Like many cheese enthusiasts, I rarely make room for Brie on my cheese board. Because American regulations deny entry to the finest Bries – those made with raw milk – France ships us only pasteurized versions that often taste of little but salt.
Brie in France is another story. You can find plenty of industrial Brie there, too, of course, but a good merchant will always have a ripe Brie de Meaux or Brie de Melun – name-controlled cheeses that must be made with raw milk – to make you swoon.
Brie de Coulommiers – or Coulommiers for short – belongs to this group of distinguished French bloomy-rind cheeses, named for the village where it originated. But unlike Brie de Meaux and Brie de Melun, Coulommiers is not an AOC (appellation d'origine contrôlée) cheese, so producers can make it with pasteurized milk and ship it to the United States. Despite the pasteurization, it manages to develop a compelling aroma and texture far more reliably than imported Brie.
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