The rind is the outer part of the cheese. It forms during the production and ripening of cheese: milk, but also bacteria and molds (yes!) harden around the cheese. For some cheeses, the cheese maker will add wine, ashes or dried flowers.
It’s exactly like your skin. It protects the interior from bacteria that we would not want and preserves the cheese.
Most cheeses have edible rinds. All cheese rinds play a role in the flavor of the cheese. You will get a different flavor from the middle of the cheese and as you get closer to the rind.
Hard rind cheeses
You can eat the rind. For some of them I cut it out because sometimes you don’t like the texture.
Soft cheeses
Ash grey goat cheeses like Sainte-Maure de Touraine
Can you eat the rind on Brie cheese ? Yes, for all bloomy or natural rind cheeses : camembert, brie, rocamadour, saint marcellin. I don’t even how you’d be able to cut the rind.
Raclette cheese, reblochon, saint-nectaire have a fine edible crust. You would miss out flavours if you didn’t eat them.
Washed rind cheeses: époisses, langres. They have an orange color and are soft. They are of the stinky kind.
During ripening, these cheeses are washed and brushed with brine: salt water enriched with ferments, and sometimes even alcohol (like beer or marc de Bourgogne). A very special bacterial flora then develops to give a special taste (and smell).
Theses cheeses contain probiotics in their rind that are very beneficial for the immune and digestive system!
Blue cheeses
What a question. Of course you eat the rind : roquefort, fourme d’ambert.
You are pregnant ? Your doctor probably told you not to eat unpasteurized cheese.
You want to learn about cheese ? Join me for a cheese tasting in Paris !
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