This is a question you often ask me : can we eat the cheese rind ?
How is cheese rind formed?
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.
So, should you eat the rind of 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.
Which cheeses have edible cheese rinds?
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.
The cheese has some weird stuff on the outside
- Tomme aux fleurs : the cheese is made in Alsace or Austria and covered with dried flowers. The purpose of this is to make it pretty but also gives flavour.
- Tomme ceronée : the cheese is matured for a very long time in contact with specific mites on the cheese rinds. They give it flavors of nuts and spices. You might want to dust it a bit first.
- Mont d’or or claousou : they have a wooden circle. Yes, you should get rid of the wood.
Cheeses you should not eat the rind of
- Comté (cooked pressed cheese) : it is a very big and heavy wheel of cheese. Sometimes people roll it on the ground and the rind is porous. For this one, I cut off the rind. If your patient, you could grate it.
- Beaufort : is the same.
- Old french Mimolette (24 months) : texture isn’t nice, hard and often with cheese mites. I cut it off.
- Parmesan (Italian cheese) : the thick rind isn’t very nice to eat but you can save it by adding pieces in your soup to flavour it.
- Watch out for foreign cheeses : manchego, gouda or edam with wax.
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 !
You want to pin it ?
cheesetastinginparis.com
cheesetastinginparis.com