
• Iron, Fe: 3.57 mg
• Sodium, Na: 714 mg
• Vitamin A, IU: 893 IU
• Cholesterol: 107 mg

Overall, suppose you are looking for a great source of vitamins and minerals like calcium, iron, and vitamin A but still have a wonderful buttery and creamy taste. In that case, brie cheese should be your ultimate option.

The Process Of Making Brie Cheese

If you find the nutritional information above is interesting, keep going and explore how these cheeses are made; it is amazing.

Brie cheese can be produced from animal milk (cow and goat are common choices). The milk could be pasteurized or unpasteurized; however, most commercial brie cheese is made from pasteurized milk.

The important step is to culture the milk precisely with Penicillium Candidum and Geotrichum Candidum. Then, coagulating the milk with rennet will give you nice, gel-like curds. The curds will enter the draining process with cheese molds for roughly 20 hours.

After salting and aging properly, your brie wheel is ready to serve.

Make yourself this ultimate-creamy treat that can spice up every meal. You can see this video to know more:

This Is The Truth About The Taste Of Brie Cheese

Brie cheese has different versions worldwide; therefore, its taste varies through each region. The variations can be categorized into two official types: Brie de Meaux and Brie de Melun.

Type of Brie	Appearance	Taste And Scent
Brie de Meaux	It has an exquisite white rind covering the yellow, soft and runny interior.	Gentle mushroomy, or straw-like smell.  The taste is mild, creamy, and salty-buttery.
Brie de Melun	It has a chalky rind with a slightly firm texture.	Robust and pungent in taste and smell compared to Brie de Meaux.
Brie Noir	The rind has dark-brown color and powdery touch.	Nutty smell, strong-earthy flavor with breakable texture. Has a slight bitter taste
Double and Triple Cream	Creamy white rind with melty and gooey paste.	Luscious and buttery flavor with a mild straw-like smell.
Brie de Chevre (Goat brie)	Has a bloomy white rind with runny interior	Sweet, creamy taste with a goaty smell
Blue Brie	White rind with some blue molds from the inside	Slight mushroomy smell.  Creamy with a gentle touch of blue cheese flavor
Truffle Brie	Powdery rind with a soft texture. When cut open, you can see a layer of truffle between two layers of brie cheese.	Strong truffle aromas scent. Milky, buttery with a musky taste from truffle.
Herbed Brie	The rind is coated with a herbaceous cover.	Pungent smell from herbs. The taste is mild, slightly sweet and creamy.

Brie de Meaux

Brie de Meaux is named after the town of Meaux in France. It is one of the most famous types of brie worldwide. The cheese has a delicate white rind and soft interior following with a mild yet a bit creamy taste.

Brie de Melun

Similar to Brie de Meaux, Brie de Melun is produced from cow’s milk with a white and chalky rind. Brie de Melun has a harder texture with a stronger taste and smell compared to Brie de Meaux.

Brie de Melun can enchant the world with its smooth texture and tasty flavor. You can see this video to know more:

Brie Noir

Brie Noir has a longer duration of maturation process than other types of brie. The cheese can age up to two years to form its dark and crumbly rind. The taste is a little bitter and people usually dip this cheese in a cup of hot coffee to boost the flavor.

Double and Triple Cream

This type of brie is literally like its name, creamier, sweet and has a velvety texture inside. Double and Triple Cream is a great treat for those who love creaminest. It’s smell is mild and gentle which can fit into many recipes.

Chevre Brie

Chevre Brie is a goat milk version of the famous Brie de Meaux. The flavor is rich with a unique subtle smell of goat milk. This cheese can be your primary choice if you want to switch to goat milk cheese.

Blue Brie

Blue Brie is a gorgeous combination of milky brie cheese and pungent blue cheese. It has the signature white rind hides some intense blue flavor inside. Blue brie is a perfect choice for people who take their first step trying blue cheese.

Truffle Brie

Truffle Brie is a well-ripened cheese with a robust mushroomy smell from truffles. The cheese looks like a moist-white sandwich with a layer of brown mushroom in the middle (when you cut the cheese out).  The creamy taste of brie is balanced with the earthy flavor from truffles.

Herbed Brie

Herbed Brie is a flawless choice for aromatic smell lovers. The cheese has a beautiful herbal scent with an extremely creamy and buttery taste. Herbed Brie’s rind is outstanding with its herbaceous and powdery cover.  

Depending on your choice, these types of cheese will provide an amazing flavor to your recipe. Don’t hesitate and try one; your meal will be magnificent.

Quick fun fact: Most homemade brie cheeses have a supple smell of cellar where it has matured.

How Can You Store Brie Cheese?

Suppose you want to know how to preserve your cheese properly for upcoming usage; the following instruction might come in handy for you.

Brie cheese is a soft-ripened cheese; this means that you don’t want to freeze it. Freezing will ruin the beautifully soft and gooey texture of brie cheese. However, you can store it in a common fridge at 40^oF, and here is how you should do it.

Wrap The Cheese

Use wax paper to wrap all the surfaces of the cheese. Don’t wrap too tight because the cheese will need to breathe. Wrapping the cheese will prevent the mold spore from contaminating other foods in the fridge.

Store In The Vegetable Drawer

In the fridge, your cheese will slowly dehydrate, and after a long period of time, the cheese will dry out. So make a space for your wrapped brie cheese in the vegetable drawer to maintain the best quality.

You can store your cheese in the fridge from 4-8 weeks ⁽²⁾. Keep in mind that the maturation process will continue when you store cheese in the refrigerator. So, if you love well-ripen cheese, use it near the due date.

Notes while using stored brie cheese

• Thaw the cheese: Brie cheese is best to use at room temperature. So before using the stored cheese, remove it from the fridge for around an hour.
• Change the paper: To avoid bacteria after each usage, you should change the wrapped paper to the new one. Changing the paper will prolong the quality of your cheese.

Extra tips for preserving brie cheese at home. You can see this video to know more:

How To Tell If Brie Is Spoiled?

Unfortunately, soft-ripened cheese like brie cheese goes bad faster than firmer ones. You can spot the alarming signs of cheese based on the following categories: its appearance and its smell.

Appearance

The common rind color of brie cheese is white. However, with the cheese that has more time to mature, the rind will be powdery and has some dark areas, which is just fine.

When you start seeing gray color on the rind, your cheese is properly spoiled. Discard the cheese right away if there are molds appear on the rind.

Another significant sign is the appearance of slimy mold on the surface of the rind. The slimy mold usually appears because the cheese has been suffocated in a tight plastic package for a long time. In this case, you should throw away your cheese.

Smell

The traditional brie cheese has a robust mushroomy smell. If there is some ammonia smell around your cheese, this could be a sign telling that your cheese is not edible.

Cut a slice of cheese and smell the paste; if there is still a strong ammonia scent, eating the cheese might harm your digestion.

Different Ways To Enjoy Brie Cheese

There are countless ways that you can use this cheese. Brie cheese can be served right after being taken out of the fridge or baked for melting texture. You can pair it with fruits, jam, or even wine; in any way, the cheese will give excellent flavor.

Here, I will show some of the most mouth-watering ways that you can use brie cheese. Let’s dive into this creamy journey!

Pair With Fruits, Jam, Or Crackers

One of the quickest ways to use brie cheese is to eat it with crackers or slices of bread. This way, you can feel the original taste of a piece of brie cheese.

You can mix it with some fruits or jam to create a simple but appealing dish. Usually, to balance the rich-creamy flavor of brie cheese, it is suggested that the fruits added have a tart flavor, such as berries (blueberries, strawberries), apricots, and so on.

Last but not least, crackers add a crunchy texture to each bite. I suggest that you try thin crackers because they have an excellent texture and soften along with brie cheese inside your mouth.

Pair With Veggies

Suppose you are afraid of being fed up while using brie, don’t worry, because this cheese can be deliciously served with vegetables. There are many brilliant ways that you can try brie with veggies without being bored.

My top choice will be mushroom; this ingredient has a gentle and mild flavor with an excellent bouncy texture. Perfume your dish with an outstanding floral scent from rosemary; your brie will bring out an amazing flavor.

A simpler way to enjoy brie is serving it with salad. The salad gives an interesting crunchy texture and various mild and refreshing flavors for your brie wheel. If you love a little intense scent with a sweet taste, you can try caramelized onions along with a slice of brie.

Pair With Meat

You can also serve your block of brie with different kinds of meat. The creamy taste from brie amazingly matches with the smoky taste of meat. As a result, you can see a lot of BBQ parties serving pieces of brie along with grilled meat.

Cured meats such as bacon, salami, copa or sopressata are a brilliant choice to pair with this buttery cheese. The dish is usually called “meat and cheese board”, all of the cured meats will be placed on a wooden board with some creamy touch of brie, fascinating, isn’t it?

Nuts, veggies and a glass of refreshing drink are a final yet stunning element for this cheese and meat combo.

Pair With Wine

Rich-buttery cheese like brie cheese is great when served with fruity red wine or a slight and gentle white wine. You will need the wine to compliment the cheese flavor, not overpower it.

The taste of wine is different from one another, even if you are using the same kind of wine. Therefore, I suggest you try the one with a mild flavor to experience and find out the perfect match for your cheese.

Here are some recommendations and notes for alcoholic drinks that are widely used along with brie cheese:

• Rosé:

Rosé compliments the taste of brie cheese really well. The fruity rosé or the sparkling one adds a sophisticated flavor and elevates the cheese as well.

• Champagne:

Champagne has a nice acidic taste, which is suitable to balance the rich flavor from the cheese. Champagne also has tiny bubbles that add great experience when served with brie.

• Sparkling Moscato:

Speaking about sparkling, Moscato is a great white wine choice for brie. It has a modest sweet taste from fruits, which matches perfectly with the creamy taste of cheese. There are various choices of flavors like orange and raspberry for you to try.

• Riesling:

Off-dry Riesling and dry Riesling provide a naturally sweet and floral note that you can not find in any other alcoholic drinks. The scent adds a bit of contrast between the wine and the drinking bait, which is an unforgettable experience for you.

• Pinot Noir:

This grape-based red wine is an outstanding choice for those who love light body wine. The floral and aromatic scent creates a smooth finish for the whole drink. Believe me; this is a must-try with brie cheese.

• Chardonnay:

Chardonnay is a nice alcoholic drink to pair with brie. It has a notable acidic flavor with sufficient body to harmonize with the creaminess from brie. Also, the wine has various fruit flavors like pineapple and lemon, which is just perfect with brie.

• Beaujolais:

This wine is a unique red wine that has a light body. Beaujolais has lovely fruit flavors such as strawberry, raspberry, and cherry with high acidity notes. This wine will add a nice flavor to your buttery and milky brie wheel.

Fondue

The brie fondue will steal your spotlight at any energetic party. This style of enjoying brie requires your cheese to be melted completely, forming a magnificent velvety, creamy, and rich mixture.

To enhance the dish, you can add aromatic herbs like shallot, rosemary, or parsley for a beautiful smell. Seeds like walnuts or almonds also add terrific texture while enjoying the dish.

With brie fondue, crispy and crunchy food like toasted bread, crackers, or even some vegetables like broccoli are great dippings into the melted cheese.

6 Melty Baked & Grill Brie That Can Enchant You

Baked and grilled brie cheese has a moist and melty interior. After warming, the cheese has a beautiful buttery flavor. You can serve the cheese with bread or wrap it in the baking dough. The final product is a party of creamy cheese in your palate.

Here, I will show you some yummy baked and grilled brie recipes that you can make at home:

Puff Pastry Wrap Baked Brie

Puff pastry wrap baked brie is a beautiful combination between a crispy baked dough and rich-melty brie. Once you cut the dish, all the runny and gooey cheese will overflow out, giving you a glorious meal.

You can add a bit of cranberry sauce to form a bit of sweetness and sourness for the recipe. I can feel my stomach rumble already.

Baked Brie With Apples

The first impression of this recipe is an intense smell of cinnamon followed by beautiful baked slices of apple and chopped pecans.

One spoon goes through all the layers of buttery brie, sweet apples, and interesting texture from nutmeg; this will be a mesmerizing experience for you.

Berries Baked Brie

Dip a well-toasted slice of bread into a dazzling, smooth-baked brie is an astonishing idea. Top the cheese with acidic, sweetened berry compote; you now have an excellent meal for breakfast.

The slice of bread is crunchy enough that it melts inside your mouth. This texture compliments the harmonization of brie cheese and mixed berries compote.

Baked Brie With Fig Jam Bite

If I have to rate what kind of jam fits flawlessly with baked brie recipes, I will choose fig jam. This jam has enough sour taste with a gentle touch of sugar, making it the most suitable jam for brie cheese.

Crunchy mini phyllo cups, melted brie, and delicious fig jam, what else can defeat this combo.

Grilled Brie With Cherry Tomatoes

This recipe requires you to grill a whole wheel of brie cheese, which is super creamy. The co-star of this recipe, cherry tomatoes, will bring a touch of freshness to your cheese.

Brie cheese rind will protect the gooey, sweet, and butter cheese paste inside. This paste is waiting to surprise you at the moment you cut the cheese.

Grilled Brie With Cherry

Grilled brie has a runny interior with a creamy and rich taste. It is boosted with a smoky smell while grilling, which will be extraordinary combined with cherry.

Add some thyme leaves to create a wonderful aromatic scent for the cheese. With a sweet and tart flavor from cut cherries, the dish will be an excellent choice for a BBQ party.

The Best-Creamy Substitute For Brie Cheese

Brie cheese is a breathtaking cheese but have you ever asked yourself: “Are there any other cheeses that are as good as brie cheese?”. Yes, there are; let’s explore the following cheese that can be an ideal substitute for brie.

1. Camembert

Camembert is like an identical twin of brie. It boasts a lovely white rind and a soft-buttery paste inside. Both brie and Camembert have a subtle mushroom smell, but Camembert seems to have an intense and deeper flavor.

You can use Camembert with fruits, jam, bread, or even substitute some recipes that use brie. Camembert provides a smooth, rich, and creamy taste that can satisfy any brie lover.

2. Coulommiers

Another member of the soft-ripened cheese family, Coulommiers cheese has a slightly red rind that differentiates it from others. Being a relative with brie, Coulommiers has a tender and supple texture.

Baked Coulommiers has a melty paste and rich-milky flavor, making this cheese become a perfect substitution for baked brie recipes.

3. Reblochon

Reblochon is a semi-soft, washed-rind cheese with a unique flavor. It has a harder rind with a light yellow color. The cheese’s interior is still gooey and moist, which gives an excellent rich and nutty flavor.

4. Mozzarella

Unlike brie cheese, Mozzarella has a bouncy and dense consistency with a signature beige or white color. You can barely identify the smell of Mozzarella, so it is best to replace brie without overwhelming the whole dish.

Since Mozzarella has a firm texture, I suggest that you use it in a baked brie recipe to bring out the wonderful gooey texture with a nice creamy taste.

5. Fromage D’affinois

The last cheese welcomes you with a delicate and rich flavor. The rind is a bit bloomier and fluffier compared to brie. Covered behind the magnificent rind is a smooth and velvety texture.

With the mentioned features, feel free to switch brie with Fromage D’affinois to have an incredible savory experience.

The exquisite texture of Fromage D’affinois is suitable to replace brie cheese.

FAQs

I bet that you have lots of further questions about this marvelous cheese. So, I will help you address those questions. Let’s go!

One Last Uncommon Brie Myth

A significant amount of calcium in milk has been lost during the pasteurization process ⁽³⁾. So, when you add calcium chloride in the coagulating step of making brie cheese, you are restoring the calcium balance for the cheese.

That is all for today; I hope it is a fun and memorable experience discovering this famous cheese. If you know some interesting information about brie that I haven’t mentioned above, don’t hesitate to tell me in the comment section, I would love to hear it.

Reference:

1. Fdc.nal.usda.gov.. BRIE. [online] Available at: <https://fdc.nal.usda.gov/fdc-app.html#/food-details/1983534/nutrients>
2. Healthy Food Guide.. Ask the experts: Cheese – Healthy Food Guide. [online] Available at: <https://www.healthyfood.com/ask-the-experts/cheese/>
3. American Journal of Physiology-Legacy Content.. The effect of the pasteurization of milk on the utilization of its calcium for growth in the rat | American Journal of Physiology-Legacy Content. [online] Available at: <https://journals.physiology.org/doi/abs/10.1152/ajplegacy.1933.104.1.1?journalCode=ajplegacy